Three IRAP staff members are working in the Jordan office. One is seated in front of a laptop, two are standing - one appears to be speaking, while the other is reviewing documents.

Our Team

Executive Team

A headshot of IRAP Executive Director Becca Heller. She has collarbone-length wavy black hair with pops of white. She wears long pearl drop earrings and a black sweater.

Becca Heller

Chief Executive Officer

A headshot of IRAP Executive Director Becca Heller. She has collarbone-length wavy black hair with pops of white. She wears long pearl drop earrings and a black sweater.

Becca Heller

Chief Executive Officer

New York City, USA

Becca Heller is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of IRAP. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work with IRAP, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Charles Bronfman Prize, the American Constitutional Society David Carliner Public Interest Award, a Skadden Fellowship, a Draper Richards Kaplan Fellowship, an Echoing Green Fellowship, a Gruber Human Rights Fellowship, the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut Annual Community Service Award and a Dartmouth College Martin Luther King Jr. Emerging Leader in Social Justice Award. She was also named Foreign Policy’s Citizen Diplomat of the Year, Politico’s Women Rule Summit Ambassador, one of the Christian Science Monitor’s “30 under 30” change makers, and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Becca was a visiting clinical lecturer at Yale Law School from 2010 to 2018, and has also been honored as an Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service Lecturer at Cornell University and as a speaker at the Chicago Ideas Week Edison Talk.

Becca’s interest in the legal challenges facing refugees began on a trip to Jordan during the summer after her first year in law school. During her stay, she visited with six different refugee families; each of them identified legal assistance as their most urgent need. Having just completed her first semester in Yale Law School’s Immigration Legal Services clinic doing asylum work, Becca believed that law students could assist refugees applying for resettlement. She returned to Yale and, together with Jon Finer, Mike Breen, Steve Poellot, and Kate Brubacher, founded IRAP in 2008.Becca received her J.D. from Yale Law School in May 2010.

During law school, she participated in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, the Immigration Legal Services Clinic, and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. She served as an Articles Editor for the Yale Journal of International Law, and received a Coker Fellowship to teach legal writing to first year law students. She also received the Charles G. Albom Prize for excellence in the area of judicial and administrative appellate advocacy in connection with a Law School clinical program.

Prior to law school, Becca lived and worked in Sub-Saharan Africa for two years, including one year as a U.S. Student Fulbright Scholar in Malawi. She graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2005. While in college, she was also the recipient of Campus Compact’s National Student Humanitarian Award.

Sharif Aly

President

Sharif Aly

President

Washington, D.C.

Sharif Aly is the President of IRAP. Prior to joining IRAP, he was the CEO of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), an international humanitarian relief and development organization that operates in 40 countries across the world, including the United States, and served there from August 2017. As CEO, Sharif oversaw a program portfolio of over $250 million in active programs dedicated to providing relief and sustainable development solutions to support marginalized and disenfranchised people out of poverty. Sharif has also led IRUSA in expanding its national partner network with over 200 community-based organizations across the country. Sharif has been a key leader in transforming the international federation’s strategy and business model and is one of the driving forces in pushing the organization to focus on tackling climate change, livelihoods, refugees, and displacement, particularly surrounding conflict and disaster. Sharif has been on multiple humanitarian and program missions over the past decade including most recently in Turkiye after the recent earthquakes and engaging in the Syrian refugee crisis in the South of Turkiye and in Lebanon among many other missions. An attorney by background, he worked in litigation prior to fully dedicating his career to the nonprofit sector. He is certified in Fundraising Management through the Lily School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and holds multiple certifications in leadership and management. Sharif currently serves on the American Red Cross National Diversity Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors of Refugee Council USA and InterAction.

A black and white headshot of IRAP Deputy Director Nisha Agarwal. She has short black hair and smiles brightly.

Nisha Agarwal

Deputy Executive Director of Impact

A black and white headshot of IRAP Deputy Director Nisha Agarwal. She has short black hair and smiles brightly.

Nisha Agarwal

Deputy Executive Director of Impact

New York City, USA

As Deputy Executive Director of Impact at IRAP, Nisha oversees the departments of Policy, Communications, U.S. Litigation, Legal Knowledge and Training, and Climate Displacement.

