Rachel Williams
President/Director
Rachel Williams is a third generation activist and exemplifies Ubuntu. Rachel began traveling to Pakistan while living in Singapore in the early 1990s. She became acquainted with Afghan Mission and Afghan women committed to non violence and education as the way to peace, freedom, and democracy for Afghanistan. Rachel is the Rotary District Literacy Coordinator for the Boston area. She believes that literacy is the key to peace, both globally and locally.
Maryam Shansab
Secretary
Maryam Shansab was born in Kabul Afghanistan and came in the U.S. in 1989. She holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from Tufts University and a Master’s degree in International Public Health from Boston University. Maryam is currently a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Ragon Institute where she is studying the immune response to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Maryam has a long standing interest in infectious diseases. She believes that local communities are fully capable of providing and supporting themselves if they are given the right for self- determination and allowed to pursue their interests and needs in a manner consistent with their culture and beliefs.
Justin Hall
Vice President of Development
Justin Hall graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, CT with Honors in Anthropology, a minor in Legal Studies, and a minor in Environment and Human Values; he studied abroad at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia, focusing in Anthropology, Ancient Iranian Religion, and Indigenous Land Rights. At Trinity, he was awarded the 2008 Human Rights Summer Fellowship to intern at Lawyers Without Borders. Mr. Hall completed his thesis on the conceptualization of Culture and Power in the creation of International Universal Human Rights Law, and Universal Human Rights Law as a cultural system. He has assisted and participated in the International Leadership Training Programme hosted by the UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights as a rapporteur and member of the planning committee. His professional experience extends to being a part of the staff at Lawyers Without Borders, as well as the Assistant to the Head of School and Interim/Acting Head of the Nursery and Primary Schools at CTC International School in Lagos, Nigeria.
