 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
July 2016 Newsletter
Issue II
|
|
Women's Leadership Conference
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The Iranian American Women Foundation is excited to return to Orange County for the 11th Women's Leadership Conference! The conference will take place on October 30th, 2016 at Hotel Irvine and will include influential speakers, such as Azadeh Tabazadeh, Farnaz Azmoodeh, and Hon. Tamila Ebrahimi Ipema. Moreover, the conference will feature an array of diverse and empowering stories and various opportunities to connect with fellow members of the IAWF community. If you are interested in reserving a table, contact fariba@iawfoundation.org and find the full schedule here. We look forward to seeing you at this event!
|
 IAWF Holds First Orange County Planning Committee Meeting
IAWF would like to thank our trustee, PariSima Hassani, for supporting us and hosting the OC Planning Committee Reception at Westgroup Designs Firm. Members gathered on July 27th to discuss and organize for the Leadership Conference on October 30th. Mariam Khosravani, Founder and President of IAWF, joined us as we collaborated and shared ideas to make this a successful event.
|
IAWF NorCal Chapter Presents: Preschool to PhDs
Join IAW Foundation's Northern California Chapter on August 21st as we hear from Iranian American women changing the field of education, from pre-K to college. Our speakers include: Persis Karim, Yalda Modabber, Ana Homayoun, Mana Kharrazi and the event will be moderated by Anita Amirrezvani. Join us at the David Brower Center at 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA at 2:00 PM. Find more information about the event here.
|
|
Life Academy Leadership Trip Takes Students Across Washington, D.C.
On July 19, 2016, eight students from Southern California came together at Georgetown University for IAWF's first Life Academy program in Washington, DC. The two-fold purpose of this program was to equip students with the tools, information, and networks they need to guide decision-making in their professional lives while also building a bridge between the experienced generation of successful Iranian Americans and the younger generation currently en-route to building their professional careers.
Over the course of three days, Life Academy participants explored many career paths available to them in our Nation's Capital. They had the opportunity to visit and speak to Iranian Americans working at the World Bank, National Public Radio, Voice of America and the Department of State. Through engaging dialogues, participants learned about every speaker's path to their current position, benefits and struggles of each given career, and discovered what a typical workday looks like. The three-day program also included workshops on how to pick a fitting career, leave positive impressions, tell a powerful personal story, and network effectively.
IAWF would like to extend a thank you to all the wonderful speakers who made this program possible. Our speakers included Iran Davar Ardalan, Sanaz Meshkinpour, Nadereh Chamlou, Shervin Hadjilou, Behrad Mahdi, Parastoo Golesorkhi Zahedi, Nick Lore and Farifteh Emamghorashi. We would also like to extend our true appreciation to Sogand Seirafi and Sima Jafari, our dedicated volunteers, as well as our wonderful host, Farima Sadigh Mostowfi, and the Persian Language and Culture Program at Georgetown University. We are grateful to our sponsors Marjan Shallal, Manijeh Marvastian, One Foundation, and Firoozeh Bolourian.
|
|
 | 
| 
| |
Maria Afsharian
New York
Maria Afsharian was born in Shiraz to an American mother and Iranian father. She moved to Texas when she was 10 years old and attended local schools and university, earning a BS in Business Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and Journalism. She moved to the Washington, DC area where she worked for USA TODAY and Dateline NBC. Maria worked on over 90 stories and was the recipient of 7 prestigious journalism and broadcast awards including a national Emmy Award. In 2005, Maria returned to Iran and persuaded MAHAK Charity for pediatric cancer to expand its award-winning services to Shiraz, where she founded the first MAHAK Charity Social Workers Office. Maria moved to New York in 2012, where she currently provides professional and business consultation related to Iran and the US and is also the owner of BloomFive
Communications. Visit Maria's IAWF profile here.
|
Roya Soleimani
Northern California
Roya Soleimani is a Corporate Communications Manager at Google where she focuses on the company's social impact and philanthropic efforts with Google.org. She has also served as a lead Google Trends analyst, highlighting trending topics across Google on radio and media across the country. She holds a Masters degree in Middle Eastern studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and her Bachelors in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. She spent five years in Washington, DC where she worked for the University of California Washington Center and Voice of America's Persian News Network. During her time at Georgetown, Roya was a graduate student researcher on a project assessing the conditions of urban Iraqi refugees in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Read more about Roya on this week's UpCloseVaPersonal
|
Hon. Tamila Ebrahimi Ipema
Southern California
The Honorable Tamila Ebrahimi Ipema received her Bachelor's Degree from Damavand College in Tehran. In 1978, she moved to the United States in pursuit of higher education. She received a Master's Degree and a J.D. from University of Louisville in Kentucky in and an LL.M. Degree in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University School of Law. Judge Ipema has served as a judicial officer in California for more than ten years and has family, criminal, and civil experience. She has worked as an immigration defense attorney, Assistant District Counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice in immigration matters for DHS, and as a judicial research attorney and supervising research attorney for the Los Angeles Superior Court. Judge Ipema serves on the Executive Board of National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) as the Vice President of Districts. Visit Tamila's IAWF profile here.
|
|
|
|
 
Mahnaz Khazen is the President & Partner at California Development Regional Center, a licensed California Broker, Certified Commercial Investment Member, Certified Property Manager, Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and graduate of JWL Leadership. She holds a Ph.D. in Economic and Industrial System Modeling from Dubna International University and is the Co-Founder and former President of the US Immigrant Investment Center. Mahnaz has developed a passion as an advocate of Impact investment strategies. City officials and the Historical Society have praised Mahnaz for her social impact investment, VA projects, low income housing and job creating strategies while revitalizing neighborhoods. Visit Mahnaz's IAWF profile here.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