Previously, Nisha served as Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs since the beginning of the de Blasio Administration, building landmark initiatives like IDNYC, the City’s municipal identification card, and Cities for Action, a national advocacy coalition of local elected officials. For the second term of de Blasio’s administration, Nisha took on the role of Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor to boost civic engagement among New Yorkers and build DemocracyNYC’s efforts on immigration, people with disabilities, and justice involved communities. A child of immigrants from India, she became a public interest lawyer out of Harvard Law School, leading the Health Justice Program at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest in 2006. She later was the deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Popular Democracy and the executive director of the Immigrant Justice Corps.

Nisha received her A.B., summa cum laude in Social Studies, in Harvard College in 2000; a British Marshall Scholarship in Oxford University, St. Antony’s College in 2003; and a J.D. at Harvard Law School in 2006, where she received a Skadden Fellowship.

Nisha is a member of the New York bar. She enjoys gaming, travel and cats.

A headshot of IRAP Deputy Director Amy Taylor.

Amy Taylor

Deputy Executive Director of Program

A headshot of IRAP Deputy Director Amy Taylor.

Amy Taylor

Deputy Executive Director of Program

New York City, USA

Amy Taylor is Deputy Executive Director of Program at IRAP. In this role, Amy oversees the Legal Services; Pro Bono; Evaluation and Learning; Digital Products, Resources, and Engagement; and Global Partnership Development departments.

Prior to joining IRAP, Amy was Co-Legal Director at Make the Road New York (MRNY), an organization that builds the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice. Amy led a team of fifty attorneys and advocates providing legal services to immigrant New Yorkers. At MRNY, Amy also built a robust federal litigation docket challenging some of the harshest attacks on immigrant communities including the termination of DACA, the proposed citizenship question on the census, and the new public charge rule. Prior to MRNY, Amy founded the Equal Rights Initiative at Legal Services NYC (LSNYC),  a civil rights project challenging discrimination facing low-income clients through litigation and policy advocacy. Amy also ran the Language Access Project at LSNYC for many years. Before LSNYC, Amy was the Director of Policy at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. 

Amy received her J.D. from the CUNY School of Law. Amy received the Felix Fishman award from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest for her unwavering dedication to social reform, equal justice, and language access in New York City. Amy is fluent in Spanish. 

Amy is a member of the New York State bar.

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Nicoleta Paladi

Executive Program Associate

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Nicoleta Paladi

Executive Program Associate

New York City, USA

Nicoleta Paladi is the Executive Program Associate at IRAP. In this role, Nicoleta supports and assists the Deputy Executive Directors in their core programmatic responsibilities.

Prior to joining IRAP, Nicoleta worked on a project investigating AI in US manufacturing at the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business and also researched digital human rights at the Pulte Institute for Global Development, both at the University of Notre Dame. She also consulted the National League of Cities on a project investigating innovation capacity-development. Before moving to New York, Nicoleta worked at the Council of Europe in Romania on a project focused on cybersecurity legislation in the MENA region. 

Nicoleta holds a Master’s of Global Affairs from the University of Notre Dame, with a concentration in Sustainable Development. She speaks Romanian, Russian, English and French. Nicoleta is a Women Deliver young leader and youth volunteer, with a track record of implementing diverse social justice projects in Eastern Europe and representing Moldovan youth at global political conferences. She originates from the Republic of Moldova.

Programs and Impact

Development

Operations and Finances

Organizational Culture

Our Board

Board of Directors

A headshot of IRAP board member Taryn Higashi.

Taryn Higashi (Chair)

Executive Director, Unbound Philanthropy

A headshot of IRAP board member Taryn Higashi.

Taryn Higashi (Chair)

Executive Director, Unbound Philanthropy

Taryn Higashi is the Executive Director of Unbound Philanthropy, which she joined as the first staff member in 2008. The Foundation has co-founded several vibrant institutions, such as the US-based Pop Culture Collaborative, and was one of the first supporters of the United We Dream Network, which in 2020 awarded Taryn their first ever Believer Award. In 2019, Unbound was awarded the Mover and Shaker Award for Bold Peer Organizing from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Prior to Unbound, Taryn managed the migrant and refugee rights portfolio and was Deputy Director of the Human Rights Unit at the Ford Foundation, where in 2003 she co-founded the Four Freedoms Fund (FFF), a collaborative that has re-granted more than $150 million to state and local immigrant organizations. For her work conceiving and building the FFF Taryn, along with Geri Mannion of the Carnegie Corporation, was given the 2008 Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking from the Council on Foundations. Taryn is a Board member of the International Refugee Assistance Project  (IRAP) and a former Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Migration Initiative at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), and former Co-Chair of the Board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR.)  She lives in New York City with her husband and son. 

