About Us
NMUN Board of Directors
Richard Murgo retired as Dean of the College of Social Sciences at Tallahassee State College in 2021. Dr. Murgo joined the faculty of TSC in 1994 as an assistant professor, later becoming professor of political science. He subsequently became the college’s Director of Academic Enrichment, latterly promoted to Associate Dean of Social Sciences. He was selected as Dean of Social Sciences one year later. He holds master’s degrees in political science from Florida State University and in Applied Economics from the University of Central Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. Dr. Murgo served as faculty Senate President 2005-2006, has served as the dual enrollment education coordinator of the statewide Florida Boys State and Girls State programs, and was advisor and co-founder for the TSC Model United Nations program at Tallahassee State College. He founded and developed a faculty exchange program with Tianjin Foreign Studies University, as well as developed partnerships with other colleges for students’ study abroad programs in China and the Czech Republic. Dr. Murgo has also served on the United Nations Association of American Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Community Colleges Committee. Dr. Murgo served has served as vice president, treasurer, and currently president of the National Model United Nations Board of Directors. He is a current member of the Executive Board of Directors of the Florida Political Science Association, a former board member for the Florida College System Activities Association, a former elected chairman of the Holocaust Education Resource Council board of directors, as well as a member of the Board of Directors for Tallahassee Southern Model United Nations Association. He has been the political contributor for WXTL, ABC News affiliate for Tallahassee and Southern Georgia. Dr. Murgo has presented numerous papers including, “United Nations Human Rights Treaties: Obligations and Compliance” and most recently, “EU-China Relations: Balancing Economic Opportunities with Political Challenges”. Richard Murgo is the recipient of the 2012 NICSOD Excellence in Teaching award, as well as the 2011 recipient of the Tallahassee State College Club Advisor of the Year award.
Patrick is currently the counsel and director of government affairs for The American Waterways Operators, a maritime trade association headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metro area. He earned bachelors degrees in International Relations and Animal & Nutritional Sciences from West Virginia University and his juris doctor from American University's Washington College of Law.
Patrick's involvement with NMUN has spanned a decade of involvement in every type of NMUN conference as a delegate and member of the volunteer staff at conferences in New York, Washington DC, Quito, Rome, and Xi'an. During his time on staff, Patrick served in several roles from Assistant Director to Secretary-General of NMUN•DC in 2015 and NMUN•NY in 2017, and Deputy Secretary-General of NMUN • China in 2018.
Marc Scarcelli is a Professor of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona, where he serves as advisor to the NMUN team. He previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Ohio University and Bowdoin College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis and his B.A. from Purdue University. His area within Political Science is International Relations; he teaches courses on a range of topics centered on security and political violence. His primary research focus is on ethnic conflict and modern civil wars. He also maintains a strong personal interest in matters of extreme poverty, stemming from his background of involvement, years ago, with humanitarian development work in Haiti.
Michael has served as full-time Executive Director of NMUN since 2004 and has helped expand its annual programming to include more than 5,000 college participants. Prior to his current position, he was the Director of Enrollment Services and Marketing for the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (www.hecua.org), an educational nonprofit offering social justice-based off-campus study programs.
He began his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and attended NMUN as a student delegate. He ultimately received his B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and his M.A. in Nonprofit Management and the scholar award from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Additional honors include being named a Truman Scholar. He completed the coursework for a doctorate in International Education at the University of Minnesota (ABD).
Michael has served as an adjunct faculty member at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota; a Trustee of the Center for UN Reform Education, a board member and past-President of the United Nations Association of Minnesota, as well as multiple terms on the National Council of UNA-USA. He resides in Minnesota.
Staff
NMUN Advisory Council
Qazi Shaukat Fareed, became the Permanent Observer of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean to the United Nations in 2015.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Fareed was an adjunct professor at Long Island University, since 2010, following a 40-year career as a diplomat and an international civil servant. From 2006 to 2011, he was Special Adviser to the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and from 1998 to 2006 he served as Director of the Secretariat of the United Nations Systems Chief Executives Board.
He was Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator for Chernobyl at the United Nations Department for Humanitarian Affairs between 1992 and 1998. Prior to that position, from 1987 to 1992, he served at the office of the Director General for Development and International Economic Cooperation as Senior Adviser to the Director-General and as member and then Director of the Special Commission on Review of Intergovernmental Structures in the Economic and Social Sector.
Two decades of diplomatic service saw Mr. Fareed serving as Director-General of Pakistan’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1987 after holding several positions in the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations between 1980 and 1987, including Deputy Permanent Representative and Ambassador.
