Board of Directors

  • NANNETTE BECKLEY '78 - PRESIDENT

    Nannette Beckley was raised in Minneapolis but has spent most of her adult life living away in Wyoming, Connecticut and Illinois. She has been a licensed realtor in 4 states, was Chief Operating Officer at a short biased hedge fund and worked for Cargill in Commodity Sales and Trading for 10 years after college. She was a board member of the Yale Alumni Association of Greenwich from 2003-2013 (President 2009-2011). At Yale she played on the inaugural Women’s Ice Hockey and Soccer teams. She was Co Captain of the First Women’s Varsity Soccer Team in 1977. Nannette lives in Edina and has two adult daughters within a 6 block area.

    nannette@yaanw.org

  • NICK JOHNSON ‘74 - TREASURER

    Nick Johnson graduated from Yale College in 1974 and recently retired as a Senior Business Systems Analyst at Ameriprise Financial.

    nick@yaanw.org

  • ANTHONY LAVELY '68- Secretary

    Anthony M, Lavely was elected to the YAANW Board in 2024, his first year after relocating to Minneapolis. He will serve as Board Secretary. In 2023, Tony married Nancy Evenson Lindley, the surviving spouse of his 1964 classmate, Clarkson Lindley. They reside in Long Lake. Following a career in the chain restaurant industry, Tony continues to consult to emerging chains and private equity. Tony has served Yale for many years in volunteer capacities, the longest role as Class Secretary for 1964. Earlier, he served as President of the Yale Club of Chicago in the late 1970s, and later served on the YAA Board of Governors where he chaired the YAA Assembly on Athletics in 1980. Tony has been an ASC interviewer for 50 years and happily continues interviewing Yale applicants in the Twin Cities.

  • BOB AMES ‘03 MBA

    Bob Ames is a 2003 graduate of the Yale School of Management. He worked as a CPA with a Big 4 firm where he helped develop & open offices in the former Soviet Union, subsequently built renewable energy and chemicals businesses together with agricultural firms, and now provides consulting services in the renewable energy, agriculture and food biotech spaces. Bob and his wife Elena reside in St. Paul with their 2 daughters.

    bob.ames@yaanw.org

  • TARA DOYLE BIZILY ‘98

    A physician at Minnesota Personalized Medicine in Minneapolis, Tara’s medical practice is centered on integrative, functional and individualized care for people with chronic conditions. In her volunteer work, Tara focuses on education with a passion for improving opportunities for those with learning differences. A native of northern Minnesota, Tara and her husband, Neil, live in the Twin Cities with their three children and Boston terrier.

  • LESLIE GOEDKEN ‘08 (M.ARCH)

    Ms. Goedken is CEO & Founder of Home Catalyst LLC, an Investment and Advisory company focused on market-centric, sustainable housing for adults with IDD in integrated settings. Home Catalyst has made investments in two assets and has a growing pipeline of real estate housing partners. Ms. Goedken has 15 years of experience in real estate, capital markets and healthcare finance, and has worked with leading companies and financial firms on transactions and investments. In total she has helped close ~$37 billion of transactions in the US and across global markets. She started her career as an architect working on projects built in New York and Asia. Ms. Goedken holds an MBA from Columbia, an March from Yale, and an undergraduate in Architecture from the New School. She serves on the National Autism Society Board and on the Investment Committee of Blue Ivy Ventures.

    leslie@yaanw.org

  • MARYELLEN KWASIE ‘11

    Maryellen Kwasie is a 2011 Yale College graduate. Originally hailing from the northeast, she loves Minnesota and now lives in downtown Minneapolis with her husband.

    Maryellen is a social impact professional. She currently leads McKinsey.org’s global Organizational Health Index (OHI) for Nonprofits program, helping hundreds of nonprofits diagnose and improve their ways of working to better advance their missions. She has also led global social impact initiatives with McKinsey & Co.’s Global Social Responsibility team.

    She also has her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and is a University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs Policy Fellow.

    maryellen@yaanw.org

  • CALVIN LITSEY ‘78

    Cal is a 1978 Yale grad (English) and also holds a J.D. from the University of Minnesota. After spending time in NYC, Cal practiced law for 37 years in Minneapolis and Palo Alto. He currently devotes time to music and writing projects and hiking and biking with his wife, Christine. Their daughter was a research assistant at Yale and their son graduated from Yale in 2010 (Math & Physics) (Ezra Stiles).

  • RICK LUIS ‘67

    Retired (after 38 years trying cases) Judge Rick Luis has been on the YAANW Board, and has served as a YAA Assembly Delegate for our Association or his Yale College Class since the early 1990s. He was President of the Association for five years, 1999-2003, and has been an admissions interviewer and an informal athletic recruiter for Yale throughout his Board service. A native of Shakopee, Rick lives in Little Canada with his wife, Nita Luis.

    rick@yaanw.org

  • ROHAN PRESTON ‘89

    Rohan Preston spent his childhood in Jamaica and adolescence in New York before earning an English degree at Yale. He has served on the Pulitzer Prize jury for drama. He has been a Star Tribune theater critic since 1998.

    rohan@yaanw.org

  • LARRY SCHUSTER ‘68

    Larry Schuster has been a Senior Consultant in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Schuster Clinic for Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders since 1978. Although Dr. Schuster’s practice is almost entirely outpatient, he is on the medical staffs of Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, Fairview-Southdale Hospital, Fairview Ridges Hospital, North Memorial Medical Center, and Maple Grove Hospital.

  • XIAOTENG “X” HUANG- SOM '22

    Xiaoteng “X” Huang is an entrepreneur, start-up founder, and former management consultant at McKinsey. He co-founded PinKU Japanese Street Food in Minneapolis, MN and grew it to become the highest rated Japanese restaurant on Yelp and Google in Minnesota. After operating and growing the PinKU brand for 5+ years, X left the restaurant industry and joined McKinsey to leverage his entrepreneurial experience in building his own business to solve problems at larger and more complex organizations. In his current role at General Mills, he is part of the Disruptive Growth division to help create, launch, and scale products that solve the biggest consumer problems in food. In his spare time, X loves exploring the world and spending quality time with his family and friends. He has traveled to 70 countries across 6 continents, all 50 states in the US, and is always looking for his next adventure!

  • YUSHI ZHANG-MPH '23

    Yushi has extensive experience in public health programming and strategy, with expertise in behavior design, capacity building, reproductive health, education, and accessibility. Over the past twelve years, she has worked on programs including leading the establishment of China's first two human milk banks, implementing UNICEF's campaigns for a population over 30 million, managing a $2 million NIH program in bioethics training, and making attempts to build the Ivy League’s first interdisciplinary disability studies program at Yale University. She is currently a faculty member at the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota, offering her expertise in strategies and problem-solving. She also runs a consulting firm in China that connects resources and offers comprehensive strategic management consulting to startups.