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Jessica Peale Douglas ’96, J.D., is a federal public defender for the central district of Illinois based out of Peoria, Ill. She was a bilingual English and Spanish-speaking practicing attorney and partner at the Schaefer Shapiro LLP law firm in Omaha, Neb., which specializes in the areas of criminal defense, federal defense, juvenile law, and litigation. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Occidental College and her J.D. at Creighton University School of Law before working as an assistant Douglas County public defender (2004-2007), assistant federal public defender for the District of Nebraska (2008-2011), and a felony prosecutor in Washington County, Neb., (2015). She is a member of the Illinois, Omaha, Nebraska State, and American Bar Associations. She has served on the LFA Alumni Advisory Board since 2006, where she was communications chair in 2014-2015. She lives with her family in Germantown Hills, Ill.

Charles T. Cooper ’96 is currently the Executive Director, Private Wealth Management, at the J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Chicago, Illinois. Charlie’s background includes undergraduate (University of Colorado) and graduate (University of Chicago) degrees in economics and finance as well as service in the U.S. Navy. Charlie served on the LFA Alumni Council (AC), of which he was Chair 2011-2013, and is now a member of its successor organization, the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB). As the AC Chair, Charlie was an invited guest at the LFA Advancement Committee meetings. In addition, he has been invited to attend Board of Trustees meetings since 2011 as the alumni representative from the AC and AAB at which he made regular reports on alumni organization activities. Charlie and his family live in Lake Forest.

Jim C. Cowart ’69 has been Principal of Cowart & Co LLC and Auriga Partners Inc. and their predecessors, private capital firms that provide strategic planning, competitive analysis, financial relations, and other services, since 1991. He has been Chairman of Clinical House MedTec GmbH since 2004. He founded QualPro Corporation, an aerospace components manufacturing company, and served as its Chairman from August 1999 to May 2001. From January 1993 to November 1997, he was the Chairman and CEO of Aurora Electronics Inc. Previously, he was a founding general partner of Capital Resource Partners, a private investment capital manager. During a 30+ year career in general and financial management, Jim has served as chairman, partner, director, and other various positions in investment banking, venture capital, and private equity with such firms as Lehman Brothers, Shearson Venture Capital, and Kidder, Peabody & Co.

Jim grew up in Canyon Texas and, after entering as a junior, graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1969 as a National Merit Scholar. After earning his B.A. in computer sciences from Pomona College in 1973, he moved to Washington D.C., where he worked with Congress to produce an electronic voting system that expedited the way votes were counted in the House of Representatives. After Washington, Jim attended the Harvard Business School from which received his M.B.A. with distinction in 1977. For the past four years, Jim has appeared as a guest lecturer in the AP Economics classes at LFA each spring.

Jim resides in Laguna Niguel, Calif., with his wife and fellow Pomona graduate, Janet. They have a son, Jefferson, and the entire Cowart family are avid Anaheim Ducks fans.

For more than three decades, Gloria Harper P'93 has served the Academy and her students with enthusiasm, energy and love. She began her LFA journey as a faculty member and administrator and continued with volunteer service as a Trustee and now as a Life Trustee.

Her leadership has extended beyond LFA to the Golden Apple Foundation, the Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center and the Global Youth Leadership Institute.

Dr. Ahmed Farag P'22, '24 is an American Board Certified Diagnostic Radiologist, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and President of Diagnostic Imaging Specialists of Chicago. A native of Montreal, Farag has lived and practiced in Chicagoland for nearly 20 years.

He received his bachelor’s degree in human physiology from McGill University in Montreal, where he also earned his MD and Master of Surgery degrees. He performed a rotating medical/surgical internship at the Royal Victoria and Montreal General Hospitals and completed his residency in Diagnostic Radiology at McGill’s Royal Victoria Hospital, where he was Chief Resident. Farag completed his fellowship training in Thoracic Imaging at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University in June 2000.

In July 2000, Farag joined Northeast Radiology Associates, where he provided mammography and other diagnostic imaging and counseling services to the patients and physicians at Lake Forest Hospital and its imaging facilities. From 2003 through 2009, he served as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Radiology Department at Lake Forest Hospital, while also consulting to Siemens Medical Solutions on Dual Source CT Imaging in 2007/2008. In 2009, Farag opened new office space on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and launched Diagnostic Imaging Specialists of Chicago, working to provide comprehensive, fully-digital Women’s Imaging services – mammography and ultrasound – to Chicagoland physicians and their patients.

From 2009 to 2011, Farag served as an independent consultant to Virtual Radiologic Corporation. He was also a principal owner and medical director of SKAN National Radiology Services from 2011 to 2015. Farag has an additional interest in the genetics associated with breast cancer and has lectured on breast cancer genetics for Myriad Genetic Laboratories.

Farag is a senior member of the Society of Thoracic Radiology and a member of the American College of Radiology and the Radiologic Society of North America. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Primo Center for Women and Children and is Board President at Lake Forest Country Day School. Farag previously served on the Friends of Prentice Board at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

He and his wife, Melissa Zimmermann-Farag, are the parents of Lake Forest Academy student Isabella Farag ’22.They live in Lake Forest.