Staff‚ Board‚ Teambloggers

Our Staff  *  Board of Directors  *  Honorary Board  *  Project Partners  *   Associates  *  Families

Our Staff

We are a small, resourceful team working with volunteers worldwide to rebuild communities and make them safe:

Donna Baranski-Walker, Executive Director for the Rebuilding Alliance
          Donna Baranski-Walker is passionate about peacemaking. She founded the Rebuilding Alliance in 2003 to help rebuild shattered communities and offer people around the world immediate ways to make peace. Donna earned a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science from the University of Hawaii and worked for nearly 15 years in technology transfer, licensing and launching new companies from M.I.T., Stanford, and SRI International. 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

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.

Nina Jusuf, Opearations Director joins the Rebuilding Alliance through a seed fund grant from Grassroots International! Nina brings a wealth of experience to this position, including 5 years as an Executive Director, and 15 years experience working in non-profit management, organizing the services needed to bring about healing after trauma. With amazing skills in capacity building, mentoring and supervision of staff and volunteers, Nina was the recipient of the Vanguard Foundation Social Justice sabbatical fund following her tenure as E.D. at San Francisco Women Against Rape. She is an international advisor for the Global Fund for Women, emphasis on Indonesia, and Capacitar International, emphasis Indonesia. Nina holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco and is a State of California certified counselor.

Board of Directors

Tasked with assuring the integrity of the Rebuilding Alliance‚ our board of directors completed a Strategic Planning Retreat in February‚ 2006, and meets monthly via teleconference to review the status of building projects, advocacy work, fundraising, and nonprofit management.

• Ghassan Abdullah‚ Ramallah Palestine. Co­founder of PALISAD‚ the Palestine Israel Academic Discussion ("new historians")
• Cindy Corrie‚ Olympia WA. Mother of Rachel Corrie‚ Teacher
• Jennifer Fischer‚ Los Angeles CA. Filmmaker  bio
• Alan Kaufman‚ esq.‚ Detroit MI. Green Party International Committee
• Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom‚ Jerusalem Israel. Rabbi and activist.  bio
• Sarah Williams‚ esq.‚ Berkeley CA. Rotary Peace Scholar‚ Barrister

Honorary Board

We turn to this distinguished group of past board members and key advisors for insight.

• Reverend Fahad Abu­Akel‚ Moderator­Emeritus of the Presbyterian Church
• Dr. Khalil Barhoum‚ Stanford CA. Lecturer in Arabic Studies at Stanford University
• Craig Corrie‚ Olympia WA. Father of Rachel Corrie‚ Actuary
• Margaret Ratner Kuntsler‚ esq.‚ Executive Director‚ William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice. Noted member of the Lawyers Guild‚ and the Center for Constitutional Law
• Germana Nijim‚ Member of the Christian Peacemaking Teams
• Karin Pally‚ Los Angeles‚ CA

Project Partners

We learned early that successful rebuilding efforts require local partners. We are pleased and honored to invite our Project partners to share their thoughts as part of the Teamblog.

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme:
GCMHP is a Palestinian non-governmental, non-profit organization established in 1990 to provide comprehensive community mental health services - therapy, training and research - to the population of the Gaza Strip. Since that time, the Gaza Strip - one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with two thirds of the population being refugees and 50% being younger than 16 years - has witnessed extreme forms of violence and suffering, due to Israeli occupation and military operations. This made the extent of mental health problems in the Gaza reach unprecedented levels. Here are the key people involved with the Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza: -

• Dr. Eyad El Sarraj‚ Founder  bio
• Husam El Nounou‚ Public Relations Coordinator  bio
• Marwan Diab  bio

Combatants for Peace:
C4P is a group of Israeli and Palestinian individuals who were actively involved in the cycle of violence in their area. The Israelis served as combat soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinians were involved in armed resistance in the name of Palestinian liberation. They believe that the blood shed will not end unless they act together to terminate the occupation and stop all forms of violence. They work to educate, raise consciousness and create partners in dialogue, and to maintain political pressure on all governments to stop the cycle of violence.

Associates

Each of these individuals bring their remarkable talent to the work of the Rebuilding Alliance. We invite their thoughts, pictures, and video. We hope you will come to know them and come to appreciate their work as we do!

• Ron Eggleton
• Trent Lutzke
• Tamer Mansour
• Jerry Merrill
• Siouxzie Morrison
• Sylvia Piterman
• Kristi Schaefer
• Amir Terkel  bio
• Alison Weir
• Fred Schlomka
• Jennifer Loewenstein

Families

The Nasrallah Family
Rachel Corrie stayed with Dr. Sameer Nasrallah and his family before she was killed as she blocked the Israeli army bulldozer that threatened their home. Dr. Sameer‚ a pharmacist‚ lived downstairs with his wife and children. His brother Khaled Nasrallah‚ an accountant‚ lived upstairs with his wife and children. Both families and their children were just on the other side of the garden wall when Rachel was killed. Their home was left standing for another 7 months while their neighborhood of 2200 homes was demolished around them. Now the Rebuilding Alliance is nearly finished rebuilding a new home for the Nasrallah family‚ as the first in the Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza.

Dr. Sameer Nasrallah
Kareem‚ Reem‚ & Iman Nasrallah
Khaled Nasrallah
Samah Nasrallah

 

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