THE ARAB-AMERICAN FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER

Board of Directors

 Samer E. Khalaf AAFSC's Board Chairman. He is an attorney specializing in the fields of labor law and workers’ compensation. He received a B.A. in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University located in Richmond. He received his J.D. with a Certificate in Law and Public Policy from The Catholic University of America, School of Law in Washington, DC. Mr. Khalaf is the former Legal Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and sits on the Executive Board of the ADC, New Jersey Chapter. Mr. Khalaf is a member of the Arab American Institute’s National Policy Council. He is a member of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Arab and Muslim Advisory Committee and is Co-chairman of the New Jersey Arab-American Democratic Caucus. Additionally, Mr. Khalaf serves on the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Association in Passaic County and is a member of its Arab Outreach Task Force. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of St. Mark’s Syrian Orthodox Cathedral.

Joseph Elhilow is the Vice Chairman of AAFSC's Board of Directors. He is an attorney specializing in Real Estate, Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Trusts and Estates, Estate Planning, Wills and Probate, Bankruptcy, Collections, and Business and Corporate Law. He is a partner in the firm of Elhilow & Maiocchi, which has offices in Brooklyn and Westchester County. Prior to joining AAFSC’s Board, Mr. Elhilow served on the Board of Directors of The Arab American Association of New York and The Salaam Club. He currently serves on the Board of St. Nicholas Home for the Aged and the Bay Ridge Development Corporation.

James Hood is AAFSC's Treasurer. He is currently Assistant Executive Director of Administrative Services at United Cerebral Palsy of New York City where he oversees the Corporation’s administrative support services including Human Resources, MIS, Building Services and Purchasing. Mr. Hood has more than 20 years experience in the administration of services to at risk families and children and to adults with disabilities. He holds an undergraduate degree from Union College and graduate degrees in Social Work and Business Administration from SUNY Albany and Baruch College, respectively. Prior to his appointment at UCP/NYC, Mr. Hood worked for many years as Assistant Executive Director of the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service and more recently as Interim Executive Director of the Arab American Family Support Center.

Anny Bakalian is AAFSC's Board Secretary. She is Associate Director of the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. She was born and raised in Lebanon. She received her undergraduate degree from the American University of Beirut and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is the author of Armenian Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian (Transaction Press, 1993); and Backlash 9/11: Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans Respond with Mehdi Bozorgmehr (University of California Press, 2009). Anny has volunteered to a variety of social and educational causes all her adult life. She is a founding board president of the Arab American Family Support Center. She also serves on the board of ALWAN for the Arts. She is delighted to return to the Board of the Arab American Family Support Center.

Sherief Meleis is a Managing Director and Founder of Novantas, a management consultancy to financial institutions. He has been involved with the Center since 1994, establishing the Tutoring Program and serving as Treasurer in the mid-90s. Mr. Meleis received his B.A. in Economics from Harvard College and his MBA from MIT.






Joseph Botros is the Founder and Vice President of the Egyptian American Arts and Culture Foundation and a board member of the Arab-American Family Support Center. Mr. Botros has been a public servant for 29 years and currently works as an Auditor at the Department of Taxation and Finance where he received the Commissioner’s Award for Excellence in 2002. Mr. Botros is a survivor of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center: his office was located at the 86th floor of the south tower. He is currently finishing his Master’s Degree in Public Administration at New York University.

Soprano Christine Moore Vassallo has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including leading roles with the Leipzig Opera, Central City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Aldeburgh Fall Festival, Amato Opera, and Sacramento Opera, and concerts with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Paxton House Summer Music in Scotland, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, AmerikaHaus in Leipzig, Merkin Concert Hall, and Trinity Church New York City. She is active in the performance of new works by composers and has been a regular performer with the American Composers Alliance. Ms. Vassallo is of Lebanese-Egyptian descent and is active in Arab-American causes in the New York City region and nationally.


Shermane Bilal is a Philanthropic Advisor and Editor of Linkages, the newsletter of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Much of her funding work focuses on women and girls. Prior to joining Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in 1992, she served for five years as Grants & Program Manager/Assistant to the Director of Long Island University’s Institute for the Advancement of Mathematics and Science, a National Science Foundation-funded middle school math and science teacher retraining institute. Ms. Bilal is an active parent volunteer at the Clara Muhammad School of Masjid Khalifah and a member of Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families, the Association of Black Foundation Executives and the American Society of Corporate Secretaries. She has also served on the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers’ Increasing and Diversifying Philanthropy Committee. Ms. Bilal holds a B.S. from Long Island University and a M.S. in Nonprofit Management from the New School