Secretariat Bios

Whitney E. Thompson is excited to serve as the Secretary-General for NWMUN-Portland 2018. Whitney has been involved in Model UN for over 15 years. She has attended high school and collegiate conferences as a delegate, and has held a variety of staff positions.  Whitney graduated from Western Washington University, in Bellingham, WA, after completing majors in Human Development: Self-Expression and Therapeutic Healing and Linguistics, and a minor in Women's Studies.  At WWU, Whitney was involved in Model UN through the International Affairs Association, for which she held various officer positions. Whitney works in the insurance industry and lives in Tacoma, WA. She volunteers annually with The Festival of Trees (benefiting Mary Bridge Children's Hospital). Whitney is a member of the Tacoma Fiber Crafters' Guild and enjoys her recreational bowling league. 

Rohit Chandel is excited to join the Executive Secretariat as the Director-General of NWMUN-Portland 2018. He has previously served on NWMUN's staff three times and staffed at other conferences at UBC. He is currently majoring in Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Rohit's interest in MUN stems from his interest in mining and natural resource and their implications on world affairs. He currently works with Suncor Energy in Alberta, Canada at their Base Mine with the Reclamation and Projects group where he is in involved in planning reclamation projects for the mine and other mine support projects such as power lines, coke stockpiles etc. 

Outside of MUN, Rohit is a huge fan of anime, manga, F1 and enjoys travelling and trying out new cuisines. He has an eclectic music taste, which ranges from Swedish power metal to ska to J-pop. He is also a big fan of single-player story-driven games and is, therefore, bad at online games.

Stephen Rimbakusumo is excited to be joining the NWMUN-Portland Executive Secretariat as Chief of Staff. Stephen has either attended or staffed over 20 MUN conferences since first getting involved in the Spring of 2014. Stephen has many interests, ranging from security issues such as cyber-crime and cyber-terrorism to the history and politics in former Soviet states. Stephen is graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in History, and is currently employed as an engineer at Amazon.com Inc. Outside of MUN and work, Stephen enjoys outdoor activities, the occasional computer game, and learning foreign languages.

Gillian Lait is looking forward to joining the Executive Secretariat as the Assistant Secretary-General for Conference Services. She began her staffing experience by serving as Merchandise Manager at NWMUN-Seattle 2016, and is excited to continue in her 7th year of involvement with in Model UN. She started her freshman year of high school, first attending Western Washington University's high school conference, which she later had the opportunity to run as Secretary-General this past spring. Gillian currently is studying Elementary Education at Western, utilizing many of her skills accrued in Model UN. Outside of Model UN, Gillian works at Costco and directs an a cappella group.