Queer Princeton Alumni Officers

  • Veronica Pejril *88

    PRESIDENT

    Veronica Pejril's focus at Princeton in the 1980s was computer music composition. As a graduate student, she was an Assistant Master for First (née Wilson) College, and the pianist for the Princeton University Jazz Ensemble. Her research led to her founding a small business, Black Squirrel Software, to distribute her software to musicians and composers. Veronica has been a member of Queer Princeton Alumni’s Board of Trustees since 2021, and has served as President since March 2024. 

    Veronica lives in Greencastle, Indiana, where she teaches digital music production at DePauw University. In 2019, she was elected to Greencastle’s City Council, making history as Indiana’s first openly-trans elected official. In addition to her service to QPA, she serves on the Executive Board for Indiana Youth Group, the oldest continually-operating LGBTQ+ youth center in the nation. An outspoken advocate for the rights of queer and gender diverse young people, Veronica’s community activism has been featured by regional and national media. 

    Veronica was selected to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the 2020 and 2024 Democratic National Conventions and serves as President of the Indiana Stonewall caucus. She is a parent of twin 30-something sons, an avid gardener and mom to three cats.

  • Matt Błażejewski ‘17

    VICE-PRESIDENT

    Matt Błażejewski currently works as a Senior Admissions Officer at Wellington College Education (China) – Hangzhou, where he has served as a bilingual ambassador (English/Mandarin) for families from the first point of contact through the enrolment process since August 2019. Before arriving at Wellington College Education, Matt worked in educational consulting, counseling high school students in Zhejiang Province, P.R.C. and Singapore as they applied to colleges and universities in the US, UK, and Canada. 

    Matt graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a BA in East Asian Studies and a certificate in Translation and Intercultural Communication. He was a recipient of the 2017 Spirit of Princeton Award, a Princeton in Asia fellowship, and a finalist for the Class of 1901 Medal. He is an Alumni Schools Committee ambassador for the Princeton Alumni Association of Shanghai, a Princeton Internships in Civic Service alumni mentor, and Country and Area Advisor in China for Princeton in Asia. Matt has been a member of Queer Princeton Alumni’s Board of Trustees since 2022 and has served as Vice President since August 2024.

  • Michael Solis ‘07

    SECRETARY

    Michael Solis is the Executive Director of Writers & Books, a literary arts nonprofit and independent bookstore in Rochester, NY. For two decades, he has worked globally with UN agencies, international NGOs, and local organizations on strategies that advance locally led solutions. Previously, he launched Trócaire’s Nairobi-based Localization Hub and directed post-Ebola recovery in Sierra Leone. A Henry Luce and George Mitchell Scholar, Michael studied at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and holds master’s degrees in Human Rights Law and Gender & Development. He is also the award-winning author of Deficient, a queer YA sci-fi novel, and an advocate for inclusive storytelling and LGBTQ+ representation.

  • David Jackson '87

    TREASURER

    David Jackson is the Founder and Chairman of Solitaire Partners, an investment management and advisory firm focusing on real estate, hospitality, consumer, media, financial service, and health and wellness sectors. The principals of Solitaire have developed real estate properties of over 150 million square feet with a total value of over $15 billion, while having advised on transactions in the sectors listed with a value of over $30 billion. Mr. Jackson is also leading an initiative focusing on ways to increase participation of people of color, women and LGBT+ executives in the asset management industry.

    Prior to founding Solitaire, he was Chief Executive Officer of Istithmar World, the government of Dubai’s $25 billion sovereign wealth fund. In the nonprofit sector, Mr. Jackson is on the Board of Directors of Queer Princeton Alumni as well as on the Board of Directors of CBAP, a group of alumni of color and their allies calling for Princeton University to establish an applied research center to combat racism. Mr. Jackson previously sat on the Board of Advisors for the Yale School of Management. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Yale University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Princeton University.

Queer Princeton Alumni Directors

Haley Choueiri ‘25

Haley Choueiri is a first-generation college graduate from North Carolina and a member of Princeton’s Class of 2025. She earned her degree in Psychology with a minor in Gender & Sexuality Studies, focusing on community care and allyship identities. Her senior thesis examined the ways that cisgender, heterosexual allies often fail queer and trans communities, not to dismiss allyship, but to clarify how we might move forward together in pursuit of more collaborative, justice-driven movements.

During her time at Princeton, Haley served as President of Pride Alliance and worked two years as an intern at the Gender + Sexuality Resource Center, where she helped organize events and contribute to more inclusive programming. Whether through small community collaborations or campus-wide events, her work always aimed to create spaces where people could show up as their full selves.

