Program Assistant/ Community Builder/ Executive Assistant/ Office Manager
Verified
For the last fifteen years I have worked with non profits and social ventures to create changemakers. I’m passionate about revealing to young people the power they have to build the lives they want, the society we need, and the future we deserve. I am a first generation Sri Lankan Muslim American and my confidence in our ability to integrate coupled with my awareness of the challenges of doing so has moved me to take consistent action in giving our people the tools to help each other.
As a program manager and facilitator with My Name My Story (MNMS) I traveled extensively across the United States, cultivating the skills of social entrepreneurship and human centered design thinking in thousands of students, from all walks of life. I channeled this energy into program management, activity development, and human empowerment.
I next took the position of Student Success Manager at Skillify, a start-up that helped teenagers approach the future with an understanding of their interests and the work they want to do in the world. After my time at Skillify, I worked in Programs and Operations for the Women’s Mosque of America, the first all female worship space for Muslims in America. There I learned the value of representation and grit- how to mobilize a community with grace and intention.
The Women’s Mosque taught me the importance of operational logistics, but it also brought me home to spirituality and the depth that adds to our communities. I then explored religion in society at the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California, which led me to chaplaincy. I trained as an Assistant Chaplain at Cook County jail on the south side of Chicago where I learned about the systemic impacts of violence and the true nature of growing up in poverty, and later worked as an Assistant Chaplain at DePaul University, a private university in Chicago with students who cared deeply about helping the city they lived in.
The juxtaposition of the community I met at Cook County and the young adults at a private UniversitMore...