Board of Directors

Mason Rummel is the president and CEO of the James Graham Brown Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky. She joined the staff of the foundation in 1989 after moving to Louisville from Washington, D.C., where she was a political appointee for the Reagan administration from 1983 to 1988.

Active in regional and national work in philanthropy, she serves on the Southeastern Council of Foundations Public Policy Committee, the Public Policy Committee of the Kentucky Nonprofit Network, the Public Policy Working Group of the Philanthropy Roundtable and also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Council on Foundations.

In Louisville, Mason was the founder of Grantmakers of Kentucky, serves on the boards of The Greater Louisville Project, the executive board of Evolve502, and the Kentucky Derby Museum.

Mason holds a master of arts in philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and a master of arts in professional writing at Spalding University. She received her B.A. in English from Sweet Briar College. She is married with three grown children.

As a student at Sweet Briar, Verda double-majored in government and religion and held a variety of leadership positions, including as a resident advisor and a member of several student organizations. She earned her juris doctorate from the University Of Georgia School Of Law.

Verda’s career started at a civil rights law firm, but she found her true calling where she never expected it — as a prosecutor. From there, Verda went to work briefly as assistant general counsel for Clark-Atlanta University. She spent nearly six years as a Superior Court judge in the Macon Judicial Circuit, during which she served on the Council of Accountability Court Judges. As superior court judge in Macon-Bibb County, Ga., Verda had exclusive jurisdiction over felony cases, divorce, land and equity cases. She also became well known thanks to a viral video showing her lecture a group of troubled youth.

She was appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals by Gov. Kemp in April 2020. Governor Kemp appointed her to the Georgia Supreme Court in July 2021. She is the first African-American female appointed by a Republican governor to the state’s high court.

She’s earned numerous awards and honors for her service and is a member of several organizations and boards in Georgia. You can read more about Verda on the Georgia Supreme Court website and on the Sweet Briar news site.

Sally Mott Freeman, author of the bestselling book The Jersey Brothers, is an accomplished speechwriter, public relations executive and nonprofit leader of more than 30 years. Her book is a critically acclaimed Smithsonian top history book and an Amazon Best Book of the Year in both the history and memoir categories. After penning speeches for a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner and later its chairman, Mott became FCC’s spokesperson and news media division chief following the court-ordered breakup of AT&T. She was also vice president for telecommunications at FleishmanHillard, a global public relations firm, and was public relations and communications vice president for two technology trade associations. After four terms as chair of the Writer’s Center, the premier independent literary center in the Mid-Atlantic, Freeman is now board chair emerita. She has served on the boards of Washington Shakespeare Company, American Diabetes Association, Washington Tennis Foundation, Saving Sweet Briar Inc., St. Anne’s-Belfield School and the Sweet Briar College Alumnae Alliance. She has recently been invited to the board of the Pentagon Memorial Fund as well.

Mott graduated from Charlottesville’s St. Anne’s-Belfield School, which honored her with its 2017 Distinguished Alumna Award, and from Sweet Briar College (English literature), which honored her with its 2016 Distinguished Alumna Award.

Bob Goodlatte represented the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives for 26 years, the longest term of service of any representative of the district. He was a leader in national conversations on immigration, criminal justice, technology and the collection of personal data by the government. He served as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and Chairman of the House Republican Technology Working Group. He was Co-Chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus and the Congressional International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus. He served two terms on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and served on the Subcommittee on Higher Education. He was founder and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Independent Colleges Caucus and in 2019 the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities presented Bob its Award for Advocacy of Independent Higher Education.

Before going to Washington, D.C., Bob founded his own private law practice in Roanoke then later was a partner in the law firm of Bird, Kinder and Huffman. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University School of Law, with an undergraduate degree in Government from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

He resides in Roanoke with his wife of more than 45 years, Maryellen. They have two adult children, Jennifer and Bobby; a son-in-law, Matt Barblan; and two granddaughters.

Lendon Gray was in the Sweet Briar College Class of 1971, majoring in Greek and Latin. While at Sweet Briar, she was active in the riding program and taught riding there for 3 1/2 years after graduation. A few years after college, she started to specialize in dressage, made two Olympic teams and represented the U.S. internationally for many years. For over 45 years she ran successful training stables in Maine, New York and Florida. She became very active in the U.S. Dressage Federation, where she chaired many committees geared toward education, and was a founding examiner for Instructor Certification. She was on the board of directors of the U.S . Equestrian Federation and the U.S. Pony Clubs, also serving on various committees. She is now on the board of the USA Equestrian Trust, is secretary of The Dressage Foundation’s Board, and is president of Dressage4kids Inc., an organization she started 22 years ago, and which is now recognized internationally as a top program for educating young people in dressage. Gray has been inducted into Sweet Briar’s Athletics Hall of Fame, the Maine Sports Hall of Hall and the U.S. Dressage Federation Hall of Fame, was honored as the American Riding Instructor Association Master Instructor, a USPC Legend and an EquineAffaire Exceptional Equine Educator, and received a Pony Club Master Achievement Award.

