IRA-USA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• President and Chief Executive Officer, IRA - USA

Alice Bullard is a Washington DC based lawyer, with a practice in human rights and environmental law. She has worked with Mauritanian human rights activists since the late 1990s. From 1994 - 2007 Bullard was a professor of history at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta Georgia, where she co-founded the Human Rights Initiative with the generous sponsorship of the B Wardlaw Foundation. Her publications include Exile to Paradise, (Stanford University Press, 2000) and Human Rights in Crisis, (Ashgate 2008) and numerous essays. Bullard earned her doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkleley and her juris doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Paris, France and has received more than twenty national and international fellowships and awards. She is licensed to practice law in Washington DC and Maryland. See Bullard Esq for more information about legal services in non-profit, government relations, human rights, and media messaging.

Job Titles:

• President of Femmes Chef De Famille, Biram Dah Abeid

Job Titles:

• Secretary of the Board, IRA - USA

Tandia pioneered United States-based activism for human rights in Mauritania. Working with the American Friends Service Committee and other human rights organizations, he orchestrated U.S. campaigns for Mauritanian leaders and human rights activists between 1998 and 2008. In preparation for the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Tandia worked with Filmmaker and Human Rights Lawyer Michele Stephenson on her documentary, "Faces of Change". The film highlights human rights violations in Brazil, Bulgaria, India, Mauritania, and United States. Tandia has featured in numerous discussions of this film at screenings in international film festivals. He also leads workshops for participants in the Human Rights Advocacy Program, Columbia University. Tandia is also a Co-Founder of Abolition Institute, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to the eradication of slavery in Mauritania. He sits on the board of directors of the New York Immigration Coalition and of the Abolition Institute.

Mr. Abeid is a Mauritanian politician and advocate for the abolition of slavery in Mauritania. In 2008 he founded the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA-Mauritania). In May 2013, Biram Dah Abeid received the Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Rish of the Irish NGO Front Line Defenders. In December 2013, he received the United Nations Human Rights Award. You can learn more about Mr. Abeid's work in the New Yorker.

Isabel Wade is a current student at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California studying International Relations and French with a focus on human rights. A passionate advocate against slavery, Isabel travelled to Mauritania in 2014 to research slavery and what U.S. policy should be towards the country. Isabel has also worked with Polaris Project, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, and Challenging Heights. She is assisting with outreach and website maintenance.

Job Titles:

• Professor

Professor Jerry Herman is a professor and lecturer in history at the Camden County College and Southern Illinois University and in communication at Lindenwood University. Professor Herman has been involved with many activism campaigns in the United States such as the Anti-Apartheid, Anti-Slavery campaigns as well as the Voter Registration Campaign in Savanna, Georgia and the Open Housing Campaign in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to being an active member on numerous campaigns, Professor Herman has also published articles in Angola, Mozambique and Mauritania Reader and was the editor of the United States Anti-Apartheid Newspaper. Professor Herman has also travelled and researched around the world in places such a Rwanda as a genocide observer and has been on an Anti-Slavery fact finding mission in Mauritania.

Job Titles:

• Associate With IRA - USA for Summer 2015

Lenyonga Jennifer Fomunung is a current summer associate with IRA-USA for Summer 2015. She is a National Achievement scholar, and received a bachelor's degree in International Studies with a minor in Mandarin from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 2014. She has had experience in East Asia, and extensive experience in West Africa, as a Cameroon-born immigrant. She is currently a rising second-year law student at the Georgetown University Law Center, and is expecting to receive her Juris Doctor degree in Spring 2017.

Michael Hayworth is currently volunteering with us as a development professional and web-developer. He is a lawyer in Toronto Canada, has run campaigns for Walkfree and for many years worked as a development professional for Amnesty International in Australia.

Suzanne Reichardt began as an intern at IRA - USA in the fall of 2014. She is an international studies bachelor of arts student at American University. In the spring of 2015 she edited and helped to publish Mauritania Look 2014.