Pearl Coalition Board of Directors

Matthew Cutts, Chairman of The Board

Matthew Cutts is a community business leader and attorney in the Washington, D.C. area. As a Partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Patton Boggs, he counsels clients on a diverse range of matters, incorporating his experience in municipal representation and complex litigation strategy to assist local governments, cities, and not-for-profit clients in dealings with federal executive agencies and congressional offices.

By Mayoral appointment, Mr. Cutts serves as the Chairman of the Board of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, an independent arm of the DC government responsible for promoting sports and entertainment events in the DC Metro area. Prior to his role at Patton Boggs Mr. Cutts served as the senior law clerk to Chief Judge Annice M. Wagner of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board of the Pearl Coalition, Mr. Cutts plays an instrumental role in several non-profit and community organizations in the Washington area. Mr. Cutts is also a board member of the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Washington Nationals, and a board member of the Greater Washington Sports Alliance, a business organization that promotes sports in the Greater Washington area. He is also active in the Ron Brown Scholar Program, a non-profit organization that provides promising young African Americans with the financial resources to attend some of the finest colleges and universities in the county.

Matthew received his Law degree from University of Virginia School of Law in 1997, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, in 1994.

For more biographical information about Mathew Cutts please review his Patton Boggs biography.

Dylan Glenn

Dylan Glenn is Senior Vice President of the Guggenheim Advisors, a New York based hedge fund, where he directs marketing for the firm’s Marketing and Client Services Team.

Prior to joining Guggenheim Partners, Dylan Glenn was a candidate for the U.S. Congress in Georgia’s 8th Congressional District. Before his candidacy he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia and two years as Special Assistant to the 41st President of the United States, President George H.W. Bush. While at the White House, he was a member of the National Economic Council team advising the President on various economic concerns.

Working with Pearl Coalition Board Member Robert Nixon, he was one of the founders of The Earth Conservation Corps, a White House initiative under President George H.W. Bush. The organization provides opportunity to at-risk youth through serious environmental conservation work. Dylan served on the Board of Directors of the ECC organization including a stint as Chairman of the Board.

Dylan was founder and director of the South Georgia Economic Development Corporation, formed to assist economic growth in the poorest part of his state. In that capacity, he was involved with educational reform and was a major player in bringing innovative programs into several school systems in South Georgia. In October 1999, Georgia Trend Magazine named Dylan Glenn one of the 40 outstanding Georgians under 40.

Glenn is a graduate from The Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He received his BA from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1991.

Robert Nixon

Robert Nixon is an Academy Award nominee, five-time Emmy Award winner and conservationist who has spent a lifetime capturing the environmental messages of tribal people and field biologists in the earth’s most remote corners. Nixon’s powerful dramatic and documentary films have added to a global awareness of our most pressing environmental and social issues.

In 2004 Bob completed the feature documentary “Endangered Species”. Filmed over fourteen years, the film follows a band of Washington’s inner city youth as they struggle to stay alive while they return the bald eagle to our nation’s Capitol.

In 1987 Bob co-produced for Universal and Warner Bros. Studio “Gorillas in the Mist”. The following year was Bob’s first foray into directing a fiction film, which led to Bob directing and producing the Academy Award nominated film, “Amazon Diary”. He is currently producing a film project titled “Energy Hunters” which follows children around the world as they look for solutions to the growing issue of global warming.

Bob is a hands-on conservationist and serves as the Chairman of the Earth Conservation Corps, a nonprofit organization that provides the opportunity for Washington’s disadvantaged youth to learn leadership skills while they restore the Anacostia River. Bob’s conservation work has been honored as, “The President’s Service Award” By President Bill Clinton, the “Environmental Educator of the Year” by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and a “Hero of the Planet” by the National Geographic Society. His work has been featured on “ABC World News Tonight”, “Now with Bill Moyers”, “60 Minutes”, People Magazine, National Geographic, The Washington Post and the New York Times.

Dr. Allen Counter

Dr. S. Allen Counter, D.M.Sc., Ph.D., has served Harvard University as a neuroscience professor and administrator for the past twenty years. He is currently the director of The Harvard Foundation of Harvard University and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Counter is also Neurophysiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1989, Dr. Counter was the recipient of the distinguished NAACP Image Award, and in 1994 the National Medical Association Hall of Fame Award. In 2004, Dr. Counter was appointed Consul General of Sweden in Boston and New England by the King of Sweden and the Swedish Ambassador to the U.S.

In addition to his scientific interests, he continues to work in the area of ethics in science and technology, nature conservation, and human rights at the international level. He is presently co-host of EcoForum, a nationally televised program on earth conservation.

Along with his contributions to the Pearl Coalition Board, Dr. Counter is presently working to establish the first memorial to African-American slaves. He has petitioned the President of the United States for the establishment of the American Slavery Memorial on the historic Washington Mall in D.C.

For a full biographical background of Dr. Counter, please visit his Harvard webpage.

Maxwell Kennedy

Author, attorney and environmentalist Maxwell Taylor Kennedy's most recent work, Danger's Hour (www.dangershour.com): The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her, is a gripping historical account set in the Pacific during World War II (Simon & Schuster, November 2008). He is the author of the national bestseller, Make Gentle the Life of this World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy (Harcourt, 1998).

Mr. Kennedy is currently an Associate Scholar of the John Carter Brown Library, a center for advanced research in history and the humanities at Brown University. In 2000, Mr. Kennedy managed Senator Edward M. Kennedy's re-election campaign in 2000. Early in his career, Mr. Kennedy served as Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia.

In addition to his love for sailing, international maritime history, and his contribution to the Pearl Coalition Board, Max is the co-founder and serves as a Director of the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College, a non-profit organization and an official partner of the Boston Public Schools. As a Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, he has led human rights missions to Haiti, South Africa, and Kenya.

A graduate of Harvard University, Max went on to receive his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School.

Jarred C. Warrick

Jarred C. Warrick was born and raised in Washington, DC. He was educated in the Public School System of the District of Columbia. In 1993, Warrick graduated, with honors, from Howard D. Woodson Senior High School. During his 4 years at Woodson, Warrick played Varsity Football and Basketball, was the Editor of the School Newspaper, and was a member of the National Honor Society.

Warrick then took his educational pursuits to Atlanta, Georgia where he enrolled at Morehouse College. Warrick holds a B.A. in English from Morehouse. In 2003, Warrick completed his Master of Arts in Teaching, at Regent University. Since 2001, Warrick has been employed by the DC Public School System, as a classroom teacher. Currently, Warrick teaches 5th grade at Noyes Education Campus, in Northeast DC.

Warrick and his wife Julia have two children and are residents of Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. Warrick plans to spend the latter part of his career in education as a school counselor or administrator.

James T. Willie

James Willie works for Corporation for National and Community Service in the Office of Grants Policy and Operations, overseeing grant review competitions and managing the peer review process. Before coming to the Corporation, James was the Managing Director of the Earth Conservation Corps, overseeing the daily operations and programming taking place at their two education centers on the waterfront in Southeast DC.

James has worked with numerous not-for-profits both nationally and locally in the community service field. He has held positions as a trainer focused on service-learning and national service at the National Association of Partners in Education, to a founding staff member at both City Year and DC Service Corps, and a coordinator in the Philadelphia School District where he developed service-learning and school-to-career opportunities for students.

James is a graduate of Oberlin College and Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

Anthony T. Smith

(Bio being updated)

Advisory Board

Perlia D. Smith

(Pictured Above with Anthony Smith)

Thom Wallace