Staff

Ian H. Moncaster is currently the President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Puget Sound. Prior to joining the World Affairs Council, Ian spent over 10 years living and working overseas in a variety of sectors including international relief and development, foreign policy, and diplomatic relations.

In 1982, he was involved with the post-independence primary education-for-all initiative in Zimbabwe. From 1985-1991, Ian headed projects for the international relief and development organization CARE, first in Bangladesh as the Project Coordinator for the Rural Maintenance Program and then in Haiti managing the Haiti Food Program. After leaving CARE in 1991, Ian spent two years in Sri Lanka as the Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance Advisor to the Canadian Government and the Donor Secretary to a consortium of international donors who funded Sri Lanka's largest non-profit.

In 1993, Ian moved to the United States and rejoined CARE, spending the next eight years in organizational and fiscal management. While based in CARE's headquarters in Atlanta, he provided management backstopping and oversaw strategic planning for CARE's operations in South Asia and became part of a management triumvirate overseeing CARE's major gifts operations. In 1997, Ian moved to Seattle with CARE, with responsibilities in public education, fundraising and social corporate responsibility. Most recently, he joined the World Affairs Council in 2001 as President and CEO to promote international understanding and discussion in the Puget Sound area.

Elaine Chang
Strategic Advisor

Elaine Chang is the Strategic Advisor at the World Affairs Council. Prior to joining the Council, she spent eleven years in higher education administration at the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. She was Assistant Dean of the Evans School for eight years, and then launched the Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development and Global Citizenship in 2002. In these roles, she worked closely with the World Affairs Council to develop university-wide educational programs and public education events related to global issues affecting the developing world.

Before joining UW, Elaine spent one academic year living and teaching in Pecs, Hungary as a Soros Foundation-funded Civic Education Project lecturer at Janus Pannonius University. From 1983 to 1985, she was a manager and curator of the “China: 7,000 Years of Discovery” traveling exhibition in Seattle, Atlanta and Boston, one of the earliest and largest cultural exchange activities between China and the U.S. after the normalization of relations between the two nations. She has also worked in the tourism industry in China and Alaska, as a translator on board the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, and as an environmental program manager for King County.

Mel Carnay
Database and Office Manager

Outside of her time at the Council, Mel can be found training for marathons or triathlons, snowshoeing in the Cascades, cooking grossly large amounts of food, and scouting out the best local restaurants. She has a distinct passion for traveling and plans to eventually traverse the globe with only a backpack and a travel guide. In the meantime, she is looking forward to devoting her time and energy to the mission of the Council.

Marguerite Miller
Director of Development

Marguerite comes to the Council from New York City, where she was most recently the director of annual giving at the Lycée Français de New York. After beginning her professional career at the French Embassy Trade Office, Marguerite has held development positions at a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the Belgian-American Chamber of Commerce, East Harlem Tutorial Program, and the Fund for the City of New York. Her specialty is cross-cultural fundraising, and helping to build a “culture of philanthropy” among donors from a broad range of backgrounds. A native of the Southeast, Marguerite lived and worked in Paris for several years before moving to New York, and has also lived in Germany. She’s bilingual French-English and has translated art books and newswire articles; once upon a time, she also spoke fluent (but now somewhat rusty) German. She’s currently studying Spanish, and can hold a conversation en espanol about household furniture or possibly the location of a burrito, as long as it’s in the present tense. In her free time, she enjoys alligator wrestling, cliff diving, Norwegian fire dancing, and making up fake hobbies.

Gabe Meyer
Director of Membership, Outreach, &
Special Events

Gabe Meyer currently serves as Director of Membership, Outreach, & Special Events. Prior to joining the Council, he has worked for various political and international organizations including the Initiative for Global Development, the Business Council for the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum. Gabe also has experience working on campaigns and traveling the world. He has lived in Paris, Nice, and Geneva and has visited most of Western Europe. His favorite trip to date was in Guatemala, where he changed his return ticket on two occasions. Gabe is passionate about international, domestic and local politics and enjoys meeting globally-minded people with various worldviews. Gabe holds a Master’s degree in Diplomacy and International Relations from the John C. Whitehead School at Seton Hall University.

Tony Ramsey
Community Events Coordinator

Tony Ramsey is the Community Events Coordinator for the World Affairs Council. He joined the Council in March of 2007 as an intern for the International Visitors Program and began his current position three months later. His experience as an intern was exceptional and prompted him to pursue a staff position at the Council where he could continue to dedicate himself to the Council’s mission of promoting international engagement.