A headshot of IRAP board member Robert J. Abernethy.

Robert J. Abernethy

President, American Standard Development Company and Self Storage Management Company; Managing Director, Metropolitan Investments, LLC

A headshot of IRAP board member Robert J. Abernethy.

Robert J. Abernethy

President, American Standard Development Company and Self Storage Management Company; Managing Director, Metropolitan Investments, LLC

Los Angeles, CA

Robert J. Abernethy is President of American Standard Development Company and Self Storage Management Company and Managing Director of Metropolitan Investments, LLC. For well over two decades, Robert served as a director of Public Storage, where he served as Chairman of the Audit Committee and has been a member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties since 1988. He is a member of the Self Storage Association’s Hall of Fame and was Director of the Self Service Storage Association where he served as Past National Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, and Past Regional President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. He is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of Lambda Alpha International. He has been licensed as a California General Building Contractor since 1975. 

Robert is a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, a trustee of Davidson College, and a trustee of Loyola Marymount University. He is a member of the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, a member of the Advisory Board of the Truman National Security Project, a member of the Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Advisory Council for the Center for Synergy, Innovation, and Bioengineering, and the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows. He is a member of the Harriman Society, Harvard Partners, Human Rights Watch, the UCLA Chancellor’s Cabinet and UCLA Arts Board of Visitors and on the Advisory Council of the School of Advanced International Studies Washington and Bologna. He serves on the executive committee and as Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council and the Pacific Council on International Policy as well as a member of the chairman’s forum of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a board member of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, the Brookings Institution, the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security, the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, the Music Center of Los Angeles County, the Hollywood Bowl and the Peabody Conservatory.

Robert received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, certificates in Real Estate and Construction Management from UCLA and was formerly employed by Hughes Aircraft Company as Controller of its Technology Division.

A headshot of IRAP board member Nadia Allaudin

Nadia Allaudin

Managing Director, Wealth Management Advisor, CIMA, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

A headshot of IRAP board member Nadia Allaudin

Nadia Allaudin

Managing Director, Wealth Management Advisor, CIMA, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

Nadia Allaudin is a Managing Director and Wealth Management Advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Century City. She earned the Certified Investment Management Analyst® designation. As of January 2022, The Allaudin/Brahos Group is entrusted with over $865 million in assets and liabilities.

Nadia has been the recipient of the following distinguished awards:

  • Forbes “America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-in-State” list in 2022.
  • Forbes “America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors” list in 2020, 2021.
  • Working Mother/SHOOK Research’s “Top Wealth Advisor Moms” list in 2019, 2020, 2021.
  • Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” list in 2020, 2021.
  • InvestmentNews recognition as a 2018 Women to Watch Honoree. As one of the 20 prestigious winners, Nadia was chosen from more than several hundred nominations for her leadership, contributions, and impact in the financial advice industry.
  • The GirlPower! Women’s Empowerment Award from A Place Called Home.

With more than 22 years of in-depth experience in the financial services industry, Nadia and her partner, Bill, focus on empowering women and the LBGTQI+ community to better understand their wealth management needs. They enjoy exploring their clients’ relationship to money and assisting them with their financial concerns.

Having founded the annual Women, Wealth & Wisdom Conference in Los Angeles that brings together hundreds of professional women, Nadia works to foster deeper relationships and participate in discussions with renowned speakers on health/wellness, leadership, and spiritual best practices. In appreciation of her efforts, she was awarded the prestigious Bank of America Diversity & Inclusion Recognition award.

Nadia plays an active role in the community through her involvement as a Board Member of IRAP, Vital Impacts, and MADRE, and serves as Board Chair for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She completed her yoga teacher training program at Yogaworks and is a certified yoga instructor.

