Board of Directors

Daniel Shorr - President

Founder of Building Understanding, Daniel Shorr works in banking forming alliances with other companies. He twice graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology - with an MBA in 2015 and a B.S. in 2008. He conducted post-baccalaureate cross-cultural, human factors research as a Fulbright Fellow at Kyoto University. He cares deeply about better his community and serves in numerous roles beyond leading Building Understanding such as through employee networks within his company and as a passionate musician within the Emory Gamelan Ensemble.

BUDS specialties: intergroup dialogue, learning through art, youth empowerment, Clarkston refugee collaborations
FEED Nation interviews Daniel: http://www.thefeednation.org/meet-daniel-tango-dancing-promoter-of-tolerance/

Paul Terlemezian - Past President

Paul Terlemezian is the owner and founder of iFive Alliances, LLC. This firm builds revenue producing strategic alliances for training, consulting and technology companies.

Paul has 20+ years of alliances and sales experience in the high technology and training industries. He has designed, implemented and managed strategic alliances for training, technology and consulting companies. He earned his M.S. in Mathematics at Northeastern University in Boston and taught Differential Equations and Calculus to freshman while doing so. He was the 2008 President for the Atlanta Chapter of ASTD (American Society for Training and Development). Since 2006 he has been the Affiliate Chair for the Southeast Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP). In 2008 he founded and launched the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Workplace Learning Society and in 2009 was appointed to the TAG Board of Directors.

S. Sarah Muwahidah - Programs Director

Siti Sarah Muwahidah is a doctoral student in the Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University, with study concentration on religion, conflict and peacebuilding. She received an MA in Religious Studies from Florida International University, in the United States and another MA in Religious Cross-Cultural Studies from Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. She has been actively engaged in and has also managed human rights, interfaith and peacebuilding programs among the various elite and grassroots groups, both at the national and international levels, especially during her work in MAARIF Institute for Culture and Humanity, Jakarta. She is a Fulbright Presidential Fellow (2010) and Asian Public Intellectual Fellow (2009). Her research interest and publication topics include: interfaith dialogue, religion and peacebuilding, Islam and human rights, religion and science, religion and ecology, as well as women and religion.

Stan Thangaraj, PhD - Education Director

Vanderbilt University, Postdoctoral Fellow
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Sport and Power, South Asian America, Diaspora Theory, Gender Theory, Queer Theory, Asian America CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS:
South Asian American masculinity and co-ethnic only sporting spaces
Interrogating "Citizenship" through the life experiences of the "Refugee"
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Thangaraj, Stanley I. Forthcoming. "Competing Masculinities: Ethnic Sport Leagues and South Asian American Masculinity.” South Asian Popular Culture. Thangaraj, Stanley I. Forthcoming. Man Up! Indo-Pak Basketball and Embodying South Asian American Masculinity. New York: New York University Press.

Caroline Wood - Development Director

Caroline Wood is the Development Coordinator at Refugee Family Services, a metro Atlanta nonprofit dedicated to helping refugee women and children build on their skills in order to thrive as new Americans. Her professional skills include government, foundation and corporate grant writing, project budgeting, and special events. Caroline is passionate about supporting Atlanta's refugee and immigrant community through her career and volunteer activities and enjoys tutoring, mentoring and teaching ESL in her free time. She holds a B.A. in English from Davidson College.

Lisa Sparer - Marketing Director

An art director and designer with 10+ years experience at national magazines, including Health, Spry, Bride's, Newsweek, Arthritis Today, Women's Wear Daily, Sesame Street, and The New York Daily News Sunday magazine.
Lisa's expertise and experience includes: Design and art direct new launches; redesign existing brands; support ongoing publication design and production; hire/art direct photographers and illustrators; produce photo shoots. Have designed books and a wide range of publications covering topics such as health, wellness, lifestyle, food, travel, beauty, news, and entertainment.

Adam Kunz - Everytown Committee Co-Chair

Co-Founder & COO of Mowgli, a gaming company based around a simple concept – connecting people through social creation. Adam has an extensive background in social & digital media, Flash, and design. Adam graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in digital media. He previously operated his own graphic design and video-creation firm. Over the past few years, Adam expanded this business from primarily creating websites and videos to include graphic design, printing, marketing, and social media integration. During the six years prior to Encore Results, Adam ran operations for two Atlanta-based companies. Adam was an Everytown delegate in 1995 and on staff from 1997-2002.