He also held various positions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Between 1975 and 1980, he was Chef de Cabinet in the Office of the Secretary-General and in the Office of the Foreign Secretary. During that time, he also served as Director for Africa and for External Publicity. Between 1968 and 1975, he served in Pakistan’s missions in Mexico, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Spain. He was Section Chief of Economic Coordination and United Nations Affairs between 1966 and 1968.
Mr. Fareed holds master’s degrees in economics from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and from the University of Karachi in Pakistan. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Government College in Karachi.
He is married and has two children.
H. Stephen Halloway is Director, Center for Comparative Legislative Management at the International Law Institute and Course Advisor for Governance and Anti-Corruption. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the World Bank. He was Head of Mission, United Nations Industrial Development Organization at United Nations Headquarters in New York. He was formerly Senior Advisor in the Inter-American Development Bank’s Office of External Relations where he had responsibility for Congressional Affairs and Private Sector Outreach related to the IDB Group. He served as Senior Advisor, North-South Trade and Investment, Ltd. Edmonton, Canada as well as Senior Advisor to the President, Andrade Gutierrez Environmental Group (Brazil). He also served as the Chief Regulatory Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce and Chief Counsel of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; MA in Political Science (Ford Fellow at the Eagleton Institute of Politics) from Rutgers University and a J. D. from the Boston University School of Law.
Amierah Ismail is a Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), serving as a Partnerships Officer in the External Relations and Partnerships section with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. She works to raise awareness and mobilize resources for humanitarian crises, leveraging her expertise in partnership development, resource mobilization, and advocacy on a global scale.
Amierah has extensive experience managing high-level resource mobilization events, developing partnership strategies, and fostering donor engagement. Prior to joining OCHA, she served as a Professional Officer at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to the United Nations, where she was the liaison to a number of UN entities. In this role, she negotiated resolutions and built relationships with member states, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs.
Before her diplomatic work, Amierah managed alumni events for the New York University School of Law and coordinated the Global Classrooms program at the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA).
Her National Model United Nations (NMUN) experience spans over two decades, including as Secretary-General in 2007, Member of the Board of Directors from 2015-2021, and Member of the NMUN Advisory Council since 2022.
Amierah holds a B.A. in Political Science from American University and an M.S. in Global Affairs from New York University.
Rachel Bowen Pittman serves as Executive Director of UNA-USA, a grassroots movement of more than 20,000 Americans in over 200 chapters across the U.S. who are dedicated to supporting the work of the United Nations in communities, on campuses, and on Capitol Hill. Rachel works to maximize UNA-USA’s advocacy impact by guiding the strategic vision for the organization, overseeing membership expansion, and managing partnerships. Rachel works closely with UNA-USA’s National Council and Affinity Group leadership to spearhead new initiatives that support a strong U.S.-UN partnership.
Before she was appointed Executive Director in June 2019, Rachel served as UNA-USA’s Senior Director of Membership and Programs. In this role, she managed UNA-USA’s national programs and events, including the annual Global Engagement Summit at UN Headquarters, Global Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., and UN Day events across the country. She also led a nationwide fundraising campaign to provide education to youth in refugee camps.
Prior to joining UNA-USA, Rachel served on multiple leadership teams for several professional associations that represented lawyers, surgeons, regulators and engineers. In her many accomplishments, Rachel strengthened membership programs, directed rebranding initiatives and secured agreements with national associations representing China, Korea, Argentina, India, Peru, Egypt and Mexico. While Rachel has worked with inspiring professionals across a diverse range of industries and cultures throughout her career, supporting UNA-USA staff and members in their efforts to make the future brighter is her greatest inspiration.
Rachel holds a B.S.B.A in International Business from American University and an MBA in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University.
Ramakrishna was a Visiting Professor of International Law at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He taught at Harvard Law School and at Boston University, Yale University, Brandeis University and Boston College Law Schools. He was an elected Life Member of the US Council on Foreign Relations and served on a number of Boards. Ramakrishna is part of number of scientific assessments and was one of the Lead Authors of IPCC, Fifth Assessment.
In his role as the Director and Head of UN Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia, he is responsible for implementing UN activities in the subregion comprising China, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea, Russia and Japan and also provided secretariat services to the North East Asia Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation.
Douglas James Roche, OC, KCSG (born June 14, 1929) is a Canadian author, parliamentarian, diplomat and peace activist. Roche served as Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton—Strathcona from 1972 to 1979 and for Edmonton South 1979–1984.[1] In 1984, he was appointed Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament, a position he held until 1989. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada on September 17, 1998, where he served until June 13, 2004. Currently he resides in Edmonton, Alberta.
Hina Shamsi (@HinaShamsi) is the director of the ACLU National Security Project, which is dedicated to ensuring that U.S. national security policies and practices are consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human rights. She has litigated cases upholding the freedoms of speech and association, and challenging targeted killing, torture, unlawful detention, and post-9/11 discrimination against racial and religious minorities. Her work includes a focus on the intersection of national security and counterterrorism policies with international human rights and humanitarian law. She previously worked as a staff attorney in the ACLU National Security Project and was the acting director of Human Rights First’s Law & Security Program. She also served as senior advisor to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions. Hina appears regularly in the media and has been quoted as a national security expert by numerous outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, and Reuters, and has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, ABC News, and the BBC. She is the author and coauthor of publications on targeted killing, torture, and extraordinary rendition, and has monitored and reported on the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. She is also a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches a course in international human rights. Hina is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Northwestern University School of Law.
Chris Whatley joined HALO in June 2019. Prior to HALO, Chris served as Executive Director of the United Nations Association of the United States. Chris previously served as Deputy Executive Director of The Council of State Governments (CSG) and began his career as a field-based officer for the International Republican Institute (IRI), leading programs in Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
Source: https://www.halotrust.org/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/
Robert is an award-winning investigative reporter focusing on national security at NBC News and a writer at NBCNews.com. He has been a member of the National Model United Nations Advisory Council since 2009.
He has covered international relations and national security at NBC News for more than three decades. During that time, he’s reported on the rise of Al Qaeda, having produced the first network TV report on the group in January 1997. He was also the first network TV producer to bring TV cameras inside CIA HQ in 1993. He’s reported from more than 50 countries, winning more than 40 national and international journalism awards.
In 1994, he and William E. Burrows co-authored Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World, all or significant excerpts of which were translated into seven languages. He taught Television Writing at NYU for 17 years.
He is also a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School and a member of the President’s Advisory Group at Seton Hall University, his alma mater where he received a B.A.
in Communication Arts.
NMUN Advisory Group
Eileen grew up in Brewster, New York and now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. She graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 2014 with a BS in Political Science and a BA in International Studies. She now works in White Plains, New York as a cash flow analyst for Danone North America. In her spare time, Eileen loves to travel, read, crochet, and pick things up that her cat, Ivy, knocks down. She served as NY DSG in 2025, her 11th year volunteering with National Model United Nations.
Eugene Chen is a Senior Fellow at the NYU Center on International Cooperation where his research focuses on the interplay of substantive policy, intergovernmental politics, and bureaucratic processes at the United Nations.
Prior to joining NYU, Eugene worked in the United Nations Secretariat in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti, the Department of Field Support, and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Earlier in his career, Eugene served as lead negotiator for the US government at the United Nations General Assembly on subjects including peacekeeping financing and cross-cutting policy issues, the scales of assessments, and institutional reform. Eugene is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds both a BA in Government and an MPA from Cornell University.
Danielle was born and raised in Ireland but currently lives and works in Gibraltar. She graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) in 2015 with a BA (International), completing her Erasmus year at Université Libre de Bruxelles. Following this, she obtained a Master in Common Law from UCD and went on to train as a Barrister. She was awarded her Barrister at Law degree in 2020 and was subsequently called to the Bar of Ireland. Upon qualifying, Danielle worked in human rights and immigration law. She has since cross-qualified and was called to the Bar of Gibraltar in 2023. Her legal practice encompasses Gibraltar, Irish, and EU law, with a focus on litigation and regulatory matters. In her spare time, Danielle is a board member of a large Irish not-for-profit, YAP Ireland. She also enjoys travelling the world, reading, and, spending time with friends and family. Danielle started her involvement in National Model United Nations in 2014 and served as NY SG in 2025.
Chris is a Foreign Affairs Officer with the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. He holds a bachelor's degree in Public Policy & Administration from St. Petersburg College and a Master of Arts in Global Environmental Policy from the School of International Service at American University. Chris served for seven years as a volunteer with NMUN•DC and served as SG his final year there.
Rebecca is Senior Lecturer of Political Science and Director of Engaged Learning Curriculum in the Office of Engaged Learning at Baylor University. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and her B.A. at Wheeling Jesuit University. She has served as the advisor of the Model United Nations team since her arrival at Baylor in Fall 2010, and in addition to Model United Nations, she teaches courses in constitutional law, politics and religion, and political philosophy. Her research interests in politics and religion span normative, theoretical, and empirical approaches. As Director of Engaged Learning Curriculum in the College of Arts & Sciences she works with fellow faculty to develop courses that help students develop skills to orient and apply classroom learning toward broader public goods.