Buzzy Griffin, former chairman of Space Center Houston, is a successful real estate developer from Houston, Texas. He met his wife, Betsy Pearson Griffin ’62, at Sweet Briar College. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University and went on to earn an MBA from the University of Texas. Thereafter, he was hired by the Friendswood Development Company, a subsidiary of Exxon, where he began his career in real estate. He played a key role in the purchase, planning and development of Kingwood, Woodlake, Greenspoint, Copperfield, Clear Lake City and other substantial projects throughout the greater Houston area. In 1980, Griffin left Exxon to form Griffin Partners, a full service real estate development company. Through the years, the company and its related affiliates have built or acquired projects encompassing approximately 11.2 million square feet of space with an aggregate value of $2 billion.

Griffin continues to serve on the board of directors for Space Center Houston as well as Houston Grand Opera, Central Houston and the Bay Area Economic Partnership.

Martha Holland graduated from Sweet Briar College, with a BA in Physics, in 1972. She began her career working in the federal government for the Federal Energy Administration (now the Department of Energy) and then the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Martha then turned to a legal career, graduating from Georgetown University School of Law in 1980. She worked in the legal department of the Detroit Edison Company and served as a lawyer for ANR Pipeline Company in Detroit during that decade. Since then, Martha has served as a prolific volunteer and fundraiser.

For the last thirty years, Martha Holland has been a key supporter of Sweet Briar College. In addition to supporting the College with significant gifts, Martha serves as a member of the Class of ’72’s prolific fundraising team. She served as Co-chair of the Class of ’72’s 30th reunion, and as the Treasurer of the Sweet Briar Club of Washington, D.C. She, also, volunteered and raised funds for her children’s elementary and high schools: National Presbyterian School, National Cathedral School and Saint Andrew’s Episcopal School. She served as PTA President of National Presbyterian School and as an ex officio member of its Board of Directors.

Keenan Kelsey was a Sweet Briar legacy student, daughter of Howell Lykes Colton ’38. Although officially retired as a Presbyterian pastor, she was named pastor emerita at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, Calif., and continues to preach and teach as needed. She is a strong advocate of single-sex education — having graduated from both Sweet Briar College and Emma Willard School — women’s empowerment and the liberal arts. Before ordination, she worked for a forestry magazine, as a Head Start teacher, a team member for the first Earth Day, an environmental educator and, for more than a decade, as the owner and manager of a bird shop in San Francisco.

An active volunteer, Kelsey has served on the board of Peoples Gas and currently serves on the Board of the Lark Theater. Kelsey has been a resident of Larkspur, Calif., for 20 years and enjoys having her two children and three grandchildren nearby.

Michelle O’Neill is senior vice president of global government affairs at Corning, Incorporated. In this role, she leads a team of government and public policy experts with a focus on telecommunications, tax, international trade, environment, semiconductors, and clean energy technology, as well as government incentives to support Corning investments worldwide.

O’Neill has more than 30 years of experience in U.S. government and corporate roles. She joined Corning from Alcoa, where she served as chief external affairs officer. She also served as senior vice president of global government affairs and sustainability, and as vice president of government affairs and trade policy. Prior to joining Alcoa, O’Neill spent more than 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

O’Neill is a Sweet Briar College graduate with degrees in international affairs and Spanish. She holds a master’s degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She serves on the boards of the Information Technology Industry Council and Sweet Briar College.

John Chapman “Chap” Petersen is licensed to practice law in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. He and his wife Sharon Kim Petersen live in Fairfax City with their four children where they own a law firm specializing in business law, commercial litigation and property rights. Senator Petersen has served as a Virginia State Senator since 2007, representing central and western Fairfax. As a State Senator, he is a senior member of the Senate Democratic Caucus and chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Senator Petersen’s grandmother, Mary Walton (McCandlish) Livingston graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1935, as did her sister a year later. In 2016, he was the first state official to publicly oppose the decision to close Sweet Briar. He wrote letters to the Attorney General and made multiple public statements questioning the legal rationale and advocating for a reversal of the initial decision.

Senator Petersen is a graduate of Fairfax High School, Williams College and the University of Virginia Law School.

Claude Becker Wasserstein ’82 is the founder and CEO of Fine Day Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in innovative and impactful technology, specifically fintech, medtech, aerospace, cybersecurity, AI and energy.

Born in France, Wasserstein is a graduate of Sweet Briar College and attended graduate school at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. Prior to her investment career, Wasserstein was a producer for CBS News, where she worked in the network’s Dubai, Belfast, London and Paris bureaus. During her time at CBS News, she won an Emmy for an investigative series. Wasserstein began her career as a journalist for Newsweek, working out of the publication’s Paris bureau.

Wasserstein is a trustee of the King Hussein Cancer Center Foundation and the American Hospital in Paris Foundation, a member of the Metropolitan Museum International Council and the Brookings Institution, and a life trustee at WNET Channel 13. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and was recently awarded France’s Insignia Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

She resides in New York City with her two sons and her niece Lucy, Sweet Briar College Class of 2022.