Meet the Board

Devon Alisa Abdallah, PhD, is a Pacific Northwest native of Lebanese descent on her father’s side and a fourth generation Arab American. A community activist, Devon is a founding member and past Secretary of the Arab American Community Coalition -- a civil rights organization founded after September 11th, a past Board Member of the Japanese American Citizens League – Seattle Chapter, an active member of the JACL’s Civil Rights Committee, and a past Advisory Board member of the Iraqi Community Center. She is also the former Community Organizer (2002-2003) for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington having worked primarily worked on civil rights issues related to the aftermath of September 11th. Devon has spoken on numerous panels, workshops and forums on civil rights and the Arab community since September 11th. Devon enjoys research, is a published author, and holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University – California School of Organizational Studies. Her true passion is experiencing life through traveling and has traveled and lived throughout the world. Most recently, Devon visited Lebanon and her father’s family’s village. She was the first Abdallah to visit in 3 generations.

Melissa Campos Avelar was born in Santa Clara, CA in 1980 and spent most of her childhood in Gilroy, CA. As a teenager, her family moved to Federal Way, WA, where she continues to reside with her parents. She received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Washington in 2002 with a major in Political Science. After taking a year off to work full-time at a General practice law firm in the Seattle area, she attended Seattle University School of Law where she served as the president of the Hispanic Organization for Legal Advancement and was a staff member on the Seattle Journal for Social Justice. During this time, she also worked with national minority voting rights expert, Professor Joaquin Avila, on an article involving noncitizen voting rights and the First amendment’s right to petition clause, which will be published in the Stanford Journal for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. She also wrote a policy brief on noncitizen voting rights in the Los Angeles area, which will be published in the UCLA’s Chicano Law Review. Melissa is currently a staff attorney for the non-profit organization, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, visiting detained individuals at the Northwest detention center, providing know-your-rights presentations and direct representation on certain cases. Her current activities include community advocacy, choir, piano, and spending time with her baby-Kitty Gus.

Alaric Bien was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, the son of immigrants from Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces. Despite warnings to the contrary, he developed an unhealthy interest in social service from his mother, who for many years worked in Oakland Chinatown. Spending a summer in Taiwan piqued his interest in Chinese language and culture, and he went on to pursue a degree in East Asian Studies, in addition to psychology. He improved his Mandarin (and picked up just enough Cantonese to get himself in trouble) in his junior year abroad at Chinese University of Hong Kong, and another year in Taiwan after graduating from UCLA. Alaric has a master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Hawaii. He completed his clinical internship at Boston’s Center for Multicultural Training Psychology, and was also a fellow in pediatric neuropsychology at Boston City Hospital. For many years, Alaric worked in community mental health – in Seattle, Boston, Honolulu and Los Angeles. Since 2001, he has been Executive Director of Chinese Information and Service Center, in Seattle, WA where he is passionate about bridging cultures, communities and generations and creating opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed.

Paulina Lopez Bermudez is a 32 yr old Ecuadorian who has been in Seattle for almost five years. In her home country of Ecuador, she developed community projects for indigenous populations, mainly focusing on education, social, environmental justice and human rights issues. She developed a clinical externship program which enabled young students from law, social work, and other disciplines to carry out voluntary public service in rural indigenous communities. Paulina first came to the United States when she was invited to participate in a Human Rights Program offered by Columbia University’s School of International Affairs. She has since earned an LLM- Masters Degree in International Human Rights from St. Thomas University. She currently works as the International Services Program Manager of Seattle-King County Red Cross, where she created an innovative volunteer language program for use in Seattle neighborhoods. She is very active in her community and is serves on the boards of the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle and the South Park Action Agenda. She is also the recipient of the 2007 Seattle Human Rights Award.

Andrea Caupain immigrated from British Guyana, South America, to the United States in 1986. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Political Economics from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Further, in 2001, she earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration, also from The Evergreen State College. Civically, Ms. Caupain has maintained leadership positions within various organizations, including the Guyanese Heritage Foundation, where she has furthered its mission to increase public awareness of Guyanese contributions and culture. Ms. Caupain is the Associate Director at the Central Area Motivation Program, a social service agency serving the Central District of Seattle where she has worked since 2003.

Tuseef Chaudry is originally from New York and moved to the Seattle area with his family in 1994. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Seattle University in Criminal Justice and is currently pursuing a Master's in Public Administration. He is active on campus and serves as Vice President of Strategic Planning in the Graduate Student Council. Among his hobbies, Tuseef enjoys community service projects and is the National Career Development Coordinator for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (age group 15-40). Tuseef's ethnic heritage is Pakistani. He aspires to live by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community motto, "Love For All, Hatred For None."*

Halima Dahir is a recent graduate of Seattle University’s nursing program. She emigrated from Somalia at age 11 and is now twenty two years old. Halima is a registered nurse in Harborview Medical Center’s acute care unit. She understands the language & cultural barriers affecting immigrants & refugees in both her professional and personal life. Halima has acted as an interpreter for her parents and patients and finds access to be one of the greatest barriers, and opportunities, facing immigrant & refugee populations. She has volunteered with the Somali Community Center and the Refugee Women’s Alliance. She is also a graduate of the Western Institute for Organizing and Leadership Development for Refugees (WILDIR), which focuses on leadership development, skill building, cross-cultural analysis and political education.

