FOUNDERS
SHEEMA KALBASI
Co-founder and executive director of Roulah, is a humanitarian, a poet and writer on issues of feminism, war, refugees, human rights, a filmmaker on women’s issues, Sharia Law, freedom of expression, and an advocate for women’s rights, minorities rights, children’s rights, human rights, and refugees’ rights. A Danish national and resident of the United States, she served in the Danish defense and has taught refugee children and worked for the UNHCR and the Center for Refugees in Pakistan.
SHAGHAYEGH MORADIANNEJAD
Co-founder and artistic director of Roulah, is a graduate of Natural Resources Engineering from Iran and photography from Denmark. A filmmaker by training, she has been making films on issues related to women in the Middle East and Asia. As a humanitarian and social documentary photographer, Shaghayegh has devoted most of her time to narrating women’s stories around the world through the lens of her photography and has won multiple awards for her work. She resides in Canada.
ANTO CHITTILAPPILLY
Chief of marketing of Roulah, is the President, Co-Founder, and CTO at Visual IQ/Nielsen. He is a marketing measurement and optimization specialist with a passion for helping Fortune 500 and Internet 1000 advertisers to measure and optimize their advertising and marketing spend. A recognized expert, author, and speaker on marketing attribution, marketing mix modeling, and marketing audience analysis, Anto is a cloud computing expert, leading teams to build cloud databases that intake several billion records a day.
Advisory Board
Dr. NAMDAR BAGHAEI-YAZDI
He is the Managing Director of Biotech Consultants Limited (BTCL) and winner of 1993 prestigious CEREAL PRIZE (Le Prix Céréalier) awarded by French Cereal Organisations (Céréaliers de France). Namdar, a Ph.D. in Biotechnology, is a Visiting Lecturer and Industrial Research Fellow at the University of Westminster (London, UK) and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire (Luton, UK). He has also been involved in Iranian cultural and charity affairs in the UK and a trustee of the Library for Iranian Studies in London.
SOMA YASEEN HAMA
She is an attorney based in Kurdistan, Iraq. In addition to practicing in the private sector, she is a volunteer lawyer for the Kurdistan Women’s Union, assisting women in need of legal advice, Soma also works as a legal instructor at the Family Counseling Clinic in Sulaymaniyah in premarital counseling courses in the legal field. She is a member of My Name is my mother’s name campaign, which is preparing a bill to facilitate the National Card Law in Iraqi Kurdistan so that children can obtain birth certificates through their mother’s name.
MELISSA STUDDARD
Melissa Studdard is a poet and professor based in Texas, United States. Her awards include the Poetry Society if America’s Lucille Medwick award for a poem on humanitarian theme and Penn Review poetry prize. In addition to writing and teaching, she has served as president of the associated writing programs women’s caucus and a podcast host and volunteer for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, an intersectional feminist literary organization dedicated to amplifying historically-marginalized voices and creating transparency about gender imbalances and lack of diversity in the literary field.
TOURYALAI GHIYASI
Touryalai Ghiyasi is the Director General of Afghanistan’s cultural relations department. Mr. Ghiyasi is the former minister-counselor to the embassy of Afghanistan in Riyadh and Jakarta, and the former general consul of Afghanistan in Mashhad, Iran. He has received his master’s in political science and engineering, and is the founder and editor in chief of multiple newspapers and magazines. His writings center around politics, history of Afghanistan, diplomacy, and international relations.
ADELLE NAZARIAN
Adelle Nazarian is the Communications Director for Citizens for a Secure and Safe America (C4SSA) based in Washington, DC. She is also a senior media fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy (GIIS). Her work on national security, foreign policy, human rights, and religious freedom is respected and recognized the world over. Adelle’s over a decade-long career in journalism has taken her around the world where she has met with many world leaders, addressed diverse audiences on national security and human rights issues, and met with people from all walks of life, with the aim of working towards creating a better present and future for all the inhabitants of this world.
Treasurer
JANE NORTH
Secretary
