Our Board of directors

Sarah McDonald Albus is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Open Door Sports (ODS), which was created in 2017 to provide inclusive sports and recreation opportunities for children, teens, and young adults with disabilities. Prior to launching ODS, Sarah spent sixteen years as the Research Manager for Worldwide ERC®, the trade association for the relocation industry.

A lifelong athlete, Sarah earned her B.S. from Vanderbilt University, where she was a standout Division I soccer player, helping lead the Commodores to two SEC Championships. She received All-SEC, All-SEC Tournament, and All-Academic SEC honors, played with the U.S. National B Team in 1993 and 1994, and still holds Vanderbilt's career and single-season assist records. She later earned her M.A. from The George Washington University and is an United Soccer Coaches licensed coach.

Through years of coaching youth sports, Sarah recognized the lack of quality athletic opportunities for children with disabilities. That realization, combined with her family's personal experience raising one of their four daughters, Hannah, who has cerebral palsy and is legally blind, inspired her to create Open Door Sports. Under Sarah's leadership, ODS has grown into a thriving nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that every child, regardless of perceived physical or intellectual ability, has the opportunity to experience the joy, confidence, friendships, and sense of belonging that come from being part of a team.

Joe is Global CSR, Social Impact, and Sustainability at Tik Tok and has over twelve years of international development experience and has led community development programs on five continents. Joe received his B.S. from Northwest Missouri State University in Spanish, Business, and International Relations. Joe is a firm believer in using the power of sport to initiate positive and impactful social change all over the world and has been an avid soccer player since he was three years old.

A Detroit native, Nancy is a graduate of the American University, Washington College of Law (JD) and the University of Dayton (BA). After law school in DC, Nancy spent several years in Chicago litigating medical malpractice cases. She happily returned to DC in 2001 and is currently a full-time in-house attorney with an insurance company specializing in education. Nancy also has extensive experience with Non Profits and has been very active with Montgomery County Public Schools for years. Nancy is thrilled to bring her in-house legal and insurance expertise to the ODS Board. From the moment she learned of ODS and its mission, Nancy knew she wanted to be a part of the organization, to bring her passion for youth sports and provide access to quality sports for all kids. Nancy lives with her family in Kensington, Maryland.

Jim Kuhnhenn is a Washington-based writing/editing consultant who spent half of his 40-year journalism career in Wash­ington as newspaper bureau chief, editor and congressional and White House correspondent. He worked for newspapers in Pennsyl­vania and Missouri before The Kansas City Star put him in charge of the newspaper's Washington reporting team in 1993. In 1998 he became the political editor for Knight Ridder Newspapers, directing coverage of the last two years of the Clinton presidency. He joined the Associated Press in 2006 as a national political writer, covering the 2008 financial crisis and, two years later, the AP assigned him to the White House, where he focused on the economic recovery, jobs policy and immigration. In his current work, he has served as a writer, editor, and consultant for a variety of clients, including Pricewaterhouse Coopers, United Health Care, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Markle Foundation, Learning Heroes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Third Way. He is past president of the Washington Press Club Foundation and a former member of the congressional Standing Committee of Corre­spondents. Kuhnhenn was born in Chile and speaks Spanish fluently. He is a grad­uate of the Pennsylvania State University. He and his wife, Louise, live in Washingon, DC and are the parents of two adult sons.

Denis C. Mitchell is an experienced trial attorney and focuses his practice on representing individuals and families who have suffered life-altering injuries or who have lost love ones. He has obtained many multi-million dollar verdicts and recoveries for his clients, including the largest verdict in a medical negligence case in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He has handled cases before multiple state and federal courts. Mr. Mitchell's fellow plaintiffs' lawyers recognized him as D.C.'s Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2014. He has also been consistently recognized by Best Lawyers® and SuperLawyers® as a leading practitioner in medical malpractice since 2011. Denis has held leadership positions in several organizations, including President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. and Chair of the D.C. Bar Tort Law Section. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Trial Advocacy at the Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Mitchell is fluent in Spanish, having spent a year teaching and studying in the Economics Department at the University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain. Mr. Mitchell is also an active volunteer at his parish, coordinating service projects and coaching youth sports.

A Montgomery County native, Mai Nguyen is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and Connelly School of the Holy Child. While at Holy Child, Mai volunteered extensively with multiple DC-based nonprofits and developed her lifelong commitment to service to others.  She is entering her third decade as a public servant, currently holding a leadership role at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration overseeing the development of policy related to generic medicines.  Mai is proudest of her role as mother to three teenage sons, one of whom is an ODS athlete.  When she is not working or cheering for her sons at their sporting events, Mai reads voraciously, plays competitive American mah jongg, and backpacks the Appalachian Trail.