Ting-yau Li is an immigrant from The People's Republic of China and a graduate from the University of Washington. He operated a consulting business from 1983 to 2007 and has been a Seattle resident since 1975.

Shankar Narayan is Policy Director at Hate Free Zone, a Seattle-based organization that advances the fundamental principles of democracy and justice at the local, state, and national levels by building power in immigrant communities, in collaboration with key allies. Prior to Hate Free Zone, Shankar worked at Preston Gates and Ellis LLP, focusing on technology and intellectual property law. He has also worked at the

ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project, the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre in New Delhi, and Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria, South Africa. Shankar is a board member of the Asian Bar Association of Washington, past president and board member of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, and a past co-chair of the Ethnic Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee of the King County Bar Association. Shankar is also a former co-chair of the Detention Watch Network, a national coalition of organizations seeking to reform the U.S. immigration detention system, and is currently serving a two-year term on the Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Board for the City of Seattle. Shankar holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.S. in Economics from Bates College. He was born in the former Soviet Union, grew up in the U.S., the Maldives, India, the former Yugoslavia, Thailand, and Russia, and enjoys climbing, travel, and writing.

Lan Pham is the Executive Director of the Asian & Pacific Islander Woman & Family Safety Center, a grassroots non-profit organization providing community outreach, education, organizing and client support services relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. She is a member of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and a current board member of the University of Washington – School of Social Work Practicum Advisory Council. Ms. Pham has over 15 years of experience working with immigrant and refugee communities on issues ranging from ESL, citizenship and employment discrimination, to reproductive health and interpersonal violence. Her professional background includes community education, program development and management, and community-based social health research (culturally relevant screening for domestic violence in a healthcare setting; teen pregnancy and STDs prevention for Vietnamese youth; risk reduction strategies focused on dating violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and STDs for youth of color). Ms. Pham has a Master of Social Welfare and is completing her Master of Public Health at the University of Washington.

Mohamed Ali Roble is a political refugee from Somalia. He has lived in Seattle for 13 years and has 3 children and 5 sisters living around the world: Canada, Sweden, Ethiopia and England. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Husbandry from Somali National University and a Master Degree in Education and Counseling from Antioch University in Seattle. Mohamed has worked for Seattle Public Schools for 12 years and currently works as the Family and Community Engagement Liaison in the Department of Equity, Race and Learning Support. His work focuses on developing strategies to align family and community engagement initiatives that promote student learning preparedness. Prior, his role at the School District was to train bilingual/cultural para-educators and tutors on best practices for instructing refugee students and improving their academic performance. He also provided a wide range of direct support services such as parent workshops and translation and interpretation services. Finally, Mohamed sits on the boards of several social agency and non –profit organizations.

Jesús Ybarra Rodríguez was born in Mexico and currently serves as the Leadership Development Coordinator at the Nonprofit Assistance Center . He is married with three children and lives in Everett, WA He received a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy from the University of Texas at El Paso, a Master of Arts degree in Romance Languages & Literature from the University of Washington in Seattle. He also completed coursework in Early Childhood Education towards a PhD. He was interim Director of Sand Point Childcare Center while a student at UW and has worked extensively with Latino parents and their children on early childhood issues for over 20 years. He has coordinated leadership programs in the Seattle area for the Northwest Area and the Annie E. Casey Foundations and trains multicultural community leaders in community organizing, civic engagement, asset mapping, capacity building, cultural awareness and competency, grassroots fundraising, juvenile justice reform, Latino immigration and reform efforts, bilingual education and Latino health services delivery.

Mngstab Tzegai is a site coordinator for the Refugee Federation Service Center, which works closely with the Department of Social & Health Services to provide job training and ESL studies. Mngstab came to the United States in 1979 as a student, studying Agricultural Economics at Langston University in Oklahoma. Born in Eritrea, Mngstab is now very involved in his community, Boulevard Park, and has served on the Highline Foundation Board of Directors, the HOPE VI Resident Leadership Council, and he is also a Multicultural School Readiness Trusted Advocate.

Abdul Yusuf is a small business owner in the Rainier Valley. His business, an auto dealership, was greatly affected by light rail’s construction along Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Abdul is also the Chairperson of the recently created African Business Association and is very active in the Somali community. Abdul was born in Somalia, and has experience working for the International Red Cross as a Refugee camp manager. He was responsible for reuniting families in war torn areas. Abdul attended South Seattle Community College where he studied software development. He has used his skills to help fund raise for Abubkr, a Somali non-profit, and also helped his fellow business owners in the valley work with Sound Transit to more than quadruple the disturbance money for light rail construction’s economic impacts.

Meetings

The board will be meeting the first Wednesday of every month from 6:15 - 8:15 p.m., in room 370 of Seattle City Hall.

If you would like to attend a meeting and require an interpreter, please contact Yemane Gebremicael at 206-684-8076 or by email at Yemane.Gebremicael@seattle.gov. We can only guarantee interpretation services if the request is made at least 5 days in advance of the meeting.

Mission, Committees and Workplan

This information will be updated soon!

Publications and Resources

This information will be updated soon!