Leadership

Marie Ziegler has extensive board leadership experience. She is chair of QCR Holdings, a $9.6 billion bank holding company and chair of UnityPoint Health. Ms. Ziegler is a community leader, serving as past chair of the River Bend Food Bank and past chair of UnityPoint Health – Quad Cities. She has served on several other nonprofit boards. She is the retired Deputy Financial Officer of Deere & Company, where she had responsibility for global treasury operations, risk management, pensions, investments, and investor relations. There she also served on the Chairman’s Global Leadership Council. Her expertise includes strategy, finance, and communications. Ms. Ziegler graduated with a degree in Accounting from St. Ambrose University, earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa, and became a Board Leadership Fellow with the National Association of Corporate Directors. Elected to the Royal Neighbors board in 2018, she is a member of the governance and investment committees.

J Lynn Anderson is a seasoned financial services leader with 40 collective years of experience in life insurance, property & casualty insurance, and banking. Prior to committing to board work full-time, Ms. Anderson was an executive with Nationwide (a Fortune 100 company). She served as President and CEO of Nationwide Bank (a $6.5B digital bank) and before as SVP of Property & Casualty Product and Pricing over a $13B direct written premium portfolio. Ms. Anderson previously served on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, a $124B asset, government-sponsored entity, as board chair. She is a board member for the Women Presidents Organization (WPO), a 2000+ member, peer advisory model supporting women entrepreneurs where she chairs the Governance Committee. A graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in accounting, Ms. Anderson holds the designations of Certified Public Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, Chartered Life Underwriter, Chartered Financial Consultant, Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter, and Associate in Reinsurance. Appointed to the Royal Neighbors board in 2022, and elected to the board in 2023, she is a member of the audit and compensation committees.

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 $1.8 billion employee-owned company, and is chair of the governance committee and a member of the 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 compensation committee and a member of the executive and governance committees.

Tracey Gray-Walker is an accomplished CEO and NACD-certified board member of United Veterinary Care and Royal Neighbors of America. She is a financial and marketing expert within both regulated and unregulated industries. Ms. Gray-Walker has many years of P&L management, operations, and financial experience with AXA a Global Fortune 500 company with international exposure. She has proven experience in the areas of stakeholder relationship management, collaborative negotiations, inclusive leadership, and pragmatic thinking.

Ms. Gray-Walker is the CEO of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Trust. Her business strategies include unifying the positioning of the Trust. She has focused on enhancing member experience, improving productivity and efficiencies while creating additional value for members. Within her first year, she completed the merging of two individual insurance Trusts, while simultaneously launching an Association Health Plan for a 106,000-member organization.

Prior to joining the AVMA Trust in 2019, Ms. Gray-Walker spent over twenty-five years in the financial services industry. Most recently, she led the successful relaunch of a business that generated double-digit growth and enhanced client engagement and satisfaction levels.

Ms. Gray-Walker’s broad-based experience includes an extensive list of leadership roles. She has a proven ability to drive business results, assess performance, coach, and motivate others. Ms. Gray-Walker serves on the Investment Committee for the Association Health Insurance Company (AIC). She is a former board member of The Executive Leadership Council and served on AXA’s 401(k) Board.

During Ms. Gray-Walker’s career in Financial Services, she received various awards and recognition, including but not limited to one of The Network Journal’s “Twenty-Five Influential Black Women in Business,” and she was featured in Profiles in Diversity Journal as one of its “Women Worth Watching.” Ms. Gray-Walker was also included among Uptown Professional’s prestigious list of “Top Executives in America” and a Women of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Greater New York.

Before joining AXA Equitable, Ms. Gray-Walker spent four years with Deloitte & Touche (formerly Touche Ross & Co.) as a senior auditor. Elected to the Royal Neighbors board in 2021, she is chair of the audit committee and a member of the investment committee.

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.

