Oakland, California

Joseph is the Board Chair of the Afghan-American Foundation.

He is a Senior Director at Cisco Systems where he serves as Associate General Counsel and Global Head of Anticorruption. An attorney and policy advisor, he began legal practice at the international law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, focused on financial and white collar crime and internal investigations, including matters before the US Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") of the US Department of the Treasury.

A recognized leader in global anticorruption work, his policy advisory engagements have included work with the Institute for State Effectiveness as a Strategic Infrastructure Advisor focused on corruption and risk management issues in Afghanistan. He has previously held senior in-house legal roles at Infor, News Corp, Accenture, and Oracle. He also previously served as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at HSBC plc, and was the bank’s lead counsel globally for corruption and bribery issues and a member of specialized Global Internal Investigations Group charged with investigation of bribery, money laundering and sanctions-related matters.

Joseph holds a Juris Doctor from the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco, where he was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International and Comparative Law Review, has served on the Board of Governors, and was part of the Hastings-to-Haití Partnership — a collaboration between the University of California and the L’École Supérieure Catholique de Droit de Jérémie (ESCDROJ), in Jérémie, Haiti. He holds an M.A. from the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University, and a B.A. in International Politics and Philosophy from New York University. His graduate research focused on Afghanistan, Political Islam, and the first rise of the Taliban.

He has been a contributor fo Newsweek, The Hill MTVNews, Ethisphere, the San Francisco Chronicle, the LA Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Lucky Peach Magazine.

Omaha, Nebraska

Mustafa Babak co-founded the Afghan-American Foundation and served as its first full-time Executive Director. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board.

Born and raised in Afghanistan, Mustafa has deep in-country experience working on issues ranging from civic infrastructure to local elections and health reform.

As a longtime leader in the Afghan diaspora, Mustafa conducted the first comprehensive study of Afghan-Americans through a project with the Open Society Foundation. When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, Mustafa helped lead AAF in advocating for the evacuation and resettlement of more than 95,000 Afghans in the U.S.

Mustafa is a nationally recognized policy advisor and advocate, focused on immigration policy, social transformation, and community empowerment for Afghan-Americans.

Mustafa is a graduate of the University of the Pacific and has held senior positions with the World Bank and the Palladium Group, where he worked to reform health delivery systems in Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Ghana.

Mustafa is currently an Emerson Collective Fellow and is working on creating a new, comprehensive program for welcoming Afghans to his home city of Omaha, Nebraska. This model will include civics workshops on topics like the U.S. Constitution and voting, immersion days that bring Afghans into the city’s public institutions, and storytelling sessions and cultural exchanges that foster understanding with the wider community.

Springfield, Virginia

Wida serves of the Board Treasurer for the Afghan-American Foundition.

She is the current Washington, D.C. Director of Program at Global Kids, an emerging national organization that inspires, activates, and trains youth from underserved communities to become local and global leaders. In this role, Wida leads the organization’s programmatic vision, strategic planning and private and public partnerships. Additionally, she leads GK’s mission in her roles as the Global Access Pipeline (GAP) Co-chair, a consortium of organizations with the mission to expand diversity in foreign affairs sector. As Co-chair for the DC-Action for Children’s Out of School Time Coalition, Wida helped lead the District's youth development service agency’s advocacy priorities. In addition to decades of leadership in the non-profit, youth development, and social justice fields, Wida has also led federal and local immigration policy advocacy campaigns on behalf of women, children and families.

She previously served as the Immigrant Rights Director at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), focused on advancing the interests of immigrant women and pushing for inclusive national immigration policy reform. She has also worked with South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), a community-based youth development organization, centering the needs of immigrant children in NYC.

Wida is a University of California, San Diego alum, an International Career Advancement Program Fellow, and a recipient of two management certificates from the Columbia Business School, Institute for Not-profit Management. After living in three different countries, and then California, she currently calls Virginia home.

Los Angeles, California

Haroon is a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and Program Director for the Initiative on Security and Religious Freedom. This Initiative focuses on pioneering multidisciplinary approaches for the most pressing global security challenges while preserving constitutional ideals. Prior to his current role, Mr. Azar was the Regional Director in Los Angeles for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His office partnered with both government and nongovernment entities locally to advance the Department’s risk mitigation mission. Previously, Haroon worked as Deputy Director for the Middle East, Africa, & South Asia in the Office of International Affairs at DHS Headquarters in Washington DC. His portfolio included providing the Office of the Secretary with policy counsel and management of international affairs related to homeland security. Additionally, Haroon was responsible for negotiating bilateral and multilateral security agreements with international partners focusing on improving immigration policy, visa security, aviation security and border security.

Haroon received a Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law where he focused on the intersection of national security and civil rights.

Washington, D.C.

Jawaid is an entrepreneur, community leader and advocate with an established track record of empowering the Afghan-American community. He is the founder of Afghans Living in the DC Area (ALDC), one of the largest Afghan-American community groups in the United States. Jawaid previously worked as a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). His past work has also included extensive experience with refugee and immigrant communities the United States, including through work with the International Rescue Committee.

New York, New York

Freshta currently leads the Refugee Interventionist Program at Cornerstone Family and Marriage Intervention. She spearheads intervention sessions that incorporate, but are not limited to, clients with PTSD, anger management, and domestic violence. She oversees a team that implements emotional wellness workshops for refugee teens and adults. She is also the Managing Director of FT Translation Services and has led translating and and subtitling projects for major films and documentaries. Freshta teaches Behavioral Health Interpretation courses to various groups including mental health providers in the Northern Virginia. She hosts an Afghan TV show focused on issues facing the Afghan community.

Before becoming an interventionist, Freshta did extensive advocacy work on behalf of underserved and marginalized Middle Eastern and South Asian populations. She is a sought-after cultural and linguistic subject matter expert whose current work is focused on resettlement and integration of newly arrived Afghans in the United States.