AFGHAN FEMALE STUDENT OUTREACH

Afghan Female Student Outreach (AFSO) is a volunteer non-profit organization committed to helping return Afghan women to intellectual and professional life by way of real-time, synchronous distance learning in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, and health sciences, taught by university professors from around the world. We aim to educate university women at all levels who seek an academic bridge between their current situation and eventual enrollment in a degree-granting institution online or outside Afghanistan. Our long-term goal is to help educate the future leaders of Afghanistan, who will have the education and experience they need to help restore their country, and especially its women, if and when the regime changes. We are committed to recruiting and educating women from both dominant and underrepresented communities within Afghanistan.

Lucy Ferriss, President of the Board, is a novelist, Writer in Residence emerita from Trinity College, and co-founder of Afghan Female Student Outreach. The author of a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, she did research for her work among the Pashtun area of northwest Pakistan. She has been active with a number of charitable organizations, including the Authors Guild, Jewish Family Services, Planned Parenthood, the Brigid Foundation, and Women for Women International. She holds a Ph.D. from Tufts University. In addition to her work with AFSO, she teaches Afghan refugees in the United States.

Saleh Keshawarz, Vice-President, is Department Chair and Program Director for Civil Engineering at the University of Hartord. Dr. Keshawarz earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Kabul University. For four years, he directed a World Bank and USAID funded partnership between the University of Hartford and Herat University in Afghanistan. The partnership was focused on enhancing engineering education at Herat University through providing masters degree scholarship, curriculum development, and laboratory improvement.

Judy Lewis, Secretary, is a public health sociologist and professor emerita at the University of Connecticut. She focuses on maternal, child and adolescent health, and health care in low resource countries. She is President of the Grand' Anse Health & Development Association and Board Chair of Women and Health Together for the Future. In 2018, she received The Carl Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award in International Health, American Public Health Association, International Health Section to honor the visionaries and leaders in APHA who have shaped the direction of International Health and in 2023 she received the Gordon-Wyon Award for Community-Oriented Public Health, Epidemiology and Practice. Prof. Lewis has worked with hundreds of students on global health projects.

J. Donald Moon, Treasurer, is the Zilkha Professor in the College of Social Studies, emeritus, at Wesleyan University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on political theory, especially the political philosophy of John Rawls. He is the author of Constructing Community: Moral Pluralism and Tragic Conflicts. He has taught English to immigrants from Afghanistan, Congo, and Somalia.

Rahman Azari is associate professor of architecture and the founding director of the Resource and Energy Efficiency Lab at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on life cycle environmental impacts of built environments, innovative construction materials for energy production and carbon sequestration, and building energy and carbon efficiency. He holds a Ph.D. in Built Environment from the University of Washington in Seattle and is a Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC).

Frances Nixon Denote is an experienced educator with a decade of teaching experience in the humanities. She earned her M.Ed. from Lesley University and currently teaches at the Renbrook School in West Hartford, Connecticut. She is also active with SOLA, the School of Leadership for Afghan girls, currently operating out of Rwanda.

Kara Mullins, Board Member, is Vice President of Sales & Client Relations at Sympler. A tenured sales executive who has over 15 years experience leading teams in the SaaS & Market Research space, as well as selling into Fortune 500 companies, she has previously held senior leadership roles at Mintel and WGSN, as well as being a member of the go-to-market Think Tank, Pavillion.

Homeira Qaderi is the author of Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother's Letter to her Son and other works of fiction and memoir. She has been a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute and is currently a McMaster Fellow at Yale University. She earned her Ph.D. in Persian literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Dr. Qaderi founded the Golden Needle Storytelling association fifty days after the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. Through this association, she is in contact with dozens of people interested in writing stories in Afghanistan and organizes creative writing classes for them.

Bobbie (Barbara) Smolow is the retired Library Director at Sarah Lawrence College. She served on the initial committee to develop the 4-college Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education. She participated in the Bosnian Student Project bringing displaced students from the Balkans to American schools. she serves as the AFSO research librarian.

Amran Fatih, Executive Director, has extensive expertise in program policy, management, and strategic planning for government, civil society, and the private sector. He has served as a senior specialist at the ombuds office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He contributed significantly to civil society programs funded by the National Endowment for Democracy in Afghanistan, focusing on democratic values, education, transparency, and accountability.

Nazia Shah, Academic Administrator, has deep experience as a faculty member, career counselor, and international consultant on the implementation of educational initiatives. She worked for ten years in Afghanistan under the auspices of the World Bank, supporting the capacity development of educational authorities, institutional leaders, and stakeholders to sustainably manage and improve English language program. Her degrees include an MA in Human Resource Management from Claremont Graduate University, an MBA from the American University of Afghanistan, and BA and MA degrees in political science and English literature.

Katy Masuga, Student Affairs Coordinator, has deep experience in managing international programs. She is the author of four books, including The Secret Violence of Henry Miller. Dr. Masuga holds a PhD from the University of Washington and currently lives and teaches in France. She is co-founder of Sappho Road, a women's knowledge exchange in English based in France.