Amanda Castel serves as professor of epidemiology at The George Washington University School of Public Health. She previously co-directed the Master of Science in Public Health Microbiology and Emergency Infectious Diseases. Amanda has also served in various Parents Association roles, including most recently as All-School Parents Association co-clerk during the 2019/20 school year. 

After earning her undergraduate degree from Brown University, Amanda received her medical degree at University of Pennsylvania and her master’s in public health at Johns Hopkins University. She trained in applied epidemiology and preventive medicine with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is the parent of Olivia ’21 and Alexander ’24.

Steve Evans is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs at MedStar Health. Prior to this role, he served as Vice President of Medical Affairs at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and professor of surgery. He was recently appointed by Governor Hogan to serve on the state of Maryland’s Coronavirus Response Team.

Steve earned his medical degree at the University of South Florida School of Medicine. He is the parent of Molly ’24 and Kate.

Wayne A. I. Frederick was appointed the seventeenth president of Howard University in 2014. He previously served as provost and chief academic officer. A distinguished scholar and administrator, Wayne has advanced Howard University's commitment to student opportunity, academic innovation, public service, and fiscal stability. Following his post-doctoral research and surgical oncology fellowships at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Wayne began his academic career as associate director of the Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut. Upon his return to Howard University, his academic positions included associate dean in the College of Medicine, division chief in the Department of Surgery, director of the Cancer Center, and deputy provost for Health Sciences.

Wayne has received various awards honoring his scholarship and service. In April 2020, he was chosen as the first-ever recipient of the Educator Award by the Lowell F. Hawthorne Foundation, Inc. Last year, Wayne was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for his contributions to the medical field. In January 2017, the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors elected Wayne to the Federal Reserve Bank Fifth District of Richmond. Most recently, Wayne was appointed to the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce and Humana Inc. Wayne is a member of surgical and medical associations, including the American Surgical Association and the American College of Surgeons.

Wayne resides in Washington D.C. with his wife, Simone, and their two children, Kirie ’24 and Wayne II. He currently serves on the Sidwell Friends Board of Trustees.

Peggy Hamburg recently completed her service as president/board chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and foreign secretary for the National Academy of Medicine. During her extensive career in public health, her positions have included commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Peggy earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard. She served on the Sidwell Friends Board of Trustees from 2004–2009, and is the parent of Rachel Brown ’11 and Evan Brown ’13.

Ali Mohamadi ’94 is a pediatric endocrinologist and executive director of global patient advocacy and engagement at California-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical, where he serves as the primary liaison between the company and the patient communities it serves. At BioMarin, which develops medications for people with rare and life-threatening conditions, Ali leads a global team that collaborates with patients, their caretakers, and the advocacy groups that support them to ensure their voice is included in the company's decision-making process. Their perspective is used to understand community priorities for research and drug development, build clinical trials that study patient-centered outcomes, and ultimately bring safe and effective therapies to those with few, if any, available options.

Prior to starting at BioMarin, Ali started his career at the US Food and Drug Administration, where he worked in physician and patient engagement and served as a clinical reviewer for new endocrine drugs. He remains an active practitioner in pediatric endocrinology. Ali earned his undergraduate degree at Yale and completed medical school at George Washington University. He completed his residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Mount Sinai before completing his fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at Johns Hopkins.

Ali joined the Sidwell Friends Alumni Association Executive Board in 2013 and served as clerk from 2017–2020. He currently serves on the Sidwell Friends Board of Trustees. In 2020, he was awarded the School's Newmyer Award for volunteerism and commitment to service to Sidwell Friends. Ali and his wife, Sara Depew, live in Chevy Chase, MD and are parents of four children, including Madeleine ’23 and Caroline ’26.

Cynthia Ogden is an epidemiologist who leads a team of medical and research epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention*. She has more than 100 publications on research related to obesity and growth in children. Cynthia joined CDC as a disease detective in the Epidemic Intelligence Service. She also teaches nutritional epidemiology and the epidemiology of obesity at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Cynthia’s international experience has blended nutrition and the diverse disciplines of forestry and fisheries at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome.

Cynthia earned her PhD and master’s degree from Cornell University, where her research focused on malnutrition among young children in Kigali, Rwanda. She has a BA in intercultural studies from Trinity College.

Cynthia is a member of Bethesda Friends Meeting, where she taught First Day School for several years. Her father, Hugh Ogden, a poet and professor, was a member of Hartford Monthly Meeting in West Hartford, Connecticut, having returned to his grandparents’ Quaker roots when Cynthia was a teenager.

Even as a child growing up in New England, Cynthia knew about Sidwell Friends. Her mother, Ruth Simpson Woodcock ’55, treasured her experience at SFS.

The combination of Quakerism in her father’s family and her mother’s rich experience at Sidwell Friends played an important role in Cynthia’s interest in the School for her own children. Cynthia has been an active parent volunteer serving as room parent, co-clerking PA Quaker Life Committees, answering the phone at the Middle School, and acting as Fair Share Fund class parent. She currently serves on the Sidwell Friends Board of Trustees.

Cynthia lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband, Christopher Lord, and their children, Benjamin Ogden-Lord ’15 and Katya Ogden-Lord ’18.

*Cynthia Ogden is serving in her personal capacity. Any views expressed are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the United States Government.

Channing is a translational researcher and associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, where she treats patients and focuses her research on developing more effective and less toxic therapies for prostate cancer and other solid tumors. To translate laboratory discoveries into new treatments, she developed a portfolio of investigator-initiated clinical studies involving immunotherapy, precision therapy, and natural products. She has published more than 60 articles and book chapters and was recently named associate director of oncology for the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network.

Channing has long had an interest in determining whether dietary supplements, vitamins, and other natural products, on which Americans spend more than $14 billion dollars each year, are helpful or harmful for cancer patients. Her studies in this and other areas have earned her honors throughout her career, including the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the ECOG Paul Carbone Award, and a multi-year clinical research training grant from NIH. She is currently the national principal investigator for a randomized placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial, accruing patients at 12 cancer centers around the country, that seeks to determine whether popular antioxidants delay cancer growth in the 25% of cancer patients who carry a specific germline genetic profile.

Channing recognizes how much her career has been shaped and enhanced by excellent mentors at Sidwell Friends and all through her undergraduate years and medical training. To “pay it forward,” she mentors trainees from the high school level through junior faculty at Johns Hopkins. She currently serves on the Sidwell Friends Board of Trustees.

While she was a student at Sidwell, and through her college years at Bowdoin, Channing interned at the National Institutes of Health. During her medical studies at Harvard, she spent time at the Weizmann Institute in Israel’s Department of Biological Regulation, Massachusetts General Hospital’s Endocrine Unit, and McCord Hospital in South Africa, where she participated in the Harvard AIDS project. During her oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins, Channing spent time at both the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program.

Channing and her husband, Brian Toll, live in Chevy Chase, Maryland with their sons, Alex and Teddy.

Raj Shah is the current president of The Rockefeller Foundation, which has published a number of reports and provided support to cities and states with respect to pandemic response and recovery through its pandemics program. In 2009 Raj was appointed USAID Administrator by President Obama. Prior to his appointment, he served as chief scientist and undersecretary for research, education, and economics at the United States Department of Agriculture and in various roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

After earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, he received his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his master’s degree in health economics at the Wharton School of Business. He is the parent of Sajan ’24, Amna ’27, and Jaisal ’29.