Haley is currently pursuing a Master of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing an LGBTQ certificate with the goal of becoming a therapist supporting LGBTQ+ youth. She is a proud Lesbian and is married to fellow Class of 2025 graduate, Reema Choueiri, and together they have a beloved little maltipoo named Nyra (who Haley tries to bring everywhere she goes). Outside of her academic and professional life, Haley enjoys pop culture deep dives and creative projects like knitting or collaging.

Shawn Cowls ‘87

Shawn Cowls co-founded FFR/Princeton BTGALA (now known as QPA) with Dick Limoges ’60 in 1986 while he was a junior at Princeton. He was instrumental in designing the QPA-funded post-doctoral fellowship in LGBT+ studies with the Princeton University Society of Fellows, a position which has flourished. Two applicants for this fellowship went on to become tenured faculty at Princeton, where they continue to contribute to LGBTQ+ scholarship at the highest levels.

Shawn spent 15 years as an actuary, and since 2004 has worked as a financial advisor, serving individuals, families, and small businesses based in New York City. Shawn also loves helping alumni connect and organizing great networking events in NYC and worldwide, partnering with many other LGBTQ alumni associations.

Dev Dabke *23

Dev Dabke has served on the QPA Board since 2023 and is proud to represent Princeton’s graduate students. He’s currently an industry mathematician in the greater New York City area, where he lives with his dog, Macaroni. Outside work, you can catch him walking around a dog park. He graduated with his Ph.D. from Princeton's Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics under the supervision of Bernard Chazelle.

Chris Douglas ‘88

Christopher H. Douglas is the founder and CIO of C.H. Douglas & Gray Wealth Management, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm managing over $200 million. A graduate of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, Chris earned his MBA from Wharton.

Now a Democrat, in 1996 he founded the Indiana Log Cabin Republicans—Indiana’s first out LGBTQ+ political organization. Following media coverage of his advocacy, he was fired from his corporate job, fueling his commitment to advancing civil rights. Chris went on to found the Indy Rainbow Chamber of Commerce and co-found Indiana Equality, both spearheading policy work that helped establish LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections across Indiana.

He serves on the Indiana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and his firm gives over 10% of revenue to community causes, especially those supporting LGBTQ+ youth, the arts and general equity. Chris is developing “Idyllbend,” a cultural and conservation retreat in rural Indiana, as part of his continued work to bridge civic and cultural divides.

Ioana Ferariu ‘15

Ioana Ferariu graduated with an independent concentration in Cognitive Science and is a poet, dancer, cultural organizer, product strategy consultant, and user experience researcher based in Europe. Guided by a deep care for community-based practices, a passion for storytelling / cultural memory, and a commitment to thoughtful tools & governence, Ioana looks forward to (re)connecting with the Princeton community via this role and supporting the much needed work of the organization.

Sweta Haldar ‘12

After receiving their WWS degree from Princeton (with a focus on health policy and public health), Sweta Haldar continued their public health studies with a Master's in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They work as a health policy expert and public health advocate in Washington, DC, with a focus on Medicaid, racial and LGBTQ+ health disparities (particularly for the trans and nonbinary population) and behavioral health and substance use disorder policy. 

In the past, they've worked as a Medicaid policy specialist at the Congressional Research Service, the Urban Institute and the Kaiser Family Foundation . They currently work as the policy lead on LGBTQ+ health policy at Families USA, a health care consumer advocacy organization. In their free time, Sweta loves to read about history, animals, postmodernism, aliens and the 20th century novel and to dog sit their friends' puppies. They are an avid weaver, embroiderer and textile artist and are actively involved in the LGBTQ+ organizing community in DC, as a former board member of the DC Center for the LGBT Community and a current board member of KhushDC, a social support organization for South Asian LGBTQ+ people.

Cass Kim *25

Cass Kim is a recent MSE graduate in Chemical & Biological Engineering, currently transitioning into Princeton's Teacher Preparatory Program for a certification in teaching high school chemistry. While a graduate student, they founded the current iteration of Out in STEM (the affinity group for queer and trans STEM students) and served as an LGBT Peer Educator. Elsewhere on campus, they were a member of the Playhouse Choir, performed with Theatre Intime and the Princeton University Players, and volunteered with the Carl A. Field Center's Community House After-School Program. They are honored to have been selected for the 2025 QPA Award this past May and look forward to collaborating with the rest of board.

