Campaign Council Members

Karla Silvestre

Karla Silvestre currently serves as the Director of Community Engagement at Montgomery College, a position she has held since 2014. She leads the College’s efforts to be the community’s college through partnerships, outreach, multilingual communications, and collaborative problem-solving. She also leads the College’s efforts in civic engagement. In 2018, she was elected to serve on the Montgomery County Board of Education where she currently serves as chair of the Fiscal Management committee and as a member of the Policy committee.

Ms. Silvestre has over two decades of experience in community engagement, education, and youth development. She previously served in the Office of Community Partnerships of Montgomery County as the Latino Liaison to the Count Executive. She also was Manager of the Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center of Montgomery County. In these roles, she worked to increase access and opportunity as well as strengthen relationships between the Montgomery County government and the residents it serves.

Before moving to Maryland in 2007, she was the Vice President for Children and Youth programs at Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a large community-based non-profit organization in North Philadelphia, where she managed school-year and summer youth programs as well as a center for truant and delinquent boys. She also worked at the University of Pennsylvania in the Penn-Merck Collaborative for Science education. Ms. Silvestre is originally from Guatemala and has worked in that country in the field of bilingual education.
She holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree from Florida State University. She lives in Silver Spring with her husband and her two daughters (a senior in high school in MCPS and a graduate of UMD).

Carlo Sanchez

Carlo '14, Assistant Director of Public Safety at Montgomery College, began volunteering for future United States Senator Chris Van Hollen while still a student at Montgomery College during Van Hollen's 2002 campaign for Maryland's 8th Congressional District. After the conclusion of the campaign, he began to volunteer on other political campaigns. In 2010, he became involved in the Prince George's County Young Democrats, and by 2014 had been elected to the countywide Democratic Central Committee and as President of his neighborhood association. In 2015, following the resignation of Delegate Will Campos, Carlo ran for the appointment to the open seat representing District 47B. He was unopposed for the appointment and gained the support of District 47 Senator Victor R. Ramirez. He was sworn into the House of Delegates on October 30, 2015. Carlo was appointed to serve as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees legislation affecting civil and criminal law, upon joining the House of Delegates. In 2017, he was elected Chair of the Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus. 

As he ended his term on January 9, 2019, and is currently working for Montgomery College as Campus Police and Public Safety Manager (Major) at the Takoma Park Campus. He has been working with Public Safety at the College since 2000. Carlo and his wife Mary '08 have generously established two named scholarships at Montgomery College. 

Anna Hargrave

Anna is Executive Director of the Greater Washington Community Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2006, she held roles in program management, community outreach, and project development experience through her work at the Office of the Montgomery County Executive, Montgomery Youth Works, and the Jewish Social Service Agency. A graduate of Kenyon College, Anna recently completed her service on the Board of Directors for Leadership Montgomery, an organization which brings together current and emerging leaders interested in making Montgomery County a better place to live and work. Anna has partnered with many community members in their own support of Montgomery College students.

Crystal Carr Townsend

Crystal is the chief executive officer of The Washington Home, a DC-based foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for elderly and/or terminally ill residents. She has more than 20 years of experience working with community-based organizations including the Healthcare Initiative Foundation, which has generously supported Montgomery College nursing students over the years, where she served as President & CEO for 12 years. Crystal is an active member of The Montgomery Women Board; Montgomery Moving Forward Leadership Team, Regional Primary Coalition Management Team; Philanthropy DMV; MCPS COVID Operations Advisory Team, and the BlackRock Center for the Arts Board. Crystal supports Montgomery Women scholarships at Montgomery College. 

Donna Schena

Donna, class of 1980, held various roles in three of the four major divisions of Montgomery College during her 43-year tenure at Montgomery College, including her Senior Vice President for Administrative and Fiscal Services, from which she retired in 2021.  During her service at the College, she also served as a full-time faculty member, campus registrar, director of admissions and registration, special assistant to the senior vice president of academic affairs, director of IT business services, director of IT policy, planning and cybersecurity, and as the interim vice president and CIO. Donna earned her M.Ed. and B.S. degrees from George Mason University, and completed the Cornell University’s Executive Leadership Program. Her family scholarship supports Montgomery College students in non-credit programs. 

Kavitha Parikh

Dr. Parikh is a board-certified pediatrician, fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), associate professor of Pediatrics at The George Washington University, and attending physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Her academic career has focused on using health services research methodologies to understand pediatric respiratory diseases. Dr. Parikh completed her undergraduate education at Brown University, medical education at Cornell University Medical College, and clinical residency training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed her Hospitalist Fellowship at Children’s National and her Master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Research from The George Washington University. Dr. Parikh supports Montgomery College Nursing students.

Lena Barnett

Lena, class of 1979, is nationally recognized as a top estate planning attorney, author, and speaker. Several of her current and former charitable and community activities include Montgomery College Foundation, Rockville, MD, Former Director; Greater Washington Community Foundation, Washington, D.C. Estate Planning Journal Club; and Suburban Hospital Foundation. Lena received her A.B. degree, cum laude, from Muhlenberg College and her J.D. degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. Lena has presented at Montgomery College planned giving webinars in the past and supports Montgomery College students with financial need.

Thameem Khan

Thameem currently works at Oracle in the cloud division helping private equity firms in value creation using Oracle's cloud technology. During his career, he has helped scale startups, run acquisitions, and evaluate companies for funding rounds. Recently, Thameem co-led a campaign to establish a scholarship by the Islamic community at the Montgomery College Foundation. He explains, “Right from a young age I was introduced and taught about the importance of education and the importance of charity/scholarship for both under-represented and merit students. My mother still tutors under-represented students in India. She is my biggest inspiration and motivates me to be selfless and help society.” He is married and blessed with two beautiful kids-a 3rd grader son who “keeps me on my toes with his cub scouts, swimming, wrestling, and programming activities” and his 5 year old daughter who just started Kindergarten.

Morgan Sullivan

As managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle’s brokerage division, Morgan focuses on tenant representation and specializes in acquisition, disposition and expansion related services, conducting market studies, feasibility and financial analysis and lease negotiation. He has an extensive background in commercial construction management. Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, he participated in the management of more than one million square feet of commercial base building and interior construction in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Morgan received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor’s of Science in Commercial Construction Management from Bowling Green State University Board and Community Affiliations. He is an active leader having served on the National Capital Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, Rockville Economic Development, Inc., National Trust For Historic Preservation, Potomac Conservancy, Maryland Trust For Historic Preservation, National Eagle Scout Association Montgomery College Connection, and is a proud Montgomery College Foundation Board Director. Morgan supports Montgomery College students with financial need.