New Members Join the Fregenet Foundation Board of Directors

On June 10, 2012, the Fregenet Foundation welcomed two additional members to its Board of Directors, increasing the total number of directors from to six to eight. The two new Board members are Hirout Dagnew and Peter Davids. Their commitment to the Fregenet Foundation and their skills will complement an already effective and diverse board, and bring additional expertise in education policy and law.

Hirout Dagnew was born and raised in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia and has resided in California for the past thirty-five years. Hirout completed her undergraduate education at UCLA, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She then pursued graduate studies at Pepperdine University, where she received a Master\’s degree in education. Hirout also completed a two-year graduate program in Marriage, Child, and Family Counseling.

In addition to her academic achievements, Hirout has extensive hands-on experience in childhood education. She is a National Board-certified teacher specializing in middle-childhood years, gifted students, and English language learners, and has worked as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles since 1986. Hirout is a member of the National Science Teachers Association, the California Gifted Association, and the Association of Supervision and Curriculum. She leads workshops and trainings for parents and teachers, mentors and coaches other teachers, and has served on education advisory boards.

Peter Davids is an attorney at the law firm of Jones Day, which has more than 2,400 lawyers in 35 offices around the globe. Peter received a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master\’s degree in history from U.C. Berkeley, where he received the Heller Fellowship in History. He also graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he served as executive editor of the Stanford Law Review. He then served as a law clerk to a United States Court of Appeals judge in Pasadena, California for a year.

Peter has been a practicing attorney since 2004. In fewer than eight years of practice, he has developed a reputation as a highly effective appellate advocate in the federal and state court systems. Among other acknowledgments, he has been recognized by Super Lawyers magazine as a Northern California ìrising starî in appellate litigation in 2009 and 2010 and a Southern California ìrising starî in appellate litigation in 2012. Peter has demonstrated a commitment to legal representation of the indigent through his pro bono representations, especially in the area of immigration law.

The Fregenet Foundation will benefit from the recent addition of Hirout and Peter to the Board. The ideas, perspectives, and energy they will bring to the Fregenet Foundation will make an already strong Board even stronger, supplementing and deepening the directors\’ expertise in business, IT, education, medicine, community literacy, and law.

Best wishes,

The Fregenet Foundation