Center Staff

Ann Olsen Schodde | Executive Director

Ann Olsen Schodde has been involved in education and international relations for most of her professional career. She has held leadership positions in higher education and international non-profit organizations; consulting with more than 21 private foundations and government agencies, including the Stanley Foundation, World Food Prize Foundation, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, Sister Cities International, USAID, U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education. Programs have been conducted in the US and throughout out the world involving two-way exchanges and in-country technical assistance and training.

Familiar with the Washington world of international education and exchange, Schodde has served on national committees of the National Continuing Education Association, the Association of American Community Colleges and the National Council of International Visitors. She has worked with embassy staffs from over 60 countries.

Schodde served as Executive Director of the Iowa Council for International Understanding and led the Association for International Practical Training Americans Abroad initiative. In addition, she directed two divisions of the College of Continuing Education at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA. She has also served as Vice President for Development at Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa, directing the college Foundation Board, federal legislation, international programs, grants and marketing departments.

Schodde holds a BA degree in political Science and Speech from the University of Wisconsin and a M.Ed from Cornell University.

Brice C. Oakley | Consultant

Brice Oakley has had a career in law and public service spanning over 45 years. He has served as an Iowa Assistant Attorney General, a trial lawyer, an elected school board member, two terms in the Iowa House of Representatives, and four years as Administrative Counsel to former Governor Robert D. Ray.

He returned to the private sector with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa and in Washington D.C. as the BCBSA’s Executive Director of State Relations.

Since 1997 he has been a partner in Avenson, Oakley & Cope Consulting, a state government relations firm currently representing over 30 clients including the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Microsoft, six community colleges, Koch Industries and Qwest.

His most recent volunteer public service work includes nine years on the Iowa Arts Council and in 2007 a gubernatorial appointment to the Iowa Capitol Planning Commission where he serves as chair.

Jan Holmes Drees | Consultant

Jan Holmes Drees is a consultant and Executive Director of the Business/Education Alliance, a partnership of Iowa businesses and schools promoting excellence in education. As Executive Director of the Alliance, Drees led the development of a new Masters Degree Program in Advanced Studies in Education at Drake University, offered in conjunction with the Alliance. Drees has served as an adjunct professor for the University and provides consultation services in the areas of professional development for K-12 educators, environmental education, international programs, community collaboration and the arts and sciences. Drees works with the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, Earthpark, Great Ape Trust and the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation.

Prior to beginning her consulting business in 2007, Drees had a 35 year public school career in K-12 education, focusing on special education, gifted education, home schooling, international programs and K-12 administration. In her work with the public schools and business community, Drees provided leadership for the development of the award winning Downtown School, a public school named one of the 10 best schools in the nation by a national panel of experts in education. The Downtown School was also one of seven featured organizations in the 2006 business management book The Disney Way, by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson. Drees also developed the Des Moines School District’s Home Instruction Program for home schooling families, and served as the principal of Edmunds Fine Arts Academy and the Downtown School. Drees has served on boards or advisory councils for the Iowa Environmental Project, Make a Wish Foundation, Drake University College of Education, ACT Work Keys, YMCA, The Boy Scouts of America, Earthpark and Junior Achievement.

M. Jessica Rowe | Consultant

M. Jessica Rowe is the principal of Rowe Consulting, LC, where she works with clients in areas of visual art and connoisseurship, innovative management and project development. Rowe has consulted on leadership and management styles with young women entrepreneurs in Tunisia. She was worked with university museums and corporations on educational projects and publications. She began consultng with the U.S. Center from prior to its launch in July of 2006, and continues to work on major projects and initiatives.

A native of Maryland, Rowe studied at Hastings College in Nebraska, Syracuse University in New York, Universita Internationale dell’arte di Firenze, Italia, and University of California at Berkeley, California. She has lived and traveled throughout Europe. Rowe has successfully managed complex organizations and has worked with professionals and stakeholders in universities, municipal governments, and private cultural institutions in the United States and Europe.

Formerly, she served the Des Moines Art Center, as deputy director and acting director, where she administered the museum’s $7 million annual operation to drive and implement innovative programs that served more than 300,000 people yearly. During her tenure, she organized and led the institution’s engagement plan, designed specifically to enhance intercommunication between diverse segments of the population.

Thomas W. Gittins | Consultant

Thomas W. Gittins is President of Gittins & Associates, Inc., a consulting services firm specializing in international programs and projects, special project activities, meetings planning and management, non-profit organizations, international organizations, overseas institutions and corporations.

As a graduate of Cornell University, Tom joined the administration there as assistant director of alumni relations. He then moved on to a career as an insurance broker in Delaware, from which he took a leave of absence to become the associate director and director of the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. Following that, he left the insurance business and returned to Washington, D.C., where he served as chief of operations for the Latin America bureau of the Peace Corps.

Tom left Peace Corps to become Executive Vice President and CEO of Sister Cities International, a private, non-profit national association of U.S. cities and citizen volunteer committees that have “sister-city” affiliations with cities overseas for the purpose of international professional, educational, cultural, technical, municipal and business exchange. Under his leadership, the program grew to include over 2,000 city linkages throughout the world between U.S. cities and cities in 100 other countries. During his administration, he led the growth and development of the U.S. sister Cities program to the point where it is one of the most highly respected and effective private, community-based, citizen exchange mechanisms anywhere, with a proven track record for innovation and achievement.

He was a founding board member of the International Exchange Association, a consortium of citizen exchange organizations in the U.S.; of the International Leadership Institute for international volunteer leader development; of Fondo Quisqueya, a foundation providing education and training opportunities to needy candidates in the Dominican Republic; and, of Institute 21, a training and education organization focusing on assistance to emerging democracies. He has been a member of advisory committees to President Regan and to President Carter and has served as a public member of the Foreign Service Selection Board.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of the U.S. – Ukraine Foundation, a former member of the Board of trustees of World Learning and a founding member of the Coalition for Citizen Diplomacy.