We are a small, resourceful team working with volunteers worldwide doing work that makes a difference – and we even won the Employer of the Year Award!
Donna Baranski-Walker, Executive Director for the Rebuilding Alliance
Donna Baranski-Walker founded the Rebuilding Alliance in 2003 to rebuild communities in conflict zones and make them safe. Partnering with non-governmental groups in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, Donna sets-up the details of each rebuilding projects, then invites key people to the U.S. to tell their stories to people of all faiths, meet with policy makers, and raise funds for the project. Donna is an M.I.T. engineer and also holds an M.S. from the University of Hawaii. Prior to this, she worked for nearly 15 years in technology transfer, evaluating new technology at M.I.T., Stanford, and then SRI International negotiating agreements to start new companies. Donna is the past president of the Rotary Club of Woodside / Portola Valley (twice!).
d b w @ R e b u i l d i n g A l l i a n c e . o r g
Mary Abu Saba, Outreach Director for the Rebuilding Alliance
Mary Edith Abu Saba is back at the Rebuilding Alliance as Outreach Director — after a five-year hiatus. Originally from Virginia, in 1961 Mary Edith married Elias Abu-Saba, a Lebanese and a professor of Civil Engineering. They have two children: Leila and Khalil, and 3 grandsons, all of whom live in California. After receiving her Ph.D. at the U. of Illinois, Mary Edith had her own counseling clinic for many years, and then was a professor of Counseling Psychology at the American University of Beirut for 8 years prior to their move to California, and joining with us at The Rebuilding Alliance. She and her late husband, Elias, have been involved with the issues of Palestine throughout their lives together, and Elias was an ardent supporter of The Rebuilding Alliance while Mary Edith was working as Outreach Director. She is very happy to be back working with the organization that has done such amazing work not only in Palestine, but throughout the USA in educating Americans about tangible ways to build peace in Israel/Palestine. In particular, Mary Edith loves to converse with people and exchange ideas. She says that The Rebuilding Alliance is richly embedded with well-informed contributors/colleagues who provide a wellspring of ingenuity, challenge, and encouragement.
M a b u s a b a @ R e b u i l d i n g A l l i a n c e . o r g
Monica Quinn, Clerical Assistant for the Rebuilding Alliance
Monica Quinn’s job at the Rebuilding Alliance and the training program that Monica and Donna developed together
led to the “Employer of the Year” award from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities! Monica brings her keen mind, determination to overcome obstacles, and attention to detail to her work. Monica is a liberal arts graduate of the College of San Mateo and she has enjoyed volunteer work in libraries. When not working‚ Monica enjoys spending time with her family‚ staying in touch with friends and teachers by email‚ and reading current events.
M o n i c a @ R e b u i l d i n g A l l i a n c e . o r g
Tania Nuñez, Outreach Associate
Tania Nuñez has been instrumental in contacting donors to invite them to join our Sweep Down the Walls teleconference servies and our office events. She is a full-time college student who just completed organic chemistry, on her way to becoming a nurse.
Our Volunteers and Summer Intern Team were a dream come true! We thank them all for their incredible work this summer helping us win the Global Giving Challenge, prototyping a breakthrough idea in community organizing, running our Sweep Down the Walls Teleconference Forums, launching our Organic Olive Oil sales program, and sending hundreds of thank you notes and invitations:
Amy Walecka, Volunteer Intern
Amy joined us early in the summer and helped pull together a number of special projects! In many ways, as the first volunteer this summer, she helped us understand how to make the internship program into such a success. Amy’s remarkable talent is her ability to jump into any project and see it to completion! Before heading off to a summer business course at Stanford, Amy was a ready contributor at project planning meetings, created our prototype Organic Olive Oil sale signs, and helped us write and mail lots of thank you notes!
Feeza Mohammad, Volunteer
Feeza is an incoming high school sophomore at Notre Dame High School in San Jose. She joined us for our speaking events and planning meetings, then set to work designing and painting signs for our organic olive oil sale and tastings. Feeza really knows how to get things done. She began to organize special events at the Rebuilding Alliance and learned how to use Project Kickstart to coordinate all the details of event planning.
Jeff Han, Volunteer Intern
Jeff is an incoming high school senior at Gunn High School. He volunteered at the Rebuilding Alliance last summer and is back again this summer for more! He and Lu prototyped the remarkable Google Maps mash-up that became an integral part of a $40K grant proposal. Great work! Jeff’s interests include engineering, art, and computer science and he is happy to be able to put his skills to work at the Rebuilding Alliance!
Lisa Griswold, Volunteer Intern
Lisa Griswold joined The Rebuilding Alliance as a volunteer intern and decided to focus her work to develop the Al Aqaba Birthing Center project. She worked with the team and our partners to develop both the GlobalGiving.com project summary as well as the Rotary International Matching Grant proposal. The project won the most number of donors award in the GlobalGiving Alive and Learning Challenge in the U.K. The Rotary Proposal won sponsorship of the Rotary Club of Woodside / Portola Valley and the Rotary Club of Nazareth and will soon be introduced to more Rotary Clubs for co-sponsorship. Lisa is currently an undergraduate student within the Business Leadership Program at the University of Puget Sound with a second major of International Political Economy. Her interests include international affairs and learning about different cultures and languages. She looks forward to studying abroad and hopefully working at the United Nations in the future.
Lu Cheng, Volunteer Intern
Lu is an incoming high school senior at Gunn High School. In addition to great work on the mapping prototype, Lu and Jeff developed the Rebuilding Alliance Facebook page, and helped update our website. In addition to his deep interest in technology, Lu is also a talented musician.
Meredith Ragno, Volunteer Intern
Meredith joined us from Duke University where she will be entering her Junior year. Meredith’s work at the Rebuilding Alliance included any project that needed her attention. She took a key role in our winning both 1st and 2nd place in the GlobalGiving.com Ready, Set, Give competition by coordinating our Facebook and Twitter campaigns.
Mollie Traver, Intern E-Community Organizer
Mollie Traver recently graduated from Stanford University, where she majored in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing. She has been the E-Community Organizer at The Rebuilding Alliance, developing the “Sweep Down the Walls Teleconference Series.” Mollie has a deep interest in languages, linguistics and international studies, and studied Arabic and Swahili in school. She traveled abroad her junior year to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya, where she worked in a children’s center, climbed mountains, and discovered she wouldn’t mind spending the rest of her life living in East Africa and traveling the world! She likes writing, reading, her family, and mountaintops more than anything.
Onaiza Kazi, Volunteer
Onaiza, also at Gunn High School, volunteered at the Rebuilding Alliance this summer and helped us win the Global Giving challenge as she and her sister painted hugh signs for our front yard while calling all their friends to ask them to contribute to the GG challenge in its final hours before closing.
Susan Galleymore, Volunteer on the Management Team
Susan is a noted author with years of experience in corporate media project management. Just back from her own speaking tour to promote her book, Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror, we benefitted greatly from her expertise in project management and the excitement of hearing excerpts from our teleconference series on her Raising Sand radio program.
Tahsin Siddique, Volunteer Intern
Tahsin is a recent graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is the newest member of our team and is taking a key role in searching for capacity grants and additional project funding through foundations. More about Tahsin soon.
