Discovery Institute’s esteemed board propels its mission to advance a culture of purpose, creativity and innovation.
Cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Discovery InstituteBruce Chapman has had a long career in American politics and public policy at the city, state, national, and international levels. Elected to the Seattle City Council and as Washington State's Secretary of State, he also served in several leadership posts in the Reagan administration, including ambassador. In 1991, he founded the public policy think tank Discovery Institute, where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board and director of the Chapman Center on Citizen Leadership.
Howard Ahmanson
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteHoward F. Ahmanson Jr. is founder and president of Fieldstead and Company, Inc., a private philanthropy working in national and international relief and development, education, the arts, family and children's concerns, and religious freedom issues worldwide. Born in Los Angeles in 1950, Ahmanson, is a graduate of Occidental College in that city and holds a master's degree in linguistics from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Dave Barber
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteDave serves as manager of Bartell-Barber Family Investments, LLC, where he is positioned to locate and acquire additional operating businesses on behalf of his extended family. In that capacity, in 2012 he acquired the assets of Urban Hardwoods Inc., a Seattle manufacturer and seller of live edge slab furniture, and now serves as chairman of Urban Hardwoods, LLC. He serves as co-chairman of Henbart, LLC, a commercial real estate investment subsidiary of The Bartell Drug Company. He also serves as President of the Bartell-Barber Family Council, whose function is to govern business enterprises of the extended family and to work toward the ultimate objective of succeeding those businesses to members of the fourth generation.
Charles Barbo
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteMr. Barbo is recently retired as the Chairman of Shurgard Storage Centers, Inc., a NY Stock Exchange traded company that was recently merged with Public Storage Inc. Mr. Barbo was a founder of Shurgard. He was raised in Seattle, attended the University of Washington and the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program. He serves on corporate boards of several Northwest companies.
Kathy Connors
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteKathy has been a community volunteer and philanthropist the past 25 years while raising her 4 children. A Bellevue, Washington native, she feels fortunate to be able to pursue her passions and community through organizations close to her heart. A 1982 graduate of the University of Washington Business school, Kathy worked for Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, Westin Hotels and Columbia Pictures before becoming a full time homemaker.
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteA mathematician and philosopher, Bill Dembski is the author/editor of more than 20 books as well as the writer of peer-reviewed articles spanning mathematics, engineering, philosophy, and theology. A past philosophy professor, he retired in 2014 from active research and teaching in intelligent design (ID) to focus on the connections between freedom, technology, and education — specifically, how education helps to advance human freedom with the aid of technology. Bill Dembski is presently an entrepreneur who builds educational software and websites. He lives in Iowa.
Mike Dunn
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteMike Dunn is the fourth generation president of Dunn Lumber. Mike started working after school in 1969 and has done practically every job in the company. His favorite job was buying the lumber, plywood, and other commodities, which he did for 25 years. He is the father of three married children, two of which work for the company and has year-old identical twin granddaughters. He loves boating and golf when he has time, but mostly he's found interacting with family, team members, vendors, and customers. As he’s very fond of saying, "trust is hard to build and easy to lose!”
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteWalter is a Principal Engineering Manager leading a team of engineers, working with customers to drive their success in the Microsoft Azure Cloud. He holds a Masters Degree in Philosophy from Biola University's Talbot School of Theology, where he is an adjunct faculty member in the Master of Arts in Science & Religion (MASR) program teaching on Darwin, evolution, and design. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the California Policy Center (CPC), an educational non-profit focused on policies to improve California's democracy and economy.
Skip Gilliland
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteSkip Gilliland, Founder and President of The Skip & Susan Gilliland
Foundation, joined the Discovery Institute board in 2008. He is the
co-founder of Geodax Technology, Inc., a nuclear medicine technology
company based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. Gilliland served as
the company's Chief Technical Officer from its founding in 1985 until
2004. In 2001, the company was named by the Triad Business Journal (a
local business and trade publication) as one of the fastest growing
companies in the region. Prior to founding Geodax, Mr. Gilliland
worked for the Carolina Power & Light Company in its nuclear power generation division.
