As the 2025-26 school year launched, Madeira welcomed its Board of Trustees back to campus for its annual fall meeting, including several new faces. As keepers of the mission and legal fiduciaries of Madeira, the Board of Trustees is charged with long-range, strategic planning for the School. Each trustee actively promotes the School’s mission while accepting accountability for the financial and strategic future of the institution.
We welcome each of these new Trustees and thank them for their enduring commitment to Madeira:
Amanda Adams `95
Amanda is a Virginia native who moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2006 after earning undergraduate and MBA degrees at the University of Virginia. She is currently a Partner and the Director of Investment Manager Research at Monticello Associates, a Denver-based wealth management consulting firm. Outside of work, she and her husband take advantage of Colorado's incredible weather and landscape to hike, cycle, and explore. Whenever possible, they are on the road or in the air traveling to visit family and friends.
Alexandra Nasif Harper ‘07
Alexandra Navarro Nasif is a Global Governments Executive with a proven track-record of high-impact leadership, delivery of strategic technology for complex Government missions, and national security ecosystem cultivation. She currently serves as IBM Research’s Director of Government Programs and holds the faculty position as Private Sector Department Chair at National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC.
In addition to her role as a Madeira Trustee, Alexandra serves her community as a Sustainer of the Junior League of Washington and a volunteer at her sons’ school St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School in Washington, DC. She also serves as a mentor to active-duty service members through her faculty role at National Defense University.
Alexandra also enjoys exploring DC with her husband and sons, relaxing in their second home of Miami, traveling with her friends (fun fact: traveling to Bhutan on a Madeira student trip has yet to be beat), and infrequently polishing her immensely rusty tennis skills (while proudly wearing her Madeira varsity tennis sweatshirt).
Mary Dana Hinton
Mary Dana Hinton became the thirteenth president of Hollins University on August 1, 2020. An active and respected proponent of the liberal arts and inclusion, her leadership reflects a deep and abiding commitment to educational equity and the education of women.
Hinton has been elected chair of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Board of Directors, effective July 1, 2024. She is also a member of the board of directors for AAC&U, the Council of Independent Colleges of Virginia, The Teagle Foundation, and the board of trustees at Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles.
She speaks frequently in the U.S. and abroad on topics related to the liberal arts and inclusion, and she founded the Liberal Arts Illuminated Conference. Hinton teaches in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education doctoral program in higher education management and the CIC President’s Institute New President Program. Hinton’s scholarship focuses on higher education leadership, strategic planning, the role of education in peace building, African American religious history, and inclusion in higher education. She is the author of The Commercial Church: Black Churches and the New Religious Marketplace in America and a frequent op-ed contributor across higher education publications. Hinton’s new book, Leading from the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places, based on her TedX Talk of the same name, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in February 2024.
Hinton earned a Ph.D. in religion and religious education with high honors from Fordham University, a Master of Arts degree in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Williams College. She is the recipient of the Bicentennial Medal from Williams College and honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Misericordia University, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Mount St. Mary’s University. Credo, a comprehensive higher education consulting firm specializing in working with independent colleges and universities, named Hinton as the recipient of its eighth annual Courageous Leadership Award in 2020. The award recognizes an innovative leader in independent higher education.
The Roanoke Branch of the NAACP honored Hinton in 2024 as one of the Roanoke Valley’s citizens of the year in the education category. Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art presented her with the Sheila S. Strauss Art Venture Award for 2024, which annually recognizes a woman for her extraordinary contributions to the arts and art education. In 2021, Hinton was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, an organization established more than 240 years ago by the nation’s founders to honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good.
Hinton, her husband, Robert Williams, and their children, Hallela, Hillel, and Hosanna, make their home at Lorimer House, the Hollins University presidential residence.
Carrie Southworth Johnson `95, Board Chair
Carrie Southworth Johnson has a strong track record in advocacy, nonprofit governance, and mission-driven entrepreneurship. With a Master's degree in macro social work, she brings deep expertise in issues at the intersection of philanthropy, public policy, equity, and education. Carrie has held leadership roles across multiple nonprofit boards, including serving as Board Chair at LIFT Los Angeles and Trustee at The Madeira School.
Phoebe Lang ‘85
Lang graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in Art History, which sparked a lasting appreciation for design and aesthetics. After college, she moved to San Francisco and spent several years in management at Macy’s. While the experience was valuable, she felt a growing desire to pursue a more creative path. That led her back to school, where she earned a BFA in Interior Design from the Academy of Art College.
Shortly after finishing her degree, Lang married and became a mother to three children. She devoted the next decade to raising her family and was actively involved in their schools and various nonprofit organizations in San Francisco and Marin County. During that period, Lang also rediscovered my love of horseback riding after a long 16-year break, and it quickly became a central part of her life again.
As her children entered middle school, Lang boldly stepped into a lifelong dream and built an 80-acre horse farm and training facility, where she launched Zeitgeist Equestrian. Through this venture, she focused on importing, training, and selling warmblood jumpers from Europe. She has had the incredible opportunity to compete across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and has grown not just as a rider but as a business owner and mentor.
Once her children reached college and beyond, Lang focused more deeply on her riding career, reaching the top levels of grand prix show jumping. She also co-founded a company developing therapeutic products for sport horses. One of Lang's most rewarding new chapters has been supporting the breeding career of her former grand prix stallion, continuing to learn and contribute to the sport that means so much to her.
José Mario Zertuche Trevino P’27
Jose Maria Zertuche, Managing Director, is the Head of BlackRock's Latin America Infrastructure Investment Group. Jose Maria has over 30 years of experience financing and investing in real assets.
Jose Maria was a founder of Infraestructura Institucional ("I2") in 2010, and served as its Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial and Investment Officer since inception in 2010 until its acquisition by BlackRock in October, 2015, at which time Mr. Zertuche joined BlackRock. I2 was, at the time of its acquisition by BlackRock, the leading private infrastructure investment manager in Mexico.
Jose Maria‘s prior experience also includes private Real Estate Investment, as well as Investment Banking (M&A, Debt and Equity capital markets transactions), asset management, strategy and operations. Prior to founding Infraestructura Institucional, Mr. Zertuche served as Chief Investment and Control Officer of Mexico Retail Properties ("MRP Group"), which he co-founded in October 2002 along with Black Creek Capital. Prior to joining MRP, Mr. Zertuche was an Associate at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in its Global Energy Group in New York. Prior to his work at SSB, Mr. Zertuche was associated with Somoza/Cortina & Asociados, Casa de Bolsa and InverMexico, Casa de Bolsa, both investment banks in Mexico City.
Mr. Zertuche holds a B.S. in Actuarial Science from Universidad Anahuac in Mexico City, and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, where he received the Faculty Award for Academic Excellence, Darden's highest academic distinction. Among other non-profit work, Mr. Zertuche serves on the Darden Graduate School of Business Alumni Board and on the Board of Directors of the Mexican Association of Private Capital (“AMEXCAP”).