Aja Zulfiqar - Everytown Committee Co-Chair

Aja is a St. Louis native, an Everytown alumna, and a graduate of Emory University. It was at Emory that she was first introduced to the nonprofit sector, volunteering in the classroom of an Atlanta Teach for America Corps member. She joined TFA in 2005. After her 2 year commitment, she continued working in the education nonprofit world as a member of Communities in Schools of Atlanta. Aja continues to mentor the students she taught and worked with while in the field. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Sociology, with a focus on race and urban relations, at Georgia State University.

Laura Sum - Secretary

Laura is from North Carolina and graduated from North Carolina State University. It was there she began her work in the international community and working intensively with English language learners. She has worked with various organizations in Atlanta to develop English curriculum and lessons for all ages. As Peace Corp Volunteer in Panama Laura worked with rural farmers to increase food production through fish and rice ponds and assisted in youth programming within her community and countrywide. Laura has worked closely with the refugee youth in Clarkston at Refugee Family Services. She is planning to pursue a Masters of Arts in Teaching at Georgia State University in 2013.

Advisory Members

Alan L. Wilgus

For over forty-years Alan Wilgus has fought against ignorance and hatred believing that one person can make a difference. During his career as an Army Infantry officer he chose assignments that thrust him into the forefront of social change. In 1972 he served as a Race Relations Staff officer combating racism by raising awareness through training during a turbulent period for our country and its armed forces.

As a commander he facilitated the integration of women into training and combat support units. Later taking the best from the Human Potential Movement he pioneered the application of organizational development (OD) methodology in a military setting. Consulting to general officer headquarters across the Army and later serving on the faculty of the US Army Organizational Effectiveness School and Center at Fort Ord, CA. his focus was on the creation of high-performance work teams.

Upon retirement from the Army as a promotable Major he spent a second career working with Fortune 500 companies as an OD consultant. A published expert in organizational design and change, his interventions empower employees through the creation of team-based structures that improve bottom-line performance while creating more satisfying jobs.

Retired again, today he serves his community through his local Kiwanis club where he has held several leadership positions including club president. He continues to fight bigotry and hatred by speaking and writing about how Islamophobia is spread through the internet. Alan has a BS in Behavioral Science and a MA in Organization Development.

Ashraf Mohammed, PhD

PhD Public Health, Masters Degree in Medical Science, BSc Microbiology

Dr. Ashraf Mohammed is the Head of Department for the HIV/AIDS Unit at Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, South Africa. In this position he manages a program to control HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis among students and staff in an attempt to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic to the institution and community at large. He is currently at Emory University as a Humphrey Fellow to increase his skills and knowledge of the prevention, control, and management of HIV/AIDS/TB intervention activities, integration of HIV/AIDS in the curricula, enhancement of Peer Education Projects, and to expand on his international collaborative research. His research focus interest is in the prevention of tuberculosis in AIDS patients. His belief and passion for the important work of Building Understanding is rooted in his experiences of growing up in apartheid South Africa.

Choony Kim

Choony Kim began her doctoral studies in the joint Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of
Technology Public Policy Program in the fall of 2010. Prior to coming to the GSU/GT program, Choony
completed a master degree at Yale Graduate School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES) with
a focus area of climate change, energy policy and sustainable development. She earned her BA from
Jeonnam National University. She has 13 years work experience at Korea Federation for Environmental
Movement (KFEM) / Friends of Earth Korea as the Director of International Affairs. She has dealt with
many environmental issues such as climate change, ecosystem conservation, sustainable development
through regional and international cooperation. She has been the leading person in working with United
Nations and delegation to many international environmental gatherings organized by NGOs, GOs and
international entities and it led her to witness social, economic and environmental justice at the grassroots
level in Latin, African and Asian continents, having travelled to over 40 countries.

Choony's current research interests include social enterprise for environmental conservation, environmental NGOs, environmental and climate justice, sustainability, and international environmental policy and governance.

Mansour Ansari

The grandson of Lebanese immigrants who settled in Massachusetts in 1890, Mansour was born and raised in Worcester, attending Syracuse University, where he studied journalism and English literature. After graduating, he toured the East Coast and Europe with his jazz band, and traveled to the Middle East with his wife, Ms. Kafi Niambi Ansari. They have two daughters and two grandchildren. Mansour enjoys traveling, speaking, and attending to his wholesale Persian rug business. Although a resident of Atlanta for thirty years, Mr. Ansari remains an avid Red Sox fan.