Staff
Shaymaa Khalil - Operations Director
Shaymaa was born in Babylon in October 1984, but was raised in Baghdad. She graduated from high school in 2002 and went back to college in 2009, graduating from Al-Mamon University College Department of Translation in 2013. She worked as a freelance translator with British Council in Baghdad. In addition, she volunteered as the project manager for a Reading Club to encourage kids who drop out of school to go back and continue their education. She designed and delivered creative projects to increase enrolment in schools, reduce dropout, and increase access to education for disabled children. In March 2019, she and her family moved to Minnesota as immigrants. Shaymaa earned her certificate in Interpreting and Translation from Century College and now works as an Arabic-English interpreter and translator in medical fields and schools.
Jamal Ali - Iraqi Voices Community Engagement Facilitator
Jamal Ali was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq. He graduated from Spartan College of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1979 and had a career as an aircraft maintenance engineer for Iraqi Airways. His moved with his wife and two children to Minnesota in 2009. Jamal now lives in Spring Lake Park and works as a medical interpreter. He has been a part of the Iraqi Voices project since 2012. Jamal tells his own story through the Iraqi Voices program with his film “That's What We Hear on the News” and went on to direct three additional films in collaboration with other Iraqi Voices participants. Now as the first Iraqi Voices Community Engagement Facilitator, Jamal played a key role in producing the original theater piece “Birds Sing Differently Here” at the Guthrie in 2017 and on tour in Minnesota in 2019. Jamal was awarded the Outstanding Refugee, Entrepreneurship Award by the Minnesota Department of Human Services in 2019 for his role in creating innovative art and spaces to strengthen cultural awareness and understanding as part of IARP’s Iraqi Voices series.
Lina Alsharefee - Communications and Development Assistant
Lina is a student originally from Iraq, who has lived in three different countries. She started in her homeland of Iraq, spent three years in Turkey, and now resides in Minnesota, United States. Currently, she's studying at Anoka Ramsey Community College with the aim of majoring in Biology, driven by her childhood passion for the medical field. She enjoys painting cultural pieces that are inspired by her Iraqi heritage and reading with her mother. She enjoys reading mystery/thriller books that "keep you on your toes throughout the book".
Board of Directors
Dr. Azar Maluki
Dr. Azar Maluki MD, was born in Najaf, Iraq. He is a board-certified dermatologist, and was a consultant physician and professor at the University of Kufa, Iraq. He is married to Shaymaa Jakjook (M.Sc., Geography) and has two sons and one daughter. Azar first visited Minneapolis in 2011 and 2013 with a delegation of Iraqi health professionals as part of the exchange visits between Najaf and Minneapolis organized by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. He arrived in Minneapolis with his family in 2015 and joined the Dermatology Imaging Center in the Department of Dermatology at the UMN-Twin Cities Campus as a Research Fellow. Dr. Maluki has directed one short documentary film as part of the Iraqi Voices project.
Furquan Mahdi
Shaymaa Halboos
Shaymaa Khalil
Shaymaa was born in Babylon in October 1984, but was raised in Baghdad. She graduated from high school in 2002 and went back to college in 2009, graduating from Al-Mamon University College Department of Translation in 2013. She worked as a freelance translator with British Council in Baghdad. In addition, she volunteered as the project manager for a Reading Club to encourage kids who drop out of school to go back and continue their education. She designed and delivered creative projects to increase enrolment in schools, reduce dropout, and increase access to education for disabled children. In March 2019, she and her family moved to Minnesota as immigrants. Shaymaa earned her certificate in Interpreting and Translation from Century College and now works as an Arabic-English interpreter and translator in medical fields and schools.
Board Members Emeritus
Steve Clemens, Founding Board Member, IARP
Kathy McKay, Founding Board Member and former Executive Director, IARP
Luke Wilcox, Former IARP Development and Communications Director and Board Member
Salam Murtada, Former Board Chair, IARP