April Statement:
Since 2010 I have served Maryland Chess as scholastic director, tournament organizer, and tournament director for nearly 200 scholastic tournaments.
Since 2020 I have served US Chess as Scholastic Council chair and vice chair, Development Committee chair and vice chair, and sponsor of 5 U.S. Open Invitationals: the Irwin (seniors: 50+), Rockefeller (K-5), Ashley (K-3), Morphy (K-1), and Weeramantry (blitz).
US Chess can grow the game through strategic partnerships. When my son and I travel nationally to junior squash tournaments, I connect community squash centers with local chess clubs—resulting in a hybrid squash-chess summer camp for at-risk youth in Houston. As a US Squash Foundation board member, I worked with US Squash to invite US Chess to run at US Squash’s $41M national center in Philadelphia an annual hybrid squash-chess event, as well as a US Chess booth at multiple annual scholastic national championships and at an at-risk-youth national team championship.
US Chess’s Nominating Committee recommended me, and I am asking for your vote.
May Statement:
I am running for the Executive Board primarily to support US Chess’s commitment to scholastic chess. If elected, I’ll be able to help voice the concerns of the scholastic community because I’ve been listening to parents, coaches, and players since 2008, when I took my daughters to their first tournament. Furthermore, advocating for scholastic chess on the EB would be a natural extension of my volunteer work for MD Chess since 2010 and for US Chess since 2016.
In 2008 when I introduced the game to my young daughters, I hadn’t played in 26 years and wasn’t sure I’d remember how all the pieces move. For the next 10 years I coached chess clubs for pre-K to 12th graders every Monday afternoon of the school year. Since 2010 I have been Maryland Chess’s scholastic director and the tournament organizer and chief tournament director for nearly 200 rated scholastic tournaments. (Each of my 3 kids played in 100+ of them.) As a tournament organizer, I made sure never to forget the helpless feeling I had as a rookie parent staring bewilderedly at wallcharts and pairing charts. In MD Chess’s online tournament pages and onsite section details, I tried to anticipate and address every question a first-time parent might have. For 12 years I managed nearly every detail of MD Chess’s 21 annual scholastic tournaments: from online registration to trophy orders. For 8 years MD Chess ran 1 of the Kasparov Chess Foundation’s 5 scholastic championships.
I joined US Chess’s Development Committee in 2016, became its inaugural chair in 2018, and have been chair or vice chair since. In 2021 we conceived and helped plan US Chess’s At-Risk-Youth Initiative, which empowers scholastic players to compete in local and national tournaments by covering the costs of sets, US Chess memberships, tournament registration, and coaching—as well as travel and hotel expenses for national tournaments.
Since 2020 I have been chair or vice chair of US Chess’s Scholastic Council, which writes the Scholastic Regulations for national championships such as Grade, Elementary School, Middle School, High School, and All-Girls. After we received complaints about well-intentioned tournament directors making different rulings on essentially the same scenarios, we streamlined the nationals experience for players, families, and coaches by organizing pre-tournament TDs Meetings 1 & 2. Since 2023, several weeks before each Nationals, high-level TDs meet online first with the Scholastic Council and then with mid-level TDs to review new scholastic regulations and recurring points of emphasis. Later in TDs Meeting 3 that teamwork is shared with low-level TDs onsite.
I have also served US Chess as a Maryland delegate since 2017; as a member of the Scholastic Committee since 2017, the National State (U.S. Open) Invitationals Committee since 2019, the Finance & Reserve Fund Committee since 2024, and the Audit Committee since 2024; and as the sponsor of 5 U.S. Open Invitationals since 2020: the Irwin (seniors: 50+), Rockefeller (K-5), Ashley (K-3; starting 2026), Morphy (K-1; by 2030), and Weeramantry (blitz). Each year since 2020 I have been a TD or scholastic representative at 2+ scholastic national championships.
My 15 years of volunteer work for MD Chess and US Chess illustrate my abilities to work well with others and to help unite disparate points of view behind a common goal. Good judgment helps me determine when to refuse to sacrifice a core principle and when to make minor compromises to protect and advance that core principle. US Chess’s Nominating Committee recommends me, and I am asking for your vote.
June Statement:
In my second candidate statement, I discussed my commitment to scholastic chess. I appreciate, though, that there are just as many adult players as scholastic players. If elected to the Executive Board, I would work hard to serve college students, parents, adults without children, grandparents, and seniors, too. To continue to grow the game, US Chess should sharpen its focus on a third group: those who don’t (yet!) play. US Chess can cultivate new players by developing a strong network of strategic partnerships with organizations unaffiliated with chess. That’s the goal I want to discuss here.
The past four years I have worked to connect US Chess with another sport’s national governing body. Our progress indicates that national, regional, and local organizations are willing to partner with US Chess when we demonstrate chess’s unique ability to enrich their members’ lives. US Chess should prioritize its outreach to such organizations with the message that chess can be an essential component of a training protocol geared toward achieving peak performance in sports—and, more generally, with the message that chess can help people of all ages and at all stages of life improve their mental sharpness and build friendships wherever they are: in schools, assisted-living centers for the elderly, homes, homeless shelters, veteran community centers, incarceration sites, etc.
When I travel with my son (a high-school junior) every other weekend to scholastic squash tournaments throughout the country, I try to connect community squash centers with local chess clubs. Some good results have followed—for example, a hybrid squash-chess summer camp for at-risk and impaired youth in Houston. As a US Squash Foundation board member, I am working with US Squash and US Chess to develop a long-term partnership connecting these surprisingly similar sports. (Squash coaches often refer to squash [a racquet sport] as chess on legs.)
US Squash has invited US Chess to run a chess booth this summer at a junior championship tournament for 600+ players at US Squash’s $41M national center in Philadelphia. Furthermore, US Squash has provisionally invited US Chess to run booths each year at school-based, team national championships such as High School Nationals (the largest squash tournament in the world: 1600+ players) and Middle School Nationals (400+ players).
My next goal is to help US Chess partner with the Squash and Education Alliance (SEA), a national organization that works with 21 domestic and 6 international community squash centers dedicated exclusively to at-risk youths and their families. First through 12th graders play squash in the centers for one - two hours per day and up to six days per week all year long. SEA affiliates also provide extensive academic lessons and extra-curricular activities—and that’s where chess could fit in. If SEA affiliates were to incorporate chess into their regular activities, then several thousand squash players could be playing chess every week all year long. SEA and US Squash have such a close connection that SEA’s Philadelphia affiliate has permanent accommodations (an office, classroom, and court privileges) in US Squash’s national center. Running a chess booth annually at SEA Nationals (450+ players), too, would align perfectly with US Chess’s At-Risk-Youth Initiative.
US Chess’s mission is to “empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess”. If elected, I would work with US Chess to develop strategic partnerships far beyond squash.
US Chess’s Nominating Committee has recommended me, and I am asking for your vote.
Incidentally, my life outside of chess centered on academics. After graduating from Yale University, I was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. At Johns Hopkins University I earned 2 master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in American literature, and for 2 years I was an Adjunct Professor in the Humanities Department at the Peabody Institute.
