Board of Directors

Merville Forrester

Special Advisor to the President, CEO

Merville has over 20 years experience in manufacturing and Warehouse & Distribution, as an Engineer. During this time, he was exposed to a variety of challenging opportunities including Assembly plant design for Lean manufacturing, problem solving of assembly processes, application of Lean Six Sigma methodology to increase productivity. The crux of my current job requires an in-depth comprehension of operations and also involves the management of Senior Engineering resources to support current and new business implementations.

James J. Sandman, JD

Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors

Jim Sandman is Distinguished Lecturer and Senior Consultant to the Future of the Profession Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He is also President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation, the United States’ largest funder of civil legal aid programs. Jim served as President of LSC from 2011 to 2020. Jim practiced law for 30 years with Arnold & Porter and served as the firm’s Managing Partner for a decade. He is a former General Counsel of the District of Columbia Public Schools and a past President of the District of Columbia Bar. Jim is Vice Chair of the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board, Vice Chair of District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, and a member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Committee, and the advisory board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. He is a member of boards of the Pro Bono Institute, Albany Law School, the College of Saint Rose, the International Senior Lawyers Project, and Washington Performing Arts. He previously chaired the boards of the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, the Meyer Foundation, and Whitman-Walker Health. Jim is a summa cum laude graduate of Boston College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as Executive Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Max Rosenn of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Hope E. Rhodes-Pretlow, MD, MPH

Hope E. Rhodes-Pretlow, MD, MPH has been a community Pediatrician at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC since 2010. Dr. Rhodes obtained her Bachelor’s of Science and Doctor of Medicine Degrees from Howard University. She completed her General Pediatrics and Chief Residency at Children’s National Medical Center in 2010. Dr. Rhodes completed her Masters of Public Health Degree in May 2016 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, focusing on community-based research.

She is a participant in the National Health Service Corp. Here her aim is to provide comprehensive, culturally-competent care to children from under-resourced communities. Shortly after joining the Department of General and Community Pediatrics, she helped create the Healthy Generations Program at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Children’s Health Center. She is now the Medical Co-Director of this Program. This Program promotes the health, well-being and empowerment of adolescent mothers, fathers, and their children by providing comprehensive, trauma informed health care in a family-centered, teen-friendly setting.

Natasha Shields

Natasha is currently the Vice President of Atlantic Media. Earlier, she managed product and engineering at the Washington Post, and served as CIO and National Director of Technology for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the second-largest U.S.-based actors' advocacy organization before it merged with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

In her work at Atlantic Media and the Washington Post, she has connected the dots between product, design, engineering, audience success, business, and marketing. She knows technology must match and intersect seamlessly with content to deliver experiences that resonate and keep audiences coming back for more.

Not only is Natasha passionate about engaging audience experiences and creating innovative products, she is also committed to using these skills as part of the ENT Youth Board. She believes in building equity for our youth, as they are our future. She is a graduate of UCLA, based in Washington DC.

Lystra Hinds

Lystra Hinds worked several years as the Senior Executive Assistant to the Ambassador of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Washington, DC. In this role, she pursued her passion for cultural exchange, tourism, Diaspora engagement, and building relationships with other organizations, both international and domestic. She led the Student and Cultural Affairs Departments, which allowed her to manage a team that delivered extraordinary experiences to the community, while providing opportunities to collaborate with the Department of State and Homeland Security on regulations that support international students. Her work in the Diplomatic community allowed her to collaborate with educational institutions on recruitment and admission of students from Trinidad and Tobago for study and research in the United States.

She is now working in the President of Howard University's office, where her experience has proved to be very useful in serving the Howard University community.

Christopher Billiups

S. Christopher Billups is the Managing Director of Avas Holdings LLC, which provides Diagnostic Laboratory Testing. In addition, Mr. Billups is a partner in KO Distilling, which is a mid-size craft distillery based in Northern Virginia that makes Bare Knuckle Bourbon and Whiskey. Before becoming an Entrepreneur, Mr. Billups worked as Senior Marketing Executive for Laboratory Corporation of America, where he managed the Washington D.C. territory. He won the “Gem Club Top Award” four times. Mr. Billups has always enjoyed a challenge, landing his first job after graduating from Howard University in the highly competitive field of Sports Marketing with the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche as an Account Executive.