Edwina Payne is a seasoned leader with over 35 years of experience in life sciences, consumer packaged goods, and banking. Ms. Payne has held Chief Information Officer and senior executive roles at Fortune 200 companies, overseeing large-scale IT operations, enterprise strategy, and M&A initiatives across complex, highly regulated global businesses. Her expertise spans strategic planning, risk management, compliance, and regulatory oversight, making her a valuable advisor on how technology impacts business transformation, efficiency, and cyber risk. Ms. Payne currently serves on the boards of Sunrise Banks, a socially responsible bank in Minnesota, as well as the Task Force for Global Health, a non-governmental organization that works to improve health in over 150 countries. She is also on the board of directors for the Atlanta chapter of NACD and I chair the advisory board for Successive Digital. She was formerly a board member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, a $150B asset, government-sponsored entity. Edwina also serves on multiple non-profit boards. Ms. Payne is a graduate of Purdue University with a B.S. degree in Computer Technology. Elected to the Royal Neighbors board in 2025, she is a member of the audit and compensation committees.

Zarifa Brown Reynolds is the President and CEO of fraternal life insurance organization, Royal Neighbors of America, which is dedicated to insuring lives, supporting women, and serving communities. Zarifa is a mission-driven, transformational executive with a record of team building, talent development, and developing and executing strategies to profitably grow businesses.

Prior to joining Royal Neighbors in 2023, Zarifa was an executive at Guardian Life Insurance Company (Guardian) where she led a national sales, account management, and underwriting team.

Before joining Guardian, Zarifa was Head of Corporate Development at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) where she was responsible for corporate mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, strategic venture capital investing, and corporate strategic projects.

Prior to joining TIAA, Zarifa was a partner at Greenberg Traurig, an international law firm. Zarifa started her legal career at Shearman & Sterling in New York City.

Zarifa is a board member of American Council of Life Insurers (Forum 500), KIPP Miami, and the Harvard Law School Association of New York City. She holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Brown University. Zarifa is on the Royal Neighbors board, she is a member of the executive, governance, and investment committees.

Married to Cedrick and mother of two children, Zarifa splits her time between the Quad Cities community and South Florida. She enjoys golf, tutoring children in math, and spending time with her family.

Janet Sichterman is a strategic business leader skilled in developing leaders and new business opportunities. As Senior Vice President at Kent Worldwide Consumer Brands Division, she is responsible for Innovation, Research & Development, Quality, and Regulatory. Her prior roles at Kent included executive leadership for Corporate Innovation and the Human Resources and Communications teams. Ms. Sichterman previously held executive roles in North American sales, global human resources, and organizational development with Bandag, Incorporated. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Central College, and a Master of Business Administration, Master of Accounting, and Master of Organizational Leadership degrees from St. Ambrose University. Ms. Sichterman was an honoree for the Athena International Women’s Leadership Award in 2019. She currently serves on The Waldinger Corporation Advisory Board, the lift Women’s Foundation Board, and previously served on St. Ambrose University Trustees, the Muscatine Art Center Foundation, Boards for UnityPoint Health – Trinity, Greater Muscatine Community Foundation, United Way, and many more. Elected to the Royal Neighbors board in 2020, she is chair of the board and executive committee and is a member of the compensation and governance committees.

Shawn M. Wright is a partner at Blank Rome LLP, where she Co-Chairs the Firm’s Litigation Department, offering comprehensive legal counsel to clients spanning diverse industries. Leveraging extensive expertise as a litigator, Shawn focuses primarily on white-collar criminal defense, with an emphasis on cases involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international anti-bribery and anti-corruption statutes, corporate and accounting fraud, public corruption, government contracts, and complex civil litigation.

Throughout her career, Shawn has represented corporations, boards of directors, and corporate executives in a wide array of internal and governmental investigations, audits, risk assessments, parallel proceedings, and multifaceted commercial litigation. Their experience includes navigating relationships with enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other authorities. In addition, Shawn provides strategic guidance to tax-exempt organizations, advising boards on corporate governance, compliance, and internal controls, and serves as outside general counsel for several nonprofit entities.

Beyond her legal practice, Shawn is deeply committed to community and professional service. She holds board positions at the National Capital Bank of Washington, which delivers financial services to local enterprises and individuals, and participate as a board member for My Sister’s Place—a domestic violence shelter in D.C.—as well as The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., D.C. Legal Aid Society. Shawn is also a member of the following governance and compliance organizations: National Association of Corporate Directors, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, and Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. Additionally, Shawn is affiliated with the William Bryant Inn of Court and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Shawn earned their J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Howard University. Wright received her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, and her B.A., cum laude, from Howard University. Elected to the Royal Neighbors board in 2023, she is chair of the governance committee and a member of the audit committee.