Tony graduated Seattle University with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. While in school, he completed a two year honors program and spent two quarters abroad in Nantes, France where he studied French. The social justice emphasis of a Seattle University education has greatly influenced his choice to foster citizen diplomacy through his position at the World Affairs Council.

Besides his professional pursuits, Tony enjoys eating out in the International District, hiking, football, and traveling. He has been to Europe and Latin America and intends to travel more in the future. He speaks conversational French and loves to use it as much as possible.

Tese Neighbor
Senior Director of Professional Development

Tese Wintz Neighbor has traveled extensively around the world, but her heart and soul remain in Asia. Tese lived in China from 1981-1983 working in Beijing as the English editor for China Pictorial magazine as well as teaching English at Beijing University. She then was based in Hong Kong from 1983-1985, setting up bicycle tours as well as traveling extensively throughout the PRC and other parts of Asia as a tour director/lecturer and free-lance writer for the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Tese holds a Masters degree in China Regional Studies from the Henry Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She has worked as an adjunct Asian history instructor at Seattle-area colleges and currently teaches an intensive East Asia Seminar class for the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, based at the University of Washington. Since 1999 she has worked as the Director of Professional Development for the World Affairs Council's Global Classroom Program.

Laura Adriance
Director of Professional Development

Laura serves as Director of Professional Development for the World Affairs Council’s Global Classroom program. Laura has worked as an educator in a variety of settings. She has taught elementary school in both New York and Washington. She has worked with future teachers in the University of Washington’s teacher education program. And, as part of her Peace Corps service, she conducted professional development for teachers in rural Namibia.

Laura grew up in New Jersey and earned her bachelors degree at Drew University, with one semester spent studying abroad in Cannes, France. She holds a Masters degree in elementary education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in education from the University of Washington.

Given her own experiences as a classroom teacher, Laura is particularly passionate about supporting teachers in their efforts to help students learn about the world beyond our borders and truly become global citizens.

Christina is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she majored in Anthropology. Having been a French immersion student since grade school, it is no surprise that Christina developed a love for travel and for studying other cultures. She has traveled in Asia and throughout Eastern Europe, where she spent a semester studying in Budapest, Hungary. Outside of work, Christina enjoys exploring the Puget Sound area, discovering new restaurants, and playing competitive indoor badminton.

Autumn Cutter joined the World Affairs Council in February 2006. Originally from rural northern California, Autumn is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned a degree in European History, spending a semester abroad in Moscow, Russia. Autumn received a master’s degree in Russian, East European, and Central Asian International Studies from the Jackson School at the University of Washington.

Autumn returned to Moscow in the summer of 2001 to study and volunteer at a rehabilitation center for Russian orphans. Autumn is passionate about global education, women's leadership, youth leadership, and connecting people around the world. She has worked with Seattle students through the Global Visionaries leadership program in Guatemala.

Prior to joining the Council, Autumn spent three years directing international leadership programs and handcrafted tours to Russia and the former Soviet States. Autumn loves to travel and has traveled extensively through Russia, Europe, and Latin America.

Chrissy Hyde
Deputy Director, International Visitor Program

Since then, Chrissy has focused on promoting cultural understanding (and her global nomad ways) through her experiences teaching English in rural Japan and working as an Assistant Program Director for the Youth Peacebuilding and Leadership Program at SIT. To complement her passion for international exchanges, she received her master’s degree in International Education from the School for International Training (SIT) in May 2007.

Chrissy enjoys talking “shop” about international education trends and intercultural sensitivity models and advising interns on how to travel or work abroad. She looks forward to one day being chosen to be a contestant on the Amazing Race in addition to being asked to dance on stage with Bono and learning Spanish fluently.

Meaghan has traveled in Europe, Central America, and India, where she cultivated her passion for cross-cultural exchange. In her spare time, Meaghan focuses on expanding her knowledge of Arab-Israeli relations and heading to the mountains to climb. In the future, Meaghan plans to combine her love for diverse cultures with her commitment to environmental issues in the field of international sustainable development.

Matt graduated from Amherst College in 2004 with a degree in Political Science and Spanish. He also obtained a Five College Certificate in Latin American Studies and studied abroad for a semester at the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain, focusing on the impact of enlargement on the European Union.

In addition to his time at Partners of the Americas, Matt has also worked for the Atlantic Council of the United States, Baseball America magazine, and Eurosport. He has traveled throughout Europe and Latin America, and looks forward to working with visitors from all over of the world at the Council.