Valerie Stephanie Anderson was employed since 1985 by Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP as Executive Assistant to Theodore W. Kheel, lawyer, environmentalist and philanthropist and one of America’s most distinguished professional mediators. The New York Times declared Kheel “the most influential peacemaker in New York City in the last half century” and Business Week dubbed him the “Master Locksmith of Deadlock Bargaining.” Kheel is also a co-founder of the PuntaCana Resort in the Dominican Republic. Today he is well-known as an environmentalist with a strong commitment to sustainable development and preserving biodiversity, and Valerie now serves as General Manager of Kheel’s Nurture Nature Foundation in its new executive offices at Kheel Tower, 315 Seventh Avenue in New York City. Visit www.nurturenature.org.

In 1992, Valerie accompanied Mr. Kheel, as part of a team of journalists to the Rio “Earth Summit” and again to the Women’s Conference in Beijing in 1995. At both conferences she met with and interviewed diplomats, NGO’s and other high-profile attendees and wrote articles of interest for the United Nations newspaper of record, the Earth Summit Times, of which Kheel was the publisher. She also assisted in arranging and hosting many events in connection with the Christo “Gates” Central Park exhibit for which Kheel, as the artist’s attorney, obtained permission from Mayor Bloomberg for the exhibit to be displayed in Central Park, as well as numerous environmental conferences at Mr. Kheel’s resort in the Dominican Republic. See www.puntacana.com

Valerie previously served with the Jamaica Mission to the United Nations, and has had tremendous exposure to the diplomatic field and political debates within the United Nations organization which was a great learning experience and which has resulted in her continuing interest not only in conflict resolution but environmental issues involving climate change.

She has modeled for Jamaican designers in Jamaica and New York and was a runner up in a Miss Jamaica beauty contest before locating to the United States. Her grandfather, the legendary “Doc” Anderson acquired a number of properties in Jamaica, including the family home “Sunnyside” which her father, Ronald Anderson inherited and where she grew up before it was developed into housing lots. Her mother, Eulalee Gilfillian-Anderson, was Jamaica’s leading tennis player in her time. Her brother, Neville, is the well-known restaurateur and co-owner of the Café-Aubergine Carriage House restaurant in Moneague, St. Ann and its sister establishment at the Courtyard in Kingston, Jamaica.

Valerie attended Wolmers Girls’ School in Kingston, Jamaica and New York University. She has also pursued foreign language courses in New York and Paris. Her primary residence is in New York and she maintains a vacation condo at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. She loves to travel and has done so extensively within the United States and throughout Europe, Canada, China, Latin America and the Caribbean.