UWC-USA welcomed five new members to its Board of Trustees beginning with the fall board meeting in October 2026: George Thomas, Laura Earwood, Julie Palmer, Koby Sadan ’98, and Kiki Jamieson. The new trustees bring experience in education, law, philanthropy, finance, real estate, and nonprofit leadership.
“Each of these board members bring both passion for the UWC mission and expertise to guide our work in the coming years,” UWC-USA President Andrew Mahlstedt said. “We welcome their strategic thinking as we prepare for the school’s 50th Anniversary in 2032.”
George Thomas is a real estate developer, business owner, and attorney with decades of experience in residential development, construction, property management, and commercial law. He owns CGJA LLC, a portfolio of apartment and townhome communities he developed in El Paso, Texas, and serves on the Design Review Committee for the Las Campanas Master Association in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Laura Earwood serves as secondary principal at the American International School of Guangzhou, bringing more than a decade of international education experience, including leadership roles at UWC Atlantic, UWC ISAK Japan, and Bellarmine College Preparatory in California. She holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Nottingham and grounds her work in servant leadership, student wellbeing, belonging, and positive school culture.
Julie Palmer works as an attorney and writer whose work focuses on human research, reproductive technologies, and gene therapy, and she co-authored The Ethics of Human Gene Therapy with LeRoy Walters. A former lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and Lake Forest College, she also brings nonprofit leadership experience as a founder, board member, and past president of Harvard Alumni for Global Women’s Empowerment.
Koby Sadan ’98, a graduate of UWC Red Cross Nordic, is chief operating officer of the investment firm Passaic Capital. He previously held leadership roles at Viking Global Investors and worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company. He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University.
Kiki Jamieson advises philanthropic and nonprofit organizations and their leaders, working to develop partnerships that strengthen multiracial communities. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College and was previously president of The Fund for New Jersey and director of Princeton University’s Center for Civic Engagement.