Valerie Stephanie Anderson was employed since 1985 by Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP as Executive Assistant to Theodore W. Kheel, lawyer, environmentalist, philanthropist and one of America’s most distinguished 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 was also well known as an environmentalist with a strong commitment to sustainable development, and she later served as General Manager of his Nurture Nature Foundation in New York. www.nurturenature.org

In 1992, Valerie accompanied Kheel, as part of a team of journalists to the Rio “Earth Summit” and in 1995 attended the Women’s Conference in Beijing where she met with and interviewed diplomats and NGO’s and wrote articles of interest for the United Nations newspaper of record, the Earth Summit Times.

Valerie assisted Kheel in coordinating many events in connection with the artists’ Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Gates – Central Park” exhibit.  Kheel, who represented the artists, was instrumental in obtaining permission from Mayor Bloomberg for the work of art which was widely hailed as a huge success and generated a tremendous amount in revenue for the City, www.nnyn.org.  She also helped organize environmental conferences at the PuntaCana Resort & Club in the Dominican Republic which Kheel co-founded.  www.puntacana.com,   www.puntacana.org

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 which was a great learning  experience and 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, 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 Jamaican restaurateur.

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.