Refugee & Immigrant Transitions

Board Chair
Refugee and Immigrant Advocate

Malaak Malikyar Sills is a well-regarded leader in the Afghan diaspora. Malaak works to make visible and connect ideas, people, and initiatives towards a common purpose. She does this through her role as a trustee of the Sills Family Foundation, where she works with refugee and immigrant communities, survivors of human trafficking, families affected by incarceration, and environmental advocates.

Malaak further serves as an advisor on the Welcome.US fund and Board Chair of Refugee and Immigrant Transitions (RIT), where she previously worked as Afghan Community Senior Advisor.

Assistant Teaching Professor of Community-Engaged Research and Learning
Sociology Department at the University of California Santa Cruz

Amy Argenal completed her doctorate in International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco, where she also received her Master’s in the same area of study. She received her second Masters in Human Rights from Mahidol University in Thailand, where she continued to partner with human rights activists in South East Asia, through her doctorate research focusing on human rights activism in Myanmar.

Board Secretary
Managing Director
Newport Board Group

Michael Evans is the Managing Director for the Newport Board Group; a national Board and CEO Advisory firm. Prior to Newport Board Group, Michael L. Evans had been with Ernst & Young. During his many years with the firm, he served as a tax, audit, and consulting services partner. Prior to Ernst & Young, Michael was with Interregional Financial Group and a law firm engaged in corporate law.

Co-Executive Director (Co-ED)

Jane Pak is Co-Executive Director at Refugee and Immigrant Transitions and Adjunct Professor in the Master in Migration Studies program at the University of San Francisco (USF). Her scholarship and praxis are informed by Critical Refugee Studies; liberatory education; and transnational solidarity. Jane is most energized when engaging with diverse communities and knowledges in collective contexts. Her background is in strategy, development, and research in education and refugee contexts. She has worked in community, nonprofit, government, and business sectors. Jane's work for justice is motivated by a multi-generational family history of forced migration, resistance, and service.

Educator

Deborah Samaké recently retired from a long career in education. She is a native San Franciscan who has taught elementary through high school students in public, private and parochial schools. For the last 21 years, she taught social science, history, and community engagement courses at Urban School of San Francisco all through a lens of multiculturalism, inclusivity and balanced inquiry. As a curriculum developer and experienced educator, Deborah served as a master teacher at Shady Hill Middle School in Cambridge, Massachusetts (an apprentice teacher school). She co-directed Aim High (a multi-year summer enrichment program for 6th – 9th graders across Northern California) for nine years. After her co-director tenure, Deborah returned to Aim High, serving as a board member, on DEI planning committees, and as co-director. 

Attorney

Kaveena is a Managing Attorney at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC). She started as a legal intern at EBSC in 2003. After earning a BA from Brown University and a JD from UC Hastings, she clerked at the LA Immigration Court and was a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As Managing Attorney, she supervises all aspects of EBSC’s legal program. She joined the RIT Board in 2023.

Former Chief Strategy Officer, Teads
Board Advisor, Plateful Health

Todd Tran is a former refugee who left Vietnam in 1978 on a boat and arrived in Hong Kong and stayed in a refugee camp for a year. In 1979, he was resettled in the US, arriving first in Cleveland, OH and then moved to California a year later. Todd grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in the suburbs of Los Angeles in a community that included many Vietnamese refugees. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1996 and worked as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company, then shifting to internet and tech companies including Apple, WPP, Rovio, and Teads. Over the last 20 years, Todd has taken senior executive roles in companies including as General Manager of Europe for Apple’s advertising division, Managing Director of International for Millennial Media (now part of Yahoo!), and Chief Strategy Officer of Teads, a global digital advertising technology company. He has also worked for a business incubator launching new startups.

Co-Executive Director (Co-ED)

Laura Vaudreuil has been honored to serve as Executive Director at Refugee & Immigrant Transitions since 2003, and to be part of the organization since 2001. With a passion for human rights and education, Laura provides leadership for Refugee & Immigrant Transitions, partnering with an amazing team to welcome people who’ve sought refuge and expand services responsive to their needs. She works closely with a dedicated board of directors, diverse staff, and hundreds of committed volunteers to help our students get on pathways to education, citizenship, and employment opportunities. Under Laura's leadership, Refugee & Immigrant Transitions has forged strong partnerships with school districts, nonprofits, and city and county agencies throughout the Bay Area. This has led to the development and expansion of the agency’s education programs serving young children, youth, and adults; leadership opportunities for community members; wellness programs; and family support services.

Director
National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB)
 
Ko Ko Lay is a Burmese activist who continually struggles for peace, social justice and freedom in Burma. While living on the Thai-Burma border, he served as Secretary of Information for the Central Executive Committee of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF). After moving to the United States, he received an A.S. degree in Photography; B.A. degrees in Industrial Design and Global Peace; and an M.A.I.A degree in Social Change Design and Conflict Resolution with an emphasis in International Conflicts. He is a founder of the Open Students Network for Burma at San Francisco State University (SFSU).

Partner
Nossaman LLP

Yuliya A. Oryol is Co-Chair of the Public Pensions and Investments Practice Group at Nossaman LLP and serves on the Firm’s Executive Committee. Ms. Oryol represents public pension plans and other institutional investors, government agencies, multi-national corporations and privately held companies in a broad range of investment, corporate and real estate matters. Ms. Oryol appears before boards of directors to present on issues related to investments and works with investment officers and in-house counsel on investment related matters. She also regularly speaks to industry and professional organizations on alternative investments and other investment related matters and also publishes on this subject.

Human Rights Advocate & Storyteller
Author, The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
clemantine.org • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Medium

Clemantine Wamariya is an internationally renowned speaker, a NYTimes bestselling author, and an accomplished human rights advocate. Her memoir The Girl Who Smiled Beads debuted with Crown Press in April 2018 and is published in 5 languages and dozens of countries. In  “vivid prose,” the book describes Clemantine’s journey from her idyllic childhood in Kigali, Rwanda up until 1994 to seeking refuge in eight different countries throughout Africa, to finally receiving a refugee status in the USA in 2000.

Chief Operating Officer
Rimon, P.C.

Yaacov is the Chief Operating Officer and a Managing Partner of Rimon, P.C., a law firm based in San Francisco. Rimon is a California Benefit Corporation and a certified B Corporation, in recognition of its civic and environmental stewardship. As part of that commitment, Yaacov often acts as pro bono counsel to clients of Legal Services for Entrepreneurs, a division of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

Vice President, Finance
Vocera Communications

Nabeel is a finance executive and currently the Vice President, Finance at Vocera Communications, a company that provides integrated, intelligent communication to instantly connect people in mobile, mission-critical environments. Formerly, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Wanderful Media, a mobile advertising solution for retailers, and Chief Financial Officer of MarketTools, a provider of software and services for online market research.