Richard Greiling
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteDick Greiling is President of Axion Systems, Inc., an application software development firm located in Seattle, which he co-founded in 1986. He is also the business manager of 222 Westlake LLC, Terry & Thomas LLC, and Benson Investments LLC, family corporations which develop and own real estate in the Puget Sound region. Dick serves as treasurer of University Presbyterian Church. Prior to his work at Axion, Dick spent 12 years as a management consultant, serving such clients as the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Postal Service, Air Force Systems Command, and the University of San Francisco. He received his B.S. degree from Columbia University and his M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley. Dick and his wife Kristina live in Seattle.
Bryan Mistele
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteBryan Mistele is the co-founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of INRIX, a leading provider of connected car services and transportation analytics. INRIX is at the forefront of connecting cars to smarter cities in more than 88 countries around the world. Bryan started INRIX in 2004, having had more than 15 years experience building high-technology businesses and transforming industries through the power of information technology
As a leader on technology and transportation issues, Bryan is a popular speaker on the future of transportation. Bryan has served as a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Transportation Policy Project, as a member of the United States Department of Transportation’s ITS Advisory Committee, and as a board member of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. Bryan is co-founder of ACES Northwest – a group committed to the adoption of Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared vehicles.
Prior to INRIX, Mistele was an executive at Microsoft. Bryan holds a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Byron Nutley
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteByron Nutley is currently the CFO of NewAlchemy, a Seattle-based company that works in blockchain technology. Prior to NewAlchemy, he was the Executive Vice President & CFO of ClipCard Inc., a Seattle-based software company. The ClipCard personal search app helps users find, understand, and act on information from across their cloud accounts and apps in a single starting place.
Mariana Parks
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteMariana Parks is retired from a career in public policy, having worked as Deputy State Director and speechwriter for US Senator Slade Gorton, and as president of the Slade Gorton International Policy Center. She also served as Senior Advisor for US Representative Dave Reichert, and worked for the Washington Policy Center and Microsoft Government Affairs. Parks ran her own company providing consultancy to a broad range of corporate, political and non-profit organizations. She now serves as president of CTNNB1 Syndrome Awareness Worldwide, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing awareness of the ultra-rare genetic disorder, which affects her grandson, connecting other families and the medical community dealing with the Syndrome, and providing resources and research into finding effective treatments and eventually a cure.
James Spady
Board Member, Discovery InstituteJim Spady is the President of Seattle's iconic Dick's Drive-in Restaurant chain. A 1976 graduate of Bellevue's Interlake High School, Jim earned an economics degree (summa cum laude) from Arizona State University in 1980 and a Juris Doctor degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Washington School of Law in 1983.
Raymond J. Waldmann
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteRay is retired after a varied career as management consultant, government official, author, and corporate officer. After graduating from MIT and Harvard Law, Ray served as a management consultant before serving at the White House and in government under Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. In 1985 he moved to Seattle to join The Boeing Company as Director of Government Affairs, retiring from the company in 2000 as Vice President for International Affairs. During his tenure at Boeing he joined the Discovery Institute Board of Directors shortly after its founding. In 2005, Ray moved to a telecom start-up AuBeta as a Director, Legal Counsel and CFO. During his working career he published seven books and numerous articles on international economic subjects. He finally retired in 2010 to enjoy with his wife Mary sailing, travel, tennis, visiting children and grandchildren, and serving on boards including two times as condominium board president.
Tony Whatley
Board of Directors, Discovery InstituteTony Whatley grew up in Atlanta and earned both his Bachelor and Masters Degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology. All of his career was spent in the institutional investment management field. His first stint was as one of the original founders of INDATA, which relocated to San Francisco in the early 1970’s. In 1976, he was recruited by Frank Russell Company and moved to the Pacific Northwest. He spent 15 years in various positions with Frank Russell rising to the Director of Sales and Marketing. In 1992, he founded Accessor Capital Management and served as the CEO of Accessor Mutual Funds until the company was sold in 2008. Since that time, Tony has served on several boards of nonprofit organizations and devoted much of his time to researching and writing about fitness and its application in promoting health and longevity.
