Nominations
Outside directors serving on the Royal Neighbors of America board of directors are elected each year by the Society’s adult Beneficial Membership through electronic ballot. Voting for the outside directors offers members a direct voice in the governance of the Society.
The governance committee, with the exception of any member who is up for reelection, act as the nominating committee and select a slate of candidates to be submitted to the board of directors for election.
For the 2026 slate of candidates, the Governance Committee is recommending that Alejandra Evans and Lara Metcalf each be nominated for re-election for three-year terms. Each candidate meets the qualifications set forth in Article III, Section 3 of the Society’s bylaws.
The biographies of each director up for election can be found below:
Alejandra Evans – South Haven, MI
Alejandra Evans’ dynamic leadership in the insurance industry spans three decades across multiple disciplines, including consulting, business strategy, financial performance, risk management, sales, and marketing. She retired from USI Insurance Services, a leading brokerage firm, in March of 2021 as Senior Vice President of Risk Management. Ms. Evans currently serves on the board of directors of The Davey Tree Expert Co., an employee-owned company, and serves as the Chair of its governance committee and a member of its audit committee. She received her B.A. in Business Management from Loyola University of Chicago. Elected to the Royal Neighbors board in 2021, she is chair of the governance committee and a member of the compensation committee.
Lara Metcalf – Chestnut Hill, MA
Lara Metcalf has deep experience using innovative investment capital approaches in the public and private sectors to drive better outcomes for low-income and vulnerable populations. She believes market-driven solutions must play a role in solving our nation’s most pressing problems, so after 18 years in the fixed-income markets at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse, she dedicated the second half of her career to the mission economy. Ms. Metcalf is currently Chief Portfolio Officer of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm supporting early-stage, high-impact startups. She oversees the global team finding, funding, and supporting 18-20 new social enterprise investments annually in the US, Africa, and Europe. As part of her role, Ms. Metcalf serves on the board of Collective Energy, a solar development company focused on making sure nonprofit community health centers have reliable to clean, affordable power even when the grid goes down; Open Supply Hub, a nonprofit open source digital tool mapping the 10 million supply chain facilities globally to support workers rights; and Common Goal, a non-profit using soccer, the most popular sport globally, to drive positive change in communities and help youth play, learn, and thrive.. She also sits on the board of Longfellow Investment Management, a 100% employee-owned MWBE asset manager focused on minimizing portfolio volatility to achieve long-term investment returns.
In the impact investing space, Ms. Metcalf supports early-stage impact venture funds on the Investment Committee of TSEF: The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund, MIT Solve Innovation Futures Fund, and as an advisor at Zeal Capital Partners. She previously played a leadership role in building the Pay for Success field during her five years as the Managing Director of Social Finance, an innovative 501c3 social enterprise. Ms. Metcalf led the creation of $80M+ in project finance impact investments around issues ranging from refugee and immigrant employment to child welfare, to maternal and child health, to recidivism, while also acting as CFO/COO. Before Social Finance, she was the Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Associate Dean for Operations at the Harvard Kennedy School where she oversaw the $150M operating budget, finance, human resources, and facilities teams. She previously worked in traditional capital markets roles for 18 years at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse. She received her B.S. in Finance and Information Systems from Boston College and her MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Appointed to the Royal Neighbors board in 2022, and elected to the board in 2023, she is chair of the investment committee and a member of the audit committee.