Four community leaders have been appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to George Mason University’s Board of Visitors. Ignacia S. Moreno, Paul J. Reagan, Edward Rice, and Denise Turner Roth bring tremendous experience in education, government, economic development, the environment, and public affairs to Mason’s governing board.
Ignacia S. Moreno is chief executive officer and founding principal of The iMoreno Group, PLC, a law firm offering legal services and strategic counseling on environmental and natural resources, corporate, criminal defense, and immigration matters. She is recognized as one of the nation’s leading environmental and natural resources lawyers. During her 28-year career she has served as the top environmental lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice, corporate environmental counsel at a Fortune 10 company, and an adjunct professor of law. With bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from New York University, Moreno from 2009 to 2013 was assistant attorney general of the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and received the Edmond J. Randolph Award in recognition of her outstanding service to the nation. Moreno is currently serving a four-year term on Virginia’s State Air Pollution Control Board.
Paul J. Reagan is a senior vice president and director of federal public affairs at McGuire Woods Consulting in Washington, D.C., where he has clients with matters before Congress and executive branch agencies. A 35-year veteran of Virginia politics and government, Reagan, who has a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary and a juris doctor degree from Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School, served more than 25 years on Capitol Hill, including as chief of staff to then-Virginia Senator Jim Webb. He also was communications director to Virginia Governor Mark Warner (2002-05) and chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (1996-2002). From 1993-94, Reagan was counsel to the Subcommittee on Research in the House Science and Technology Committee. In 2006, then-Governor Warner appointed Reagan to the State Board for Community Colleges.
Edward Rice is on the Advisory Board of Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR), as well as the board of directors of WETA and the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association. He is co-president of the Rice Family Foundation, through which he interacts with educational and nonprofit groups. With a master’s degree in computer science from American University, Rice supported the largest computer system in the Pentagon for the Air Force and Office of the Secretary of Defense. He designed and developed database management facilities for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Topographic Division. From 1986 to 2000, Rice was East Coast coordinator for Earthstewards, which encouraged peaceful relationships between interest pairs or country pairs such as Irish Catholics and Protestants, Indian and Pakistani people of various faiths, and the United States and Soviet Union. It was while working on these projects that Rice first became involved with Mason and S-CAR.
Denise Turner Roth is chief development officer of WSP USA, where she is responsible for creating and implementing strategic and long-range planning for one of the world’s leading engineering and professional service firms. Known as a creative and solutions-oriented leader, she is frequently called on by national and international organizations to share her expertise on leading change in large operations, as well as in economic and urban redesign. Roth has two degrees from Mason: a bachelor’s degree in political science and an honorary doctor of humane letters in recognition of her distinguished public service, Prior to joining WSP, she was chief executive in charge of the federal General Services Administration. In that role she led 12,000 full-time employees and was responsible for a $27 billion budget and more than $80 billion in federal contracting activity. She is a fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration.