ABOUT

Stratsi Kulinski is the founder and President & CEO of NewU University, the first 3-year Bachelor’s degree college in the US. He previously held various positions with companies in media, telecom, and finance living and working all around the globe prior to finding his passion for higher education.

A graduate of the inaugural class of students at the American University in Bulgaria with a BA in Business Administration, he also served as the first alumni president of that university, where he passionately and tirelessly worked to improve governance on the Board of Trustees, fired up student, alumni, and donor engagement, and steered his Alma Mater in the right direction as President. During that time he was also on the Board of the Fulbright Commission in Sofia.

President Kulinski earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Viktoriya V. Zotova is a business professor with expertise in financial management, macroeconomic policy analysis, and climate change disclosures. She earned her PhD from the R. H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, focusing on capital markets, global capital flows, and climate change regulation, and is an ALM candidate at Harvard University with a focus on Legal Studies. She also has a certificate in Sustainability and Climate Risk from the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

For nearly a decade, Dr. Zotova has worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), primarily on capital flow policies and regulations. She has several publications under the IMF banner, including multiple issues of the Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER) and a book chapter on China’s capital flows liberalization.

Dr. Zotova is one of the founding members of NewU University where she manages financial operations as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Dr. Zotova has contributed to media outlets on macroeconomic and financial topics, including cryptocurrency, and has presented her research at conferences in the US and abroad.

India Ingersoll is a native Washingtonian and graduate of Pepperdine University. She was the Executive Director of The Fare Connection nonprofit which sought to battle food insecurity in the D.C. area.

India has a BA in Economics. While in college she served as the CFO of her chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and was a member of the Pepperdine Investing Club.

Since moving back to DC she has been working as a growth professional in the tech space for a shopping platform that helps creators monetize their content and in the nonprofit space.

Kenneth Ward is the Executive Director of College Bound, Inc. in Washington, D.C. As a Fulbright Memorial scholar in Japan and a seasoned D.C. educator and administrator for 15 years, he has been instrumental in creating academic and personal enrichment programs for students, such as the Young Ambassadors program. He has participated in the International Teacher Exchange program where he studied best practices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia and has also volunteered in Ethiopia.

Mr. Ward holds a Bachelor's degree in communications from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he matriculated on a Pogue Scholarship and a Master’s degree in education from Trinity. Mr. Ward participated in the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program at Georgetown and was bestowed the 2012 Harvey Elliott Beech Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina for his outstanding personal achievements. He serves on the Advisory Board at UNC for the Learning and Writing Center and the Friends of the Library. He is an active member of the Perry Community Center Services Center and Achievement Prep boards.

S. Mitchell Pinkowski is a devoted educator with a distinguished academic career, and a founding faculty member at NewU University. He attended Deerfield Academy and earned honors degrees from Emory University (B. A.) and St. John’s College’s Graduate Institute (M.A.). He now serves on the English faculty at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, teaching college writing, rhetoric, and literature. 

Mitch built his career teaching in college prep schools in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region, and as an Academic Director to the Great Books summer programs at Amherst and Haverford Colleges. He served as an English Department Head for 10 years, a teacher of AP Literature for 15 years, and held various positions as both a mentor of newer faculty and as a pioneer of new educational trends. He has spoken to national and regional audiences on “How to Revolutionize the English Classroom” and has a lengthy professional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion work, to experiential education, and to engagement in the local community.

As a global citizen, Mitch has lived and taught in Japan, lived for five years in Saudi Arabia as a youth, and has traveled to more than 30 countries and all 50 of the United States.