Nadine is the President of Patriot Voices, where she provides her expertise to shape the organization’s special emphasis on public policies that support working families. Drawing on her extensive network and coalition-building experiences, she has helped build unique coalitions on issues such as paid family leave, health care, tax reform, and international religious freedom. Since June 2021, Nadine has served as the Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, having been re-appointed by the White House in May of 2020 to a second two-year term. She served as Vice Chair in 2019. She has represented USCIRF in delegations to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan. She has traveled in her own personal capacity to better understand religious freedom conditions in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Bangladesh as well as recently spending a month in northeast Syria. She is most honored to have met with persecuted communities of various faiths from around the world. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Global Engagement, the Sinjar Academy, and the Freedom Research Foundation. Previously, she was Chairman of Hardwired Global, an organization working to stop religious oppression around the world. Nadine has advised several major organizations on faith engagement, policy development, and strategic partnerships through The Clapham Group including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The College Board, and The Anne E. Casey Foundation. She has served as a senior advisor to presidential and Senate campaigns. She has decades of experience in fundraising and coalition building, having worked with presidential and Senate super PACs, served as the finance director for the Pennsylvania Republican Party, and as a consultant to the Republican National Committee. She worked on Capitol Hill in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Nadine’s writings on various policy topics have been published in numerous publications domestically and internationally. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University. She is married with three children living outside of Philadelphia in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Sinam Sherkany Mohamad was the founding Co-President of the People’s Council of Rojava. The People’s Council of Western Kurdistan (Rojava) was founded in 2011 during the first term of the Syrian opposition uprising, and operated as the supreme political body of the liberated areas of northern and northeast Syria. She was a member of The Kurdish High Commission, which was the political representation for the Syrian Kurds during the agreements of Erbil between the National Kurdish council and Rojava people council in 2012. This governing body is now known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). She served as the European diplomatic representative of the AANES. She is now the Co-Chief of the US Mission of the Syrian Democratic Council in Washington DC, Mohamad is currently a top diplomat of the AANES and Syrian Democratic council . She is also a member of the Presidential Council of the SDC. Mohamad is a Kurdish woman and has been a leading advocate for women’s rights and democracy in Syria. She was twice nominated to run for Syrian Parliament, in 2003 and 2007 during the Assad regime’s rule. Mohamad was born in Damascus, Syria. She is a graduate of the University of Aleppo. She is married with four children.

Begikhani is a leading researcher on gender-based violence (GBV), having conducted research on many aspects of violence and gender relations, including honour-based violence and honour killings in the UK and in Iraq: She has particularly focused on women and war, examining rape and sexual violence during conflict in Iraq and Syria. She recently finished a two-year research project on gender-based violence and displacement, which was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She has worked as an expert advisor with a range of national and international organizations and government departments, including the United Nation’s Assistance Mission to Iraqi (UNAMI), UN Women, the UK Metropolitan Police, the Swedish Ministry of Integration and Amnesty International. She has addressed social policy in post-conflict Iraq and currently advises the Kurdistan Region’s President on Higher Education and Gender. In addition, she is the Middle East editor for the journal-of-gender-based-violence (https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/journal-of-gender-based-violence) and the director a Specialized Imprint (Collection) at the L’Harmattan, entitled  ‘Peuples cultures et littératures de l’Orient’. Between 2009 -2013, she was the Editor-in-Chief of Le Monde Diplomatique, Kurdish edition.  Nazand is also an internationally known poet, having won several poetry prizes, including France’s Simone Landrey’s Feminine Poetry Prize in 2012.

Mannan Seuliman MCHC, Emeritus Parisian Institute of Molecular Chemistry (ERMESS team).

Mr. Sierwan Najmaldin Karim, President of the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI), was previously security director and senior advisor to the late governor of Kirkuk, Dr. Najmaldin O. Karim, Founder and past President of WKI. From a young age, under the tutelage of his father, Mr. Karim has been involved in Kurdish activism, serving in various roles with several Kurdish organizations, promoting a united free Kurdistan representing Kurds from all areas. In his professional life, Mr. Karim has extensive experience as a real estate asset manager and land developer, and provides consulting services to commercial real estate investors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Maryland and is a master’s candidate at Georgetown University, where he was recently elected as Chairman of the Student Advisory Board of Real Estate. He is a resident of Florida, where he lives with his wife and daughter.