Nadia earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a dual emphasis in Finance and Business Communication from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Nadia’s Industry Credentials: Series 3 National Commodity Futures, 7 General Securities Representative, 8 General Securities Supervisor, 66, 31 Futures Managed Funds, FINRA Registrations; Insurance License; Certified Investment Management Analyst®.

Ahilan T. Arulanantham

Professor from Practice and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law

Ahilan T. Arulanantham

Professor from Practice and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law

Ahilan T. Arulanantham is Professor from Practice and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.  He has successfully litigated a number of cases involving immigrants’ rights, including Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder, the first case to establish a federal right to appointed counsel for any group of immigrants; Jennings v. Rodriguez, which asserts the due process right to a bond hearing for immigrants jailed for years while litigating their deportation cases; and Ramos v. Wolf, a challenge to the Trump Administration’s plan to end the TPS program for immigrants who have lived here lawfully for decades. Ahilan has argued twice before the United States Supreme Court. He has also testified before the United States Congress on three occasions, and served as a Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and at the University of Irvine School of Law, where he taught on Preventive Detention. 

Ahilan’s parents are Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants who left Sri Lanka to escape race discrimination and sporadic violence. Several years after they came to this country, the Sri Lankan civil war began, causing much of his extended family to flee Sri Lanka. Ahilan has remained interested in promoting human rights in Sri Lanka, and also represented several Sri Lankan Tamil refugees during the course of his work with the ACLU. 

Prior to joining UCLA, Ahilan was Senior Counsel at the ACLU in Los Angeles, where he worked for nearly twenty years. Ahilan has also worked as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in El Paso, Texas, and as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2007 and 2013 he was named one of California Lawyer Magazine’s Lawyers of the Year for immigrants’ rights, and has repeatedly been named one of the Daily Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers in California over the last decade. In 2010 he received the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award from the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, and in 2014 received the Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for litigation to protect the rights of vulnerable immigrants, also from the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. 

In 2016 Ahilan was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Miriam Buhl

Pro Bono Counsel, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP

Miriam Buhl

Pro Bono Counsel, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP

Miriam Buhl is Pro Bono Counsel at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP and has coordinated the Firm’s award-winning worldwide pro bono program since 2005. Weil’s pro bono work covers a wide range of issues including human rights, economic development, corporate governance, political asylum and environmental protection. Miriam co-teaches the Externship on Pro Bono Program and Design at Columbia University Law School. In addition to the IRAP board, she is a member of the board of the Scherman Foundation. Miriam is a member of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel and serves on the Innocence Project’s Development Committee, the Federal Bar Council Public Service Committee, the PILnet Pro Bono Council, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Public Service Council, and the New York City Bar Association Pro Bono & Legal Services Committee.

Prior to joining Weil in 2005, Miriam was State Director for the Greater New York Chapter of the March of Dimes, one of the largest nonprofits in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2004, she was Executive Director of The New York Women’s Foundation. From 1997 to 1999, she was Founding Director of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Public Service Network, a program to link volunteer attorneys with public service organizations. She also served as Executive Director of the fair housing agency Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. from 1993 to 1997 and was Staff Attorney for The Legal Aid Society’s Civil Division, Brooklyn Neighborhood Office.

Miriam is a graduate of Brown University and Fordham University School of Law and lives in Manhattan. She is a jazz buff and plays Irish traditional fiddle.  

Joe Cerrell

Managing Director, Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Joe Cerrell

Managing Director, Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Joe Cerrell, Managing Director for Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia (EMEEA), is based in the Gates Foundation’s London office, which he opened in 2010. In this role, Joe oversees the foundation’s government relations, policy, communications, and partnerships with 16 countries across the EMEEA region. His team seeks to increase engagement in the foundation’s global health and development priorities, and drive progress on global health issues through partnerships with governments, corporations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations. Since joining the foundation in 2001, Joe has held a number of roles, including director for donor government relations and director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy. In 2017, Joe helped to found Goalkeepers, an initiative that brings together leaders from around the world to accelerate progress toward the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Prior to his time at the foundation, he served in a variety of senior roles in government and strategy consulting practices, including positions in the Clinton White House under former Vice President Al Gore and at APCO Worldwide. Joe currently serves on the board of directors for the ONE Campaign and Global Citizen in Europe, and the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE). He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Southern California.

