PILLARS4HUMANITY

Chief Executive Officer

Nila Latif

At a young age, Nila was displaced from her native country of Afghanistan and resettled in Springfield, Virginia. As a refugee herself, she understands the struggle and impact of war and the challenges that comes with. This early experience helped shape her commitment to service in her life. 

​

She holds a B.A. in International Relations for George Mason University and an M.A. in Human Resources Management from the Marymount University. She brings 20 years of human resources, management, project management, and operation spanning in private, federal government, and nonprofits sector.

​

In 2005, Nila decided to go back Afghanistan and service as on ground Human Resources Manager with MPRI/L3 Communications.  While perusing her professional career, she used the opportunity to work as a volunteer with the Caplan’s office on the military base to distribute donations to children, worked other NGOs to help build schools, and support an orphanage.  
Upon her return to U.S she continued to volunteer with various organizations.

​

Since August 2021, Nila has been a Lead for Virginia Council of Muslim Organizations (VMCO) umbrella organization of all Virginia muslim organizations task force for Operation Welcome Allies serving as the face of the organization. She is also the co-creator of Afghan Refugee Crisis Committee (ARCC) umbrella group of all Afghan-American organizations supporting the Afghan refugees. Working with Governor Markell, and Governor Northam office to help with policy and laws effecting Afghan refugees. As a lead for Virginia Council of Muslim Organization task force for Unaccompanied Minors and working closely with LSSNCA, LIRS, Commonwealth Catholic Charities, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Office of New Americans, State of Virginia, and Department of Health and Human Services representatives.  She has helped Develop and strengthen partnerships with key stakeholders and constituencies including other non-profit, clients, veteran organizations, government agencies, donors, politicians, educational institutions, and other community services. Supporting State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Expo Center, Dulles Airport, and 8 US Military bases hosting Afghan Refugees with donations, translation services, cultural advising, educational information, mental health, medical, and additional supported as needed. She has also led the pilot programs for Surge Support and Unaccompanied Minors for the Resettlement Agencies, State Department (PRM), and Office Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

Chief Operations Officer

Mariam Kakar

Mariam Kakar’s career in activism began from an early age following her immigration to the United States from Afghanistan. First serving as an immigration paralegal for several years, she discovered her passion for helping the neediest of populations and decided to return to school to become a Special Needs teacher. Upon graduation, Mariam worked as a Special Education teacher across a number of Title 1 schools and later became an independent SPED Curriculum Consultant. While working with PWC Schools, she volunteered to assist newly arrived Afghan families within the system to help them navigate the school system as well as teacher, student, and parent communication.
Following the fall of Kabul in 2021, Mariam began volunteering at Quantico Base Camp Upshur to work with Afghan refugees. In August of that year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at Quantico hired her to build an English/American Life Skills curriculum for the evacuees. At the same time, she also worked with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants as a Mental Health Case Manager at Quantico. Throughout her time at Quantico, Mariam conducted several large fundraising efforts for Winter clothing drives for Afghan Refugees being hosted in the 8 Military Bases across the US. 

Mariam commenced the Women for Afghan Women Community Center located in Alexandria from the ground up, serving as the Program Manager. As the Program Manager, she managed a 900+ client caseload, built a curriculum focused on life skills based on English literacy for the newly arrived refugees, managed Asylum Clinics and supported various projects and programs while collaborating with other Community Organizations. Mariam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and Curriculum and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and Communication from Arkansas State University. She also serves as an active Board member for Komak Rasan. Mariam developed partnerships with key stakeholders and constituencies such as government agencies, clients, donors, politicians, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions. 
Her greatest passion is serving as an advocate for refugees and women’s empowerment. Her work has been instrumental in growing her love and interest in human rights issues, humanitarian policies, and social inequalities. With a comprehensive understanding of different global issues integrating human rights with gender and culture, she strives to promote equal rights and social inclusion through her work with Pillars 4 Humanity.

Mariam is the Co-Founder/ COO for Pillars 4 Humanity, a non-profit, 501(c)3, whose mission is to advocate, empower, and promote the integration of asylum seekers and refugees.

Chief Information Officer

Nasima Ali

Nasima feels deeply that organizations can tackle humanity's tough challenges, e.g. poverty, illiteracy, homelessness, climate change, and so on. Evidence of this passion for group action lies in her track record of helping individuals organize themselves into social justice entities. Whether for the female undergraduates at University of Maryland (1990-93)), or the incredible Muslim refugee resettlement volunteers in Maryland (2022-now), Nasima’s goal was to nurture the collective will to do something meaningful and effective. Besides co-founding MWM, IHSAN, and MD ARCC, she also started blogs and businesses. Sometimes, Nasima’s passion for organizations has also appeared as working within organizations who are agents of change, such as schools (Darul Arqam, AlHuda, PGMA) and nonprofits (DUS, MAV). Along the way, Nasima has garnered much experience in nonprofit startup, structuring, fundraising and operations. She is grateful that her training as a scientist (B.S. & M.S. Biology), and certification as a teacher have given her the skills to generate databases, do technical writing, and create curriculums for these respective causes.