AAGC Nominating Committee

Gretchen Gilliland ’03

A recipient of the Jenifer Mitchell Reed Young Alumnae/i Award, Gilliland graduated in 2003 with a BA in Psychology and minor in Art. She earned her MA in Higher Education Philanthropy from Regis College and has been in Denver for the past ten years. Since graduating, Gilliland has worked with a number of universities and nonprofits in fundraising and development, utilizing skills she learned as a student while working in Goucher Phonathon at the Alumnae/i House, and as an active member of the SGA exec team. She is currently Director of Major Gifts for the Colorado School of Mines and volunteers regularly in the Denver community around human services.

Molly Abend ’07

A 2007 graduate with a degree in Psychology and minor in Education, for the last 10 years Molly Abend’s work for the State of Maryland has supported the implementation of public policies that improve the education to workforce pipeline. Abend currently serves as the Data Management Coordinator for the Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center. In addition to her degree from Goucher, Abend earned a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore. Prior to joining state government, Abend created data analysis and performance measurement tools and conducted performance management for several Baltimore City government offices including: the Department of Social Services, Fire Department, and Department of General Services as a CitiStat Analyst in the Mayor’s Office. She also managed the Student Learning Objectives process for 5,000 teacher-level staff at Baltimore City Public Schools, conducted studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and taught at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Abend resides in Towson with her wife (a fellow Goucher graduate), daughter, two large cats, and an excessive supply of Orioles collectibles. 

Sam Anderson ’21

Anderson graduated from Goucher in 2021 with a B.A. in Political Science. While at Goucher, he was an active presence in student leadership, specifically, serving almost two years as president of the Goucher Student Government. Anderson also served as a first-year mentor, leading first-year students through orientation and teaching a course on topics important to the success of incoming students. In addition to these formal roles, Anderson served as an advocate for students working alongside student-organizing groups and participated in student activism around issues of accessibility, racial equity, and more. Anderson is currently an M.A. student in Higher Education with a concentration in Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan, on track to graduate in December 2022. He works as program assistant for the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center and as an intern for the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research at Michigan.

Royal Banks ’20

Royal graduated from Goucher in 2020 with a degree in History and Secondary Education. During her time at Goucher, she served in numerous roles. She was the co-founder of Black Seed & Goucher's History Club, she also worked as an administrative assistant at GPEP. After Goucher, she did a year in Americorp at Match High School located in Boston, MA. She is now a social studies teacher at a local Baltimore City School. Royal loves teaching history & other fun content to her students. In her downtime, she enjoys dance, baking, music, traveling, and engaging in prison reform as much as possible. 

Karen Cohen Bloom ’91

Bloom was an Applied Mathematics major and dancer at Goucher. After graduation, she attended the University of Cincinnati to earn a teacher certification and began teaching both middle school and high school math. She worked in both public and private schools, as well as urban and rural settings over the course of her 17 years of teaching. She is currently a middle school math teacher at Piedmont Middle School in Piedmont, CA, where she also serves as one of the coordinators of the school's No Place for Hate initiative, is one of the advisors to the students' Safe Space Club, is a family group leader for the school's Safe School Ambassadors and is a member of the Gender Leadership Team. Bloom is a member of the executive board of Piedmont.

Marissa Charlemagne '16

Gloria Kantor ’04

After graduating in 2004, Kantor has used her Management degree and Communications minor crafting experiences in radio promotions, helping to build a wine and liquor distribution business, and currently works for the Association for Corporate Growth. In her time at Goucher, you could find her in the SRC working with the women's basketball team or as a student trainer. She also held numerous leadership positions in clubs, helping to create the programming board, and SGA. Gloria currently lives in her hometown of Atlanta, where you can find her out at a concert, running, or enjoying all that the city has to offer.

John Nobriga ‘19

Nobriga graduated in 2019 from Goucher with a Business Administration Major and double minors in Music and Theatre. During his time, he was involved in many aspects of Goucher via student leadership roles; Student Government, Student Affairs and Activities, Residential Life, and Athletics. After graduation, Nobriga continues his work helping others by joining a Customer Care team at a tech firm in his hometown in the Bay Area working on escalations and training programs for new employees.

Laura Taylor '94

Laura Taylor graduated from Goucher in 1994 with Bachelors’ degrees in Economics and Russian. After graduation, she settled in Chicago, Illinois where for several years she worked as an investigator at the Chicago Board of Trade’s Office of Investigations and Audits. She went on to earn a Master’s degree and PhD in Economics and joined the faculty at Willamette University in 2005. In addition to her academic appointment, she currently serves as the Associate Provost for Academic Finance at Willamette. In this position, she advises the Provost, the Deans of the Colleges at Willamette, and the leadership of other academic and administrative units on campus, in strategic budgeting and resource planning. Laura maintains an active forensic economics consulting practice and also serves as a pro bono economic consultant for the Trial Defense Services of the various branches of the U.S. military. Laura and her family reside in Portland, Oregon. She is Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the French American International School in Portland, where her daughter is now a 4^th grader.

Laura Zelley Van Riper ’89, P ’22

Laura graduated with a history degree and went to earn her Master of Arts in Teaching from Towson University in 1992. Her career has included teaching in Baltimore County Public Schools as a middle school social studies teacher and as a youth leader in her local community. After raising her children, Laura and her husband relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where Laura continues to be actively involved in social justice initiatives. She volunteers with local campaigns and works closely with organizations overseeing election reform in Fulton County. Laura is the proud mother of four grown children, including her youngest son, Steven, a 2022 Goucher graduate. She recently became a grandmother and enjoys spending time with her granddaughter.