A headshot of IRAP board member Mazen Darwish

Mazen Darwish

Founder and Director, Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression

A headshot of IRAP board member Mazen Darwish

Mazen Darwish

Founder and Director, Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression

A Syrian lawyer and human rights defender, Mazen Darwish graduated from the law faculty at the University of Damascus-Syria.

He is the founder and General Director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) and the Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC), and a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. Darwish was awarded over twelve international awards, including the “Roland Berger Human Dignity Award”, the “UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize”, and the “Four Freedoms Award”, and he was named in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022.

Darwish was arrested several times in Syria due to his activism on defending human rights, the last time he was held for more than three years (until 2015). He was an advisory member in the Myanmar Expert Committee, a member of the Constitutional Experts Committee formed by the UN Special Envoy to Syria, a member of “Geneva talks”, a member of the national working group reviewing Syrian media legislation, the Deputy of the Institute for International Assistance and Solidarity, and the leader of the observation team in the Moroccan and Jordanian Parliamentary Elections 2007.

A headshot of IRAP board member Betsy Doyle

Betsy Doyle

Partner, The Bridgespan Group

A headshot of IRAP board member Betsy Doyle

Betsy Doyle

Partner, The Bridgespan Group

Betsy Doyle is a partner at The Bridgespan Group’s San Francisco office and head of Bridgespan’s philanthropy practice. Since joining Bridgespan in 2001, Betsy has worked extensively with both nonprofits and philanthropists, with a focus on increasing the flow of funds toward breakthrough social change. She has supported many high performing nonprofits with strategic and scale planning and organizational effectiveness. She has also advised institutional and individual donors on their outcome-driven grantmaking.

Betsy’s philanthropic advising engagements include work with both institutions and individual philanthropists on program-level strategy, portfolio support, and special projects. In recent years, she has led Bridgespan’s work with TED and The Audacious Project, an innovative funding platform to put bold ideas for social change into action. She has also supported several donor families with sourcing and diligence, in service of funding high performing, US-based organizations focused on social and economic mobility.

Until recently, Betsy led Bridgespan’s Education Practice. In this role, she worked with organizations and public agencies pursuing large-scale initiatives focused on increasing college and career readiness among low income youth. She has supported place-based education reform, efforts to strengthen talent and leadership pipelines (at the teacher, school leader, and system level), and on scaling high performing charter and school turnaround models. Based on these experiences, she has co-authored a number of pieces, including “Transforming Schools” (Bain.com, January 2016), “Starting Over After Starting Up,” (SSIR.org, September 2015), “Local Philanthropists Work Together to Transform Public Education” (Bridgespan.org, September 2014), and “Rethinking High School Turnarounds” (Bridgespan.org, January 2013). Betsy has also supported planning initiatives with a number of youth-serving networks and multi-service child welfare organizations, including Youth Villages and The Children’s Institute in Los Angeles. She is also co-author of one of Bridgespan’s most popular management publications, “Business Planning for Nonprofits” (Bridgespan.org, February 2006).

Prior to joining Bridgespan, Betsy worked at The Family Academy (now the Urban Education Exchange), a nonprofit in New York City focused on developing and scaling effective literacy curricula and teacher training. She also worked at Scholastic, Inc., the global publishing, education and media company, in the strategic marketing group. Betsy is a graduate of Princeton University, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She received her MBA and MEd, both from Stanford University. She currently lives outside of San Francisco with her spouse, three young children, and dog.

A headshot of IRAP board member Neema Singh Guliani

Neema Singh Guliani

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services, Department of Commerce

A headshot of IRAP board member Neema Singh Guliani

Neema Singh Guliani

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services, Department of Commerce

Neema Singh Guliani is the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Services. In this role, she directs the U.S. Department of Commerce’s efforts to create the policy conditions for U.S. digital, financial, supply chain and other services industries to compete around the world.

Guliani is a lawyer and policy expert who has worked on issues at the intersection of national security, economics, and civil rights. Before joining ITA, she served at Twitter as Head of National Security, Democracy, and Civil Rights Public Policy for the Americas, where she led development of policy and strategy in the U.S. for surveillance, the open internet, and civil rights. In 2022, Guliani also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she designed and taught a course titled “Technology and Civil Rights.”