Sam Kosai *25

Sam Kosai recently earned their Master’s degree and is currently completing a PhD in Sociology here at Princeton. Their research focuses on access to gender-affirming healthcare, and they are passionate about making health systems more inclusive for marginalized populations.

On campus, you’ll find Sam at Coffee Club, marveling at the seasons (they’re a SoCal native), or playing fetch with their dog on Poe Field. Sam now splits their time between Princeton and North Carolina, where they live with their partner and her two kids.

Marita Martiney,  h'85, s'85, p'14, k'90

Marita Martiney believes it is critical that allies are visible and active alongside the LGBTQ+ community especially when the community is marginalized and their fundamental human rights are being threatened. As an ally representative, she is interested in growing QPA allyship as well as building partnerships with other Princeton affinity groups to develop strength in numbers.

Ariel Rogers ‘08

Ariel Rogers is a full-time Professor at the Hispanic Serving Institution, Dominican University, in River Forest, Illinois and an adjunct at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. A Princeton graduate of the Class of 2008, she graduated with a BSE in Mechanical Engineering, played on the Women's Basketball Team, and rowed for the Princeton Crew Team. She is currently the CEO and co-founder of a startup company that is building a B2B business within the wearable tech space for high heel shoes that can transition down to a flat shoe. She believes in the importance and responsibility of leaving a space better than you found it.

Connor Ross ‘07

Connor Ross received his B.A. in Religion from Princeton in 2007, having played oboe in the campus orchestra while writing his Junior Paper and Senior Thesis on topics pertaining to Buddhism, Animism/Shamanism, and gender/sexuality. Although he was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, he has enjoyed the privilege of living in a wide range of locations across his adult life; previous places of residence include Tokyo, Japan, where he taught music for several years after graduating from college, Tuntutuliak, Alaska, a remote Yup’ik (Alaska Native) community in which he conducted ethnographic fieldwork on climate change and local subsistence (hunting/fishing/gathering) practices, and Tucson, Arizona, where he served as a policy analyst on AI/AN experiences of the U.S. juvenile justice system. These experiences would converge in inspiring Connor’s course of doctoral study in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, where he recently successfully filed his dissertation on the Japanese pre-trial detention system. He currently lives with his partner and their adorable French Bulldog in Irvine, California.

Deborah Saint-Phard, 87 P25 MD OLY

Deborah Saint-Phard is a Haitian immigrant raised in Maryland, Kansas, Alabama, and Louisiana before attending Princeton from 1983-1987. At the University, Deborah excelled academically and sang with the Tigressions, which was the highlight of her undergraduate life. She also prioritized her athleticism and became an All-American women's shotput thrower in college, participating in the 1987 World Championships and the 1988 Summer Olympics. She is the proud parent of two daughters, one of whom just graduated from Princeton's Great Class of 2025 and the other enrolled at Swarthmore College. Deborah now lives in Colorado, where she works as a physician who specializes in promoting girls’ and women’s health.

Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ‘91

Rabbi Gil Steinlauf is the Executive Director of the Center for Jewish Life and the Jewish Chaplain at Princeton University.  Prior to coming back to Princeton, he received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1998, and served for over 20 years as a congregational rabbi, most recently  in the Washington, DC area as the Senior Rabbi at Adas Israel Congregation. In addition to his rabbinic work, Gil was the founder and director at the Hineni Institute for LGBTQ Jewish Leadership, where he educated and inspired cohorts of LGBTQ Jewish professionals to take on leadership roles proudly as LGBTQ Jews in Jewish organizations. 

Timothy (TJ) Williams ‘08

T.J. Williams is an award-winning author, attorney and media executive. After writing an impressive short story in his freshman year at Princeton, a creative writing professor connected T.J. with famed literary agent Luke Janklow; T.J. signed, and his first novel Five Minutes and 42 Seconds was released in June 2006 while still a junior at Princeton. The book was an Essence book club selection and the Wendy Williams Show book of the month. Williams was named to Kirkus Review magazine's 25 authors to watch and was star reviewed in both Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. He was nominated for an African American Literary Association of America award for best fiction and a Lambda legal award for best debut.

After a short stint in ghost-writing, T.J. joined Atria Books as a marketing executive specializing in Urban books. While working on the launch of Cash Money Content, he noticed a substantial demand for quality content and branding in the urban media space and pivoted into urban marketing. After becoming an attorney, T.J. started TJ Williams Media, a full service urban entertainment marketing and representation firm. TJ Williams Media has worked with some of the top executives and companies in the urban space including: So So Def, Radio One/TV One, Cash Money Content, Sony, Apple, The Apollo and I Heart Radio.