WNDC Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Active involvement with the Club includes diving in to participate in the Program Committee, as well as Board service with the WNDC Educational Foundation where she serves as liaison for programs. As a WNDC Board Director for Programs since 2020, Laura ensured the continuation of a robust calendar of popular and diverse virtual events during the unforeseen Zoom era, keeping the Committee engaged through new technologies that boosted collaboration and using data to refine the ways the Club thinks about its Program offerings.
She moved to Washington, DC to serve as Legal Counsel to the Chief of the Equal Employment Opportunities Office at the Library of Congress. During her tenure at the Library of Congress, she served in several positions including Assistant General Counsel and Legislative Counsel. She retired as legislative counsel with the US Merit Systems Protection Board in January 2020.
Ms. Coates has extensive experience in strategic planning, budgeting, and organizational development gained through her years of service as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Library of Congress Federal Credit Union and President of the Board of Directors of the Oracle Set Foundation, Inc.
Ms. Coates holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Iowa, College of Law.
At the LWV, Carol served as Philadelphia president and on the state board. Also, for many years she negotiated, produced, and arranged television coverage for local and state primary and general election debates. She was Philadelphia debate director for the 1984 Bush-Ferraro Vice Presidential debate.
Carol joined the Woman’s National Democratic Club twenty years ago, serving as secretary, vice president for administration, and nominating committee chair. She also headed events and worked on the fund raising, bylaws, building, and finance committees. She is currently a member of the board of the WNDC Educational Foundation.
At her synagogue in Bethesda, Carol is a long-time member of the finance committee and has served as chair and treasurer. She also manages large building repair/replacement projects for the organization. Carol currently chairs the audit committee of a national organization.
Professionally, Carol worked in communications for architecture firms before becoming the executive director of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). At the national AIA in Washington, she held several positions including running a leadership non-profit within the professional society and 850-person conventions.
Committee Directors & Chairs
She examined the story of Snow White or Mary of the Wooden Dress, (included in Stories of My Azorean Grandmother/Histórias da Minha Avó Açoriana) at the AICL Colloquium (International Association of Colloquiums of Lusofonia) in her presentation, Stories of My Azorean Grandmother: The Symbolism of the Bull. Additionally, she authored various manuals for teaching Portuguese, namely Portuguese for Business Travelers I, for the World Bank, as well as other works for Library Science, Boletins Bibliogáficos e Informativos, e o Manual de Biblioteconomia for the Library of Public Works, Maputo, Mozambique.
She volunteers at various organizations in the Washington D.C. area, including teaching English to immigrants. Her other interests include painting (her works have been exhibited in Brazil and the US), birding, astronomy, and learning languages.
As Principal and founder of Trout Design Studio, Inc., a full service architectural and interior design firm in Washington, DC, Michael has been implementing custom, highly specialized architectural design for over 35 years with a focus on high end residential and specialty commercial projects. He is actively involved in local and regional historic preservation organizations serving as long term active member, frequent officer, committee chairperson and President of both the Dupont Circle Conservancy, the Dupont Circle Citizens Association, and the ANC2B Preservation Zoning and Development committee. Michael is a former Historic Building Inspector and Senior Preservation Specialist in the DC Historic Preservation Office in the DC Office of Planning.
Michael is a current Board member of the WNDC Educational Foundation, having served as its President from 2013-2016. He was also a member of the WNDC Board of Governors and the EXCOM from 2013–2019.
Michael coordinated renovations of Whittemore House (the Wolf Ballroom, first and second floor bathrooms and extensive building infrastructure improvements) over the last eight years with long term solutions to major building systems problems, creating a firm footing on which the WNDC continues to build its organization and generate income.
I joined WNDC after I began to retire, in 2015, VAMA in 2016, EF in 2017 (I now serve as EF board’s secretary), and became Director of Communications in 2019. Member since 2015.
Courtney received her B.S. in Sustainability, focusing on Sustainable Ecosystems at Arizona State University, and her M.S. in Environmental Studies, focusing on Sustainable Development and Climate Change at Antioch University New England. Courtney received her international Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) certification in October 2021 which is the gold standard of fundraising with only 8,000 people in the entire world with it. Courtney enjoys spending her spare time with her three cats and husband. She also enjoys camping, fishing, and golfing in the great, local spots by her home in Silver Spring, Maryland.
She has served on executive committees at Woodlin Elementary and St. Andrew’s Episcopal schools, as well as Chair of UB Law School’s DC Alumni Chapter. Michelle lives in Silver Spring, MD, where she raised her two college-aged children, Robyn and Callie, with her husband Brian and two dogs, Coco and Lucky.
A former member of Google’s Elections Advertising Team, she has also worked at the headquarters of Obama for America in 2012, at Hillary for America in 2016, with Environmental Voter Project, and in the offices of both of Massachusetts’ U.S. Senators.
In addition to serving on our Board of Directors, she’s a founding Board member of Grab Your Wallet Alliance, and a member of the Junior League of Washington. A graduate of Wellesley College with certifications from M.I.T., she is a Harvard Ballet Company, Joffrey Ballet Academy, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago studio program, and Second City acting and writing program alum. Lilly is excited to continue her work in marking our club as a unique charging station for activists.
In the summer of 2019, Karyl and her husband Peter relocated to Washington, DC. Karyl was soon elected to the board of her apartment building’s resident’s association, where she serves as Vice President and chairs the events committee. Karyl and Peter joined WNDC in February 2020, and have enjoyed attending a number of in person and virtual events since then.
Since 2011, when she joined the WNDC, she has taken an active interest in the WNDC collection and eventually created the Visual Arts and Museum Committee for the purpose of restoring and cataloging the collection to meet museum standards. Nuzhat continues to curate mid-career artists from the Washington area to exhibit in the Ballroom Gallery and the Upstairs Gallery. This has brought the local arts community to the Club, including collectors, directors and curators of museums. More importantly, the art works sold at these exhibitions generate income for the club. Recently, with the help of committee member Jennifer Post and the very able and consistent help of Claire Sandberg, VAMA Coordinator, a docent program has been implemented.
In December 2014, Judy retired from the staff of Ward 3 DC Councilmember Mary Cheh. Her main career was working for architectural firms and nonprofit housing organizations. She held elected positions to the Ward 3 Democratic Committee and the DC Democratic State Committee. She has a BA in Political Science and BA in Interior Design with a concentration in historic preservation.