Leadership

Kristyn Peck is the Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA). Since joining LSSNCA in 2020, Kristyn has quadrupled its revenue and tripled its staff. Kristyn led LSSNCA’s response to the largest humanitarian crisis in a generation, providing refugee resettlement services to 4,500 Afghan Allies in the D.C. metro area in fiscal year 2022. She currently serves as the vice chair of the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) board of directors.

Prior to joining LSSNCA, Kristyn was the founding CEO of West Michigan Partnership for Children where she piloted an innovative performance-based child welfare model that decreased the length of stay of children in foster care and decreased the number of days children spent in residential settings. Kristyn also served as the associate director of children’s services at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) overseeing national family reunification and foster care programs for unaccompanied children and chairing the Vulnerable Minors Working Group of Refugee Council USA.

Kristyn has testified before Congress on protection needs for unaccompanied children as well as submitting testimony for Congressional hearings, and represented USCCB at the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Annual Consultation meetings in Geneva. She has served on several delegations to identify protection needs of refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, and women and unaccompanied children in Central America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. She also deployed to Malaysia where she developed standard operating procedures for a gender-based violence prevention program within the Burmese refugee community.

Kristyn was the recipient of the 2023 Innovation in Social Work Award from the University of Maryland, and LSSNCA was the 2022 recipient of Lutheran Services in America’s Micah award for its work advancing equity and justice.

Keep up with Kristyn at @peck_kristyn.

Dr. Mamadou Sy has 20 years of experience at LSSNCA and serves as Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Sy oversees LSSNCA's refugee and immigration services. Since joining LSSNCA in 2004, he has helped resettle more than 10,000 refugees in Maryland and Virginia. A graduate of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, Dr. Sy holds a Ph.D. in Egyptology, and is the author of several peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Sy is a former member of the Maryland Governor's Commission on African Affairs and member of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services' Cultural and Linguistic Competency Advisory Committee. He also chaired the Workforce Development Subcommittee Baltimore Mayor’s New Americans Task Force and the French Translation LEP Subcommittee, Baltimore Mayor’s Office of International Affairs. He currently serves on the Baltimore Immigration Summit Committee. He holds certifications as a cultural and linguistic competence facilitator, human rights consultant, and anti-trafficking consultant as well as being Board of Immigration Appeals accredited.

Raymond Rawlins is LSSNCA’s Chief Financial Officer. Ray sits on the Lutheran Financial Management Association (LFMA) Board of Directors, and was previously the chief financial officer of the City of Mount Rainier, Mount Rainier, Maryland. He also served as senior vice president of budget and grant administration at the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, and held several finance C-suite and leadership positions throughout Washington, D.C., including at The Salvation Army, The Corporate Council on Africa, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Ray holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of New Haven. 

As Chief Development Officer at Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area since July 2024, Nikki Salzman leverages extensive nonprofit, philanthropic, and communications experience from nearly 15 years working at faith-based institutions. Prior to joining LSSNCA, she served as director of major gifts at HIAS, where she engaged with donors across the United States and helped them support the work of welcome through financial gifts. She previously held the position of communications manager at Washington Hebrew Congregation, overseeing communications and public relations. Her career began with in programs and public relations at Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A.

Nadya Andrusik, LICSW, LCSW-C, Executive Director for Children, Youth, and Family Services spent more than a decade working in Washington, D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency's Office of Youth Empowerment as a social worker, supervisor, and program manager. She worked to improve the trajectory for youth aging out of foster care and highlighted how foster youth are at higher risk for becoming victims of trafficking. Nadya then moved into the Child Protective Services, followed by working in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and as the Director of Women's Shelters and Family Programs at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. Nadya graduated with her Master of Social Work in 2007 from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. 

Hameed Girowal is LSSNCA’s Executive Director of Refugee and Immigrant Services. He joined LSSNCA in 2019 shortly after relocating to the United States in 2017 through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program. Since joining LSSNCA, he successfully led the Woodbridge location for several years, and facilitated the resettlement thousands of Afghans with humanitarian parole, SIVs, and refugees in Northern Virginia. Prior to his role at LSSNCA, Hameed contributed to various U.S. Army projects in Afghanistan for 10 years, amassing a wealth of experience in both domestic and overseas settings, leading programs, and site management.