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A. Bruce Bowden

Board Chair
A. Bruce Bowden is a partner with Leech Tishman and a member of the Corporate Practice Group. He also serves as Co-Chair of Leech Tishman’s International Practice Group. Bruce is based in Leech Tishman’s Pittsburgh office, where he focuses his practice in the areas of M&A transactions, international, general corporate and corporate finance law. Practicing in the international arena since the early 1970s, Bruce has represented both overseas companies acquiring U.S. companies and U.S. investors in sales of U.S. interests to overseas companies. He has also represented U.S. companies in establishing foreign offices, subsidiaries and distribution networks. Bruce has also acted as outside general counsel for a number of companies, including two that produce cutting-edge medical devices. Bruce has served on hospital boards and has chaired committees dealing with planning, compensation and other issues. As a long-time member of the Board of the National Kidney Foundation, and ultimately as its national chairman, he was involved in all facets of NKF’s operations. Bruce represented the NKF and the private non-profit world for eight years on the board of the United Network for Organ Sharing. He has addressed the U.S. Congress, a major television network program and innumerable private groups on organ donation and other healthcare related issues. An active member of the Pittsburgh community, Bruce sits on a number of client and civic boards of directors and holds leadership positions and other offices in several community organizations.

Susan Nitzberg

Secretary
Susan Nitzberg holds degrees in public health and administration from Penn State University and University of Pittsburgh. She has served as Vice President of a large community hospital. Her work in the nonprofit arena has been extensive. She served as President of the Persad Center, Child Health Association of Sewickley, Family Hospice and Palliative Care, and National Council of Jewish Women - Pittsburgh Section. She has also held Board leadership positions with The Union Aid Society, Sewickley Valley YMCA, and Beth Samuel Jewish Center. Her ability to create networks in the professional and community organizations were employed while she served as Associate Director of STANDING FIRM: The Business Case to End Partner Violence. In this capacity, she grew membership from 40 members to 400 over four years' time, working with a diverse group of leaders from government, business, education, and nonprofit organizations. She initiated and grew the organization’s signature event from a modest size luncheon to a standing room only fundraising event in a large ballroom. Through the years, Susan has acquired skills in Board governance, fundraising, strategic planning and networking. She is a graduate of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning and of Leadership Pittsburgh.

Judy Korn

founder of Violence Prevention Network Germany and co-founder of Violence Prevention Network USA
Judy Korn has been working in the prevention of extremism since the age of 15 and has more than 35 years of experience in deradicalization and reintegration of (violent) extremists. Twenty years ago, she founded Violence Prevention Network Germany, which is now the largest nonprofit organization in Europe dedicated to preventing and countering violent extremism, with over 120 staff. The success of the approaches developed by her organization has been made possible in large part by Judy Korn's persistent advocacy of a collaborative approach. "Only the continuous exchange of knowledge and expertise between the professional groups involved enables us to keep adapting our approaches to the changing needs of the evolving extremist scenes," is one of Judy Korn's guiding principles. After more than 15 years of intensive lobbying, Judy Korn and her team have succeeded in making deradicalization and reintegration measures in the German prison system (funded by the German government and implemented by non-governmental organizations) a fundamental part of the German National Strategy to Prevent and Counter Extremism. Because extremism is an international phenomenon involving transnational actors, Judy Korn supports international networks for collective action and support and is also frequently asked to advise ministries and institutions on the development and implementation of deradicalization and prevention approaches. In addition to her work for Violence Prevention Network, she is the Quality Manager of the European Commission's (EC) Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN), a member of TikTok's European Safety Advisory Committee (ESAC), and a member of the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

Michèle Leaman

co-founder, Violence Prevention Network USA
Michèle draws on a decade worth of start-up, program design, and managerial experience, and 20 years of professional experience in for-profit, non-profit, and academic sectors in the US and Europe. Joining Violence Prevention Network - Germany in 2016, she led the European Commission funded project “WayOut – Integrated Exit Program” which aimed to implement and improve desistance and rehabilitation programs for offenders of ideologically motivated crimes in prisons and during probation across Europe. In 2017, she co-founded modus|zad in Berlin: a new, social impact non-profit organization to counter the rapid evolution of extremism by better leveraging academic research and insights from business innovation practices. Under Michèle’s leadership the modus|zad team has grown to 17 staff members and Michèle continues in the role of managing director, overseeing organizational strategy, growth and operations. Previously, she designed and implemented an accreditation process for universities developing social innovation programs at Ashoka, the leading global organization for social entrepreneurship, headquartered in Washington, DC. There she advised dozens of institutions—ranging from Cornell and Brown University to Singapore Management University—across four continents.

Robert Örell

practitioner and trainer
Robert Örell has more than two decades of experience in the P/CVE field working with the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists. For more than fifteen years he provided interventions with clients in exit work. For ten years he worked as a director and manager of exit programs (Exit Sweden & ExitUSA). Currently, he works as a senior international expert focused on capacity development, training, and setting up exit programs. Robert is a senior consultant & trainer for the Violence Prevention Network USA's RESTORE program, where he also serves as a member of the VPN USA board. His recent work includes advising on setting up exit programs, advising on policy guidelines and recommendations, online counselling in the exit field, and conducting research interviews with former members of violent extremists. He advises on several projects around the world. Robert co-teaches an academic course on the psychology of violence and hate, addressing violent radicalisation and violent extremism. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), co-chairing the working group on Rehabilitation. Robert was the director of Exit Sweden for ten years and the program director at Exit USA for three years. In 2020-2021 he advised and contributed to the Council of Europe’s counter-terrorism strategy. In 2016 Robert held a TEDx at TEDx Vilnius. He studied psychotherapy, social pedagogy and holds a Master's degree in Humanitarian Action and Peacebuilding.
Lisbet Portman

Lisbet Portman

Board Member
Lisbet Portman is a cross-media communicator drawing on roots in education and the arts to achieve change. She is currently the Director of Fellow Search at Ashoka US, where she identifies and supports social entrepreneurs working to solve our country’s most entrenched problems. Lisbet brings 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector working at intersections of mental health reform, education, and environmental justice. She is a mother, a musician, and happiest when in the woods.