Leadership

Matt Yale is the founder of Grove Partners. Prior to Grove Partners, he was the Co-CEO of Tusk Strategies. Matt has been the architect of several high-stakes corporate and civic-facing campaigns as well as activist defense situations. He was the matchmaker for the Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods.

Previously, Matt was the senior vice president of global communications and public affairs at Laureate Education. Before joining Laureate, Matt served as deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Secretary of Education. In this capacity, he was a senior advisor to the Secretary on policy and strategic planning and worked directly with the White House on several critical inter-agency initiatives, such as the nation’s H1N1 flu response.

Before joining the Obama Administration, Matt worked at Ariel Investments as the firm’s vice president of public affairs. He has appeared on Fox News and Fox Business and has been featured in multiple news publications including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Time Magazine. Additionally, he has spoken at Teachers College, Columbia University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Matt was a Charter Member of ChildObesity180 and a former Term Member on the Council of Foreign Relations.

Dr. Mary A. Papazian is a seasoned higher education leader with over 35 years of experience as a professor, provost and president. She was appointed to the APUS Board of Trustees in June 2024.

Dr. Papazian currently serves as Senior Fellow and Senior Consultant of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, where she is the primary thought leader on board governance and integrates AGB’s thought leadership throughout the association’s resources and services.

Previously, Dr. Papazian served as interim CEO of the Business-Higher Education Forum; and the 30th president of San José State University (SJSU), Silicon Valley’s public university of 38,000 students. Prior to that, she was president of Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).

Previously, Dr. Papazian was Provost at Lehman College (CUNY); Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University (NJ); and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences / professor of English at Oakland University (Mich.).

Throughout her career, Dr. Papazian has served on several volunteer boards, including Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF), Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), NCAA Board of Governors and Division I Presidents’ Council, Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), Urban Serving Universities (USU), Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Bay Area Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. She is currently on the Board of Trustees of Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon.

Lieutenant General David D. Halverson (U.S. Army, Ret.) serves as the Chairman and CEO of Cypress International Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia. In this role, he leads the company in providing National Security advisory services to government and industry clients.

Mr. Halverson has extensive experience in military leadership, strategic planning, training, education, and global installation management. During his 37-year career in the U.S. Army, he held command positions at every level from Battery to Post Command and served as the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Halverson served in various staff and leadership roles, including the U.S. Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, Director of Operations, Readiness, and Mobilization (G-3), and Director of Force Development (G-8). He also served as the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

He serves on multiple Boards such as the Armed Services YMCA, National Defense Industry Association, Leaders Council for the Legal Services Corporation, Youth Impact Program and Army West Point Athletic Association.

Javier Miyares is a highly respected academic leader with over 45 years of experience in higher education, including 20 years driving innovation and change in online education. He has been an APUS Board of Trustee member since November 2021.

Mr. Miyares served as Acting President of Rasmussen University from June 2022 to April 2023 (like APUS, Rasmussen is an education unit that is wholly owned by American Public Education, Inc.). During this time, he re-organized Rasmussen into two separate divisions: nursing and online programs.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Miyares served as president of University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) for eight years (until September 2020). He then worked in an advisory capacity with the University System of Maryland (USM) until June 2021.

Mr. Miyares led UMGC through several major shifts, despite significant headwinds. This included increased enrollment, expansion of academic programs, a rebrand to Global Campus, and launching successful partnerships with employers. He also implemented several successful scholarship programs designed to increase access for non-traditional learners.

Mr. Miyares has served on several boards and commissions, including on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education; as a commissioner with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; on the Board of Directors of Achieving the Dream; and on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Advisory Committee on Education. He has also held positions with the Maryland Higher Education Commission and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).

Lieutenant General Lori E. Reynolds (Retired – U.S. Marine Corps) currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, and she has been a Board member since June 2022.

Ms. Reynolds has commanded Marines at every rank over the course of her distinguished, 35-year career, including as a General Officer in command at Eastern Recruiting Region/Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S. C., and as commander of the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command at Fort Meade, Md.

In her last assignment, she served as the Deputy Commandant for Information, where she introduced the new warfighting function of Information, combining information technology, cyberspace, space, intelligence, and influence capabilities. She concurrently served as Deputy Department of the Navy (DON) Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Marine Corps, Commander, Marine Corps Forces Strategic Command and Marine Corps Forces Space Command.

Ms. Reynolds currently serves on the Board of Directors for U.S. Bancorp, where she is on the Risk Management Committee, the Cybersecurity and Technology Subcommittee, and the Public Responsibility Committee. She is also on the Federal Advisory Board for Lynk Global, Inc.

