New members join Wooster Board of Trustees for 2022-23

The College of Wooster welcomed five new members to its Board of Trustees for the 2022-23 academic year. Robin Harbage ’75, Marjan (Neyestani) Khazra ’87, and LeRoy E. Reese ’88 joined the board as standard trustees. Meret Nahas ’10 and Lisa (Jones) Skeens ’88 were added as Alumni Trustees and will also serve as members of the Alumni Board.

Harbage is a former insurance executive who now focuses on advising start up organizations with an emphasis on technology and lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He worked for 37 years in a wide variety of insurance related roles. His responsibilities included a global practice area for usage-based insurance at Willis Towers Watson, general manager for regional marketing, product development, sales and claims at Progressive Insurance, as well as vice president actuarial for Progressive. Harbage also taught high school math and computer science for several years and taught statistics at Hiram College as an adjunct professor. He earned his degree at Wooster in mathematics and an MBA in finance from The Ohio State University. Harbage also serves on a task force of the Casualty Actuarial Society, focused on identifying racial bias in insurance rating and establishing best practices for insurers to eliminate economic disparity in ratemaking. Harbage has previously served the College as class president and a reunion ambassador. He and his wife Katie V. Swanson-Harbage ’75 established the Harbage Endowed Fund in 2012 to support Wooster’s AMRE program, and they are also avid supporters of The Wooster Fund, the Black Student Equity Fund, and the Lowry Center Transformation Project.

Managing partner and registered principal with Floe Financial Partners, Inc., Khazra has been a financial advisor since 1992 and lives in Pasedena, California. She began her career with American Express Financial Advisors and worked as an equity coordinator with Provident Mutual. Marjan works closely with clients in the various stages of investment planning and is responsible for compliance and legal issues for Floe Financial Partners, Inc. The firm was named No. 59 in the top 100 independent financial advisors in America in 2012. Marjan remains devoted to actively contributing to her community in various capacities including board member, trustee, and committee member for organizations focused on education and religion. She received her degree in history at Wooster and earned her MBA from Thunderbird Garvin School of International Management in Phoenix, Arizona. Her son Ryan is a member of the Class of 2023, and she also serves the College on the Parent’s Advancement Committee, was a panelist at the Women in Philanthropy Series in 2021, is active in the Fighting Scots Career Connections network, and gives to The Wooster Fund.

Reese has directed or been involved in research to promote positive physical and behavioral health for pediatric populations for more than twenty years. A pediatric psychologist and director of behavioral health with Akoma Counseling & Consulting in Atlanta, Reese helps kids and families navigate and destigmatize mental illness to promote positive health and wellness. Reese conducts research at the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Unit and uses the findings to benefit communities in practical ways. He also engages corporate partners as a senior advisor at Ichor Strategies to promote wellness and health equity. Previously, Reese was a team leader and senior scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His advocacy and public policy efforts have included previously serving on the White House Council on Youth Violence to working with the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its efforts to reform juvenile justice practice and policy and serving as board chair for Men Stopping Violence. He completed his Ph.D. at Ohio State University in psychology. At Wooster, he earned his degree in psychology and played varsity football and track field. He served on the Alumni Board from 2014 to 2017 and regularly supports The Wooster Fund.

Nahas is senior associate director of development for external relations at The Rivers School, a coeducational, college preparatory day school in Weston, Massachusetts, for students in grades 6 through 12. She previously worked as a major gifts officer at Wooster and has worked in development and fundraising for education for more than 10 years, including serving as an active member of CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Nahas also works as a freelance calligrapher for a variety of clients. A political science major at Wooster, she previously served the College as a GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) Trustee in 2017 and 2018. She currently serves as her class president, as an advisor for the Fighting Scots Career Connections network and is an avid donor to The Wooster Fund.

Skeens has been the vice president of Global and Regulatory Affairs at Pfizer since 2015, where she works as a leader involved in advancing the regulatory approval of biosimilars, a type of biologic drug that works with the immune system. She lives in Libertyville, Illinois. Skeens previously worked in regulatory affairs for Hospira Inc. and Baxter Healthcare. She has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Chicago and a teaching assistant at Northwestern University where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees. At Wooster, she earned her degree in Chemistry and was a member of the Scot Band and the Epsilon Kappa Omicron sorority. She has previously served the College as member of the alumni board from 2018 to 2021. Skeens has also been actively involved in College events on campus and in the Chicago area. She has been a regular donor to The Wooster Fund and worked to establish the Wooster Friends for Life Scholarship in 2020 with a close group of friends from Wooster.

More information about Wooster’s full Board of Trustees can be found online at wooster.edu/about/board-of-trustees.

Posted in News on October 3, 2022.