Charlotte A. Lewis, Founder and President

Charlotte A. Lewis is an Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she represents hedge funds, private equity funds, and not-for-profit organizations. Prior to joining Skadden, Charlotte served as a Compliance Coordinator for MetLife, Inc., where she trained financial advisors on disclosure, fact finding and conflicts of interest issues. Since 2001, Charlotte has been involved with community service organizations, including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, Legal Outreach, and Columbia’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA), an organization in which she served as 1L Development Chair for two years and developed a targeted curriculum for current 1L students. Charlotte received a B.A. with a double major in Economics and African American studies from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. She is a native of Houston, Texas and enjoys island traveling, playing outdoor sports, cooking Mexican food, and blogging.

Matthew Espy, Treasurer

Matthew Espy is a native of Decatur, Georgia and a current resident of New York City. A lifelong math fanatic, he studied applied math at Harvard where he received his bachelors and masters degrees. He has worked with the math teams at local elementary schools, as well as been a featured speaker at early college awareness workshops at the Young Scholars Academy in the Bronx. He is currently working on several entrepreneurial endeavors, including MathSP, a math tutoring and test prep venture, and the Parlor Club, a New York City member’s club.

Charles S. Block, Vice President of Community Outreach and Recruitment

Charles S. Block has been an accomplished revenue producer and senior manager for equity trading firms in New York, where he specialized in trading technology and pharmaceutical company equities. Charles first served on a Board when he was elected by his college student body to represent it on the Board of Trustees for three years. Charles has served as the New York State (NYS) Coordinator of the Friends of the World Food Program (FWFP), where he volunteered to coordinate the NYS committees and acted as liaison between the committees and the FWFP in Washington, DC. Charles has dedicated himself to being a change agent and advocate for underserved communities, providing pro bono consulting for non-profits working with low-income senior and youth communities. Charles earned a B.A. in Mathematics from Hobart College, an MBA in Finance from Fordham University and a MS in Urban Policy from Milano the New School University. He is a native of Brooklyn, NY, earned a Black belt in Tae Kwon do on his fortieth birthday and has been working on a book of poetry forever. Charles hopes to continue to leverage his financial, project management and interpersonal skills to help alleviate social and health policy issues that burden our underserved populations.

Nicholas Sykes, Vice President of Programs

Nick Sykes is originally from West Point, MS and was raised in Houston, TX. Currently, Nick works at Bridgewater Associates, a large financial institution. Prior to Bridgewater, Nick was an MBA student at Stanford Business School. Nick’s prior work experience was, by and large, in the Financial Services industry. He is an alumni of the Sponsors for Educational Opportunities (SEO) program and continues to be active with that organization. As an undergrad, Nick attended Florida A&M University.

Elizabeth Whittington, Ph.D., Chair of LTI Curriculum

Elizabeth Whittington, Ph.D. is a recent graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. in the field of Intercultural Communication and Rhetoric at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her areas of research interest include race and gender dynamics in the perceptions of negotiations of sexual assault, the discourse surrounding sexual assault, and the awareness and prevention programs available for students at colleges and universities. Her dissertation examined how Black students at an HBCU negotiate sexual consent in casual sex relationships and the influence of parent and peer messages about sex. Dr. Whittington is originally from a small suburb of Houston, Texas, called Sugar Land.  She received her B.A. in Communication Studies with a minor in French from the University of North Texas and her M.A. in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Performance Studies from the same University.  Dr. Whittington currently serves on the Executive Board as Secretary. She has spent 7 years teaching undergraduate and graduate students in various classes pertaining to communication, such as public speaking, introduction to human communication, organizational communication, and interpersonal communication classes. She currently adjuncts at Trinity University in Washington DC and works as the Program Coordinator for the LGBTQ Resource Center at George Mason University. Previously, she worked as the Education Coordinator of Sexual Assault Services at George Mason University.  Dr. Whittington also lectures on The Power to Say YES: Let’s REALLY Talk about Sex, an interactive discussion that encourages college students to develop healthy communication skills when it comes to communicating about they want or do not in a sexual encounters.

Jessee Dagen, Chair of LTI Alumni Relations

Jessee R. Dagen, Esq. is the owner of a boutique law firm based in Chicago, Illinois that focuses in the areas of business and real estate law. She represents small and medium- sized businesses, non-profit organizations, and assists professional athletes in diversifying their assets through business and real estate investments. Prior to starting her own practice, Jessee served as attorney and guardian ad litem with the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian representing children who were victims of abuse and neglect. Jessee received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Northern Illinois University, a Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law with dean’s list honors, and is fluent in French with a certificate in French from the École Internationale de Française. A native Chicagoan, Jessee enjoys traveling, jogging, and reading crime novels in addition to providing pro-bono legal services and volunteering through her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc.