WHO WE ARE
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Executive Director
Co-Founder Dr. Sakena Yacoobi Co-Founder Carolyn Dunlap (retired). |
Mission |
Executive Director
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Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is the CEO of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), which she founded in 1995 in response to the lack of education and healthcare faced by the Afghan people after decades of war and strife.
Since its founding, AIL has either directly or indirectly impacted the lives of millions of Afghans. Under her leadership, AIL continues as an innovative organization working at the grassroots level helping communities and individuals. In addition, she has established private facilities in Afghanistan: 4 schools, a hospital and a radio station. She is also Co- Founder and Executive Director of Creating Hope International (CHI). |
Dr. Yacoobi has 6 honorary doctorates from institutions, including Princeton University. Dr. Yacoobi was named 2017 Sunhak Peace Prize Laureate and honored in 2016 as the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education awardee, the 2015 WISE Prize for Education Laureate and the 2013 recipient of the Opus Prize. She is both a Kravis Prize and Gruber Prize awardee. Sakena is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur, Schwab Social Entrepreneur, Ashoka fellow and was nominated as one of 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She serves on a number of boards and panels including, New Global Citizens, the Advisory Council for the Center for Social Impact Learning at theMiddlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and is a former board member for the Global Fund for Women. She is an advisor to the Fetzer Institute, and is a member of the US - Afghan Women’s Council.
Before founding AIL, Dr. Yacoobi was a professor at D’Etre University in Detroit, MI and was Coordinator of the Women’s Programs for the International Rescue Committee in the Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar, Pakistan.
For more information on Sakena see links below.
She serves on a number of boards and panels including, New Global Citizens, the Advisory Council for the Center for Social Impact Learning at theMiddlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and is a former board member for the Global Fund for Women. She is an advisor to the Fetzer Institute, and is a member of the US - Afghan Women’s Council.
Before founding AIL, Dr. Yacoobi was a professor at D’Etre University in Detroit, MI and was Coordinator of the Women’s Programs for the International Rescue Committee in the Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar, Pakistan.
For more information on Sakena see links below.
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Our Team
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Ra'Ven Miller has worked in the CHI office since 2019. She has a degree in political science.
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Elizabeth Appleyard has had CHI as a client since since 2004. She has a degree in English and qualified as a lawyer in the UK. Elizabeth lived for many years in the United States and now resides in the United Kingdom. |
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Nancy Mendicki is President of SBB Tax & Accounting Services LLC. We have been fortunate to have had Nancy provide her accounting and financial skills to both CHI and AIL. We have been a client of Nancy's Michigan based firm since 2003. |
Photography credits
Ginna Fleming
William Marshall of WKM Photography - Eighth National Role Model Award
William Vazquez - Photographer "Maternal Health Initiative" supported by a grant from the Abbott Fund
Afghan Institute of Learning
Christine Olsson - World Children's Prize
Alissa Everett
William Marshall of WKM Photography - Eighth National Role Model Award
William Vazquez - Photographer "Maternal Health Initiative" supported by a grant from the Abbott Fund
Afghan Institute of Learning
Christine Olsson - World Children's Prize
Alissa Everett