Ms. Reynolds is a Professor of Practice at the Naval Postgraduate School, where she is filling in as the Department of the Navy’s Chief Information Officer (DON CIO) Information Chair.

Angela Selden was appointed Chief Executive Officer of American Public Education in September 2019. Ms. Selden brings more than 30 years of experience in technology and technology-enabled services, both within private-equity and publicly traded environments, and has deep experience executing business transformation initiatives for Fortune 500 clients. She was previously CEO and board member of DIGARC, a leading education technology provider to higher education institutions. Previous roles include CEO of Workforce Insight, a global, strategic workforce consulting, analytics and services company serving Fortune 100 clients; CEO and Executive Co-Chairman of Arise Virtual Solutions, a virtual workforce solutions outsourcer; and interim CEO of Skybridge Americas, a global contact center and provider of fulfillment solutions. Ms. Selden serves on the University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business Strategic Board of Governors and was honored as the University’s Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012. Ms. Selden currently serves as Chairman of DinerIQ and as a board member of TalentWave. Earlier in her career, Ms. Selden spent 18 years at Accenture, including serving as the Managing Partner, leading the North American Consumer and Industrial Products group to significant growth.

Ms. Singer has an extensive background in higher education, having served as a chief executive officer, board chair, and public company officer for multiple organizations. Most recently, she served as the President and Chief Academic Officer of Rasmussen University, where she oversaw the institution’s strategic direction and academic initiatives, championing career-focused education and student success.

Prior to this, Ms. Singer spent 27 years at Laureate Education, Inc., where she retired as CEO of Laureate Online and Walden University. She also served as chairman of Walden University for 19 years. As Chief Laureate Network Officer, she led the development of online programs across Laureate’s 83 campuses worldwide, spanning Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Additionally, she was responsible for Laureate’s global portfolio of specialty schools in art and design, as well as hospitality education, with institutions located in New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, and beyond.

Ms. Singer was also the co-founder and principal owner of Nurturing Nest Montessori School and currently serves as a board director at the University of Connecticut Foundation. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and is proud to have been the first education major selected for the prestigious University Scholar program. In recognition of her contributions to higher education, she was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa (L.H.D.) from Walden University.

Rich Statuto is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC) and serves on the Compensation and Nominating & Governance committees. Previously, he served as Chairman of the Board when the company went public in May 2013 until August 2019.

Mr. Statuto is also currently an Executive Advisor for LRVHealth, a Boston based venture capital firm, and for CoVest Partners, a Charlotte based private equity firm.

He retired on September 1, 2019, after facilitating the merger of Bon Secours Health System, one of the largest health systems in the country. He previously served as President and CEO of Bon Secours from 2004 until 2018. He also served as CEO of St. Joseph Health System located in California from 1995 until 2005. Both health systems exceeded $3 billion in revenue and were highly profitable.

In addition to being a CEO for 25 years, Mr. Statuto has served as Chairman of the Board of trustees of the Catholic Health Association, Vice Chairman of Christus Health in Dallas Tx., Vice Chairman Incarnate Word Health System, Vice Chairman of CMMB and Chairman of American Red Cross Orange County California. He also served on the boards of Kmart, the Innovation Institute, Covenant Health System in Massachusetts, Mercy Housing and on the finance committee of the American Heart Association. Rich has been in board leadership positions for over 30 years.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Statuto performed operations improvement and strategy engagements as a consultant for Touche Ross (Deloitte) and began his career doing process engineering and product development for Procter and Gamble.

Claire Zangerle is president of CMZ Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm offering services focused on nursing organizations and the interdependencies of functional disciplines. Services include assessment of current state, action planning to optimize the nursing organization, future state and strategic planning, coaching for nursing leaders, and nursing organization redesign. Dr. Zangerle is certified as an Advanced Nurse Executive with the American Nurses Credentialing Center, a fellow of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Dr. Zangerle serves on the editorial boards of Nursing Management and Nursing Administration Quarterly and is a member of the board of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. She serves on the American Hospital Association (AHA) Workforce Committee where she was a former board of trustee and led the Hospitals Against Violence and Human Trafficking initiative.

Formerly, Dr. Zangerle was the chief nurse executive and chair at the Nursing Institute at Allegheny Health Network (AHN), where she led over 6,000 nurses in the acute and ambulatory care area and collaborated with AHN Home and Community Services.

Previously, Dr. Zangerle served as CEO of the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio. She also served in various capacities at the Cleveland Clinic, including chief nursing officer, director of quality and accreditation, and director of preventive cardiology. She began her nursing career at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Cardiothoracic Surgery and Trauma.