Board

Meet the Board of Directors

Lacey Champion

President and Treasurer 

Lacey has worked alongside disadvantaged communities for over a decade and has her Master of Arts in Social Change. She has worked in international development creating and running programs abroad in places such as Honduras, Guatemala, and of course, Nepal. In 2015, Lacey lived in Salleri at the girls hostel for 6 months and led programming around women’s leadership and empowerment for the girls living at the hostel. In her day job, she is Senior Director of Community Engagement for a transportation non-profit, spearheading the community outreach initiative developing programming and advocacy for alternative transportation options for some of Denver’s most disadvantaged communities.

Sean McKeever

Board Member

Sean spent his childhood in the mountains of Colorado where he grew his love of nature and mountain living. In high school, Sean traveled to Nepal with an organization called Students Shoulder to Shoulder, which has been a partner of The Small World for over 15 years. On this trip he got to know Karma and Sonam and their efforts to help and empower their communities. Over the next ten years, he and Karma stayed in touch while Sean went to Tufts University to pursue a degree in Computer Science and later a career in data and analytics. In 2022, he became more serious about finding ways to be helpful and Karma was the first person he called. After working together on a project towards the end of 2022, Sean and The Small World decided to work together even more closely and with great enthusiasm Sean joined the board. He is excited to be of service to the mission and the community at large.

Maria Struble

Vice President and Secretary

Maria is a Professor of Politics and Government at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado.  Her research work examines issues of migration and human rights violations, and she has traveled and worked with refugees in Nepal on several occasions.  Her book The Politics of Bodies at Risk, examines what happens at the intersection of state security and human insecurity, with specific focus on Tibetan refugees and survivors of trafficking in human beings in Bulgaria.  A native born and raised Bulgarian, she is happy to call the United States her second home.  In her spare time, she volunteers at the community gardens in Gunnison, is an avid runner and reader, loves to travel into the backcountry with her two boys, her husband and Oli, their dog baby.  She is excited to be joining the Board of The Small World USA and help create meaningful connections inside the United States with potential donors, benefactors and community members dedicated to the goal of making the world a more equitable, just and welcoming place for all.

John Morberg 

Board Member

John is a senior business executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience in finance, legal, and operational roles across for-profit companies. He has served as CEO, CFO, and General Counsel for public companies and private equity-backed organizations, leading complex turnarounds, strategic growth initiatives, and transactions exceeding $500 million. He has led two initial public offerings, a large going-private merger recapitalization, over 40 M&A transactions (both acquisitions and divestitures), and raised billions in complex financing and debt facilities. Industries and companies include eight years at PETCO, a decade at Garden Fresh Restaurants—a national restaurant chain where he served as CEO with over 6,000 employees—and most recently, as CFO at publicly traded Lifecore Biomedical, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) in the injectable pharmaceutical industry. 

In addition to his executive roles, John has served as a director for two private, for-profit companies, bringing deep governance, strategic, and financial insight to the boardroom. His expertise bridges financial strategy, legal compliance, investor relations, and organizational transformation, all grounded in a commitment to accountability, integrity, and results. John’s nonprofit experience began in the late 1980s and 1990s when he served on the boards of two nonprofit organizations. He now feels a strong pull to re-engage in the nonprofit sector as a way to give back to communities, especially in areas aligned with his personal passions. Since 2003, John has traveled to Nepal ten times, completing seven treks in the Solu-Khumbu region and developing a deep, lasting connection with the country and its people. He has visited the Hope Home for Girls regularly since 2013 and has built a long-standing friendship with Karma Sherpa and his family. His wife Kathy and sons Wesley and Thomas have also traveled to Nepal multiple times, sharing in the experience and connection. John and Kathy have been married for 32 years.

Karma Sherpa

Board Member and Co-founder

Karma is a native of the village of Deku in the Solukhumbu region of Nepal. Karma’s life was transformed by the gift of education and support from an American trekker. After experiencing the revolutionary power of education in his own life, he decided to dedicate his life to providing the same opportunities for others. In 2006 he founded The Small World in Nepal to address the needs of girls and communities in his home district. Read a message from Karma here.