Prior to her time at Twitter, Guliani served as Senior Legislative Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she led several initiatives related to surveillance and technology issues. She also served as a political appointee in the Chief of Staff’s Office at the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Secretary, an adjudicator at the USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and a Counsel for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Guliani is a 2018 Truman National Security Fellow and a member of the Florida Bar. She has a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in international relations with a focus on global security from Brown University.

A headshot of board member Mike Jacobellis.

Mike Jacobellis

Chief Investment Officer, New Holland Capital

A headshot of board member Mike Jacobellis.

Mike Jacobellis

Chief Investment Officer, New Holland Capital

Mike Jacobellis is the Co-Chief Investment Officer for New Holland Capital, a firm that manages roughly $20 billion in absolute return strategies for a handful of institutional clients. Mike is responsible for investment research, portfolio management and portfolio risk activities. Additionally, Mike oversees NHC’s Environmental, Social and Governance activities to ensure that NHC’s investments are consistent with the desires of our pension stakeholders.

Mike graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Applied Economics and Management and is a CFA charterholder. He lives in New York City with his wife and two young children. The Jacobellis family is passionate about motocross.

A headshot of IRAP board member Subhi Khudairi.

Subhi Khudairi

Founding Managing Partner and President, Khudairi Group

A headshot of IRAP board member Subhi Khudairi.

Subhi Khudairi

Founding Managing Partner and President, Khudairi Group

Subhi Khudairi is a native of Baghdad, Iraq and currently lives in Dubai where he serves as a Founding Managing Partner and President of Khudairi Group. As President, Subhi is responsible for the development of the company’s strategy and corporate governance. This includes oversight over offices in Houston, Dubai, Amman, Baghdad, Basrah, Erbil, and Sullaymania. His P&L oversight covers the FMCG and the Machinery Business Units. Furthermore Mr. Khudairi proudly supports philanthropic causes in each territory of operation for Khudairi Group.

In 2012, Subhi successfully established the regional office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to strengthen Khudairi Group’s global network of suppliers and partners. Prior to starting the family business in 2003 with his father and brother, Subhi was an Associate Equity Trader at AIM Investments.

In 2000, Subhi received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2005, Subhi received his Master’s in Business Administration from the Jesses H. Jones School of Management at Rice University and was awarded the Jones Citizenship Award. At Rice University, Subhi was the President of the International Management Club at the Jones School and was a member of the Student Forum at the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Subhi is married and has two daughters and one son.

A purple icon depicts a person in a circle.

Michael Madnick

CEO, Mountain Philanthropies

A purple icon depicts a person in a circle.

Michael Madnick

CEO, Mountain Philanthropies

Michael Madnick leads all program, partnerships, and operations of Mountain Philanthropies, in direct collaboration with its funders, referred to as Partners. For many years, Michael advised a range of donors, foundations, companies, nonprofits and governments in support of various social impact outcomes.

Previously, he served as deputy executive director for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, deputy director for global health policy and advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and senior vice president of the United Nations Foundation. Michael also serves on a number of boards and committees.

Juliet Mureriwa

Senior Program Officer in the Office of the President at the Ford Foundation

Juliet Mureriwa

Senior Program Officer in the Office of the President at the Ford Foundation

Juliet Mureriwa is a Senior Program Officer in the Office of the President at the Ford Foundation, where she oversees the Foundation’s global discretionary grantmaking portfolio and leads the President’s cross-foundation strategic initiatives. She serves as a key partner on the Foundation’s diversity and inclusion efforts, this includes serving as a member of the Foundation’s first ever Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council; and the Foundation’s Racial Justice Working Group. Juliet also leads the Foundation’s global Anti-Blackness work. 

Juliet is a public interest lawyer and an advocate of the High Court of South Africa. She has vast knowledge in public international law and close to two decades worth of experience working for international philanthropic organizations and managing programs advocating for and advancing the rule of law, democracy, human rights, and social justice. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation in 2015, she was a grantmaker at the Open Society Foundations, Freedom House, and other international philanthropy organizations. 

Juliet is a founding board member of The Accelerator Project, a nonprofit organization that offers institutional strengthening support to small and medium organizations that serve women and youth populations in sub-Saharan Africa, so they are empowered and can secure the financial and other resources they need to advance their work. Juliet is also a member of the Advisory Council of the McCain Global Leaders Program which supports character-driven leaders from around the world who embody Senator John McCain’s legacy of serving a cause greater than oneself. The program is designed to advance each leader’s personal and professional leadership journey and impact by providing training, resources, and access to highly relevant regional and global networks with the goal of preparing today’s leaders to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Juliet holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master’s Degree in Public International Law from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Juliet resides in Westchester, New York with her husband and daughter.

A headshot of IRAP board member Carl Reisner.

Carl Reisner

Of Counsel

A headshot of IRAP board member Carl Reisner.

Carl Reisner

Of Counsel

Carl Reisner has a diverse mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance practice and provides counsel to a varied and long-standing client base, helping companies through all stages of the corporate life cycle. He has represented start-up companies seeking venture capital, growing companies in a wide variety of acquisitions and financings, and restructurings of financially troubled enterprises. Carl is recognized as a leading Private Equity Buyouts lawyer by Chambers USA and by Legal 500. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School and is admitted to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia. Carl serves as IRAP’s corporate counsel and as Vice Chair of the Board, and has served as a supervising attorney representing IRAP clients.

Zainab Salbi, smiles into the camera with head cocked slightly to one side. She has closely cropped salt and pepper hair, brown eyes, and wears vibrant red lipstick. She wears a bluish gray jacket and a statement necklace made of large links.

Zainab Salbi

Founder of Women for Women International, Media Host and Best-Selling Author

Zainab Salbi, smiles into the camera with head cocked slightly to one side. She has closely cropped salt and pepper hair, brown eyes, and wears vibrant red lipstick. She wears a bluish gray jacket and a statement necklace made of large links.

Zainab Salbi

Founder of Women for Women International, Media Host and Best-Selling Author

Zainab Salbi is a celebrated humanitarian, author and journalist. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the 25 women changing the world to People Magazine, President Clinton nominated her as a “21st Century Heroine” for Harper’s Bazaar; Foreign Policy Magazine called Zainab one of “100 Top Global Thinkers”, and Fast Company identified her as “One of the 100 Most Creative People in Business”. Similar designations also include Newsweek, Fortune, and The Guardian.

She is the founder and former CEO of Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization supporting women survivors of conflicts rebuilding their lives. Under her leadership, the organization mobilized nearly half a million women in 69 countries, raised $120 million in aid and micro-loans, directly supported 420,000 women, and impacted more than 1.7 family members in 8 countries.  

Zainab authored four books, including the national bestseller Between Two Worlds and her latest Freedom Is an Inside Job. She is also the creator and host of several shows, including #MeToo, Now What? on PBS, The Zainab Salbi Project on Huff Post, The Nida’a Show on TLC Arabia, and Through Her Eyes at Yahoo News.   

In 2021 Zainab co-founded Daughters for Earth, a $100 Million Fund that aims to mobilize women to actively engage in climate change solutions and launch her new podcast about redefining life in July 2021.

A headshot of IRAP board member Tali Farhadian Weinstein.

Tali Farhadian Weinstein

Of Counsel for Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP

A headshot of IRAP board member Tali Farhadian Weinstein.

Tali Farhadian Weinstein

Of Counsel for Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP

Tali Farhadian Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor, has spent nearly two decades working across a range of American legal institutions. Tali and her family came to America on Christmas Eve 1979 as refugees fleeing the violence and antisemitism of revolutionary Iran. Her parents brought her to the United States so she could grow up experiencing safety, fairness and justice, and she in turn has dedicated her career to fighting for those principles.

After earning degrees from Yale College, Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School, Tali was a Law Clerk for Judge Merrick B. Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, Tali worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, first as Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder, and then as a federal prosecutor. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Tali investigated and prosecuted cases ranging from gun violence and murders to public corruption, tax and other frauds, and national security matters. From 2018-2020, Tali served as the General Counsel of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, one of the largest prosecutors’ offices in the county. In this role, Tali was part of the leadership team charged with implementing the office’s criminal justice reform agenda, and created the nation’s first Post-Conviction Justice Bureau. 

Tali is currently a Legal Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at NYU Law School. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and other publications. She is a Trustee of the New York Public Library, where she chairs the Audit Committee, a Trustee of the Vera Institute for Justice, and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). Tali lives in New York City with her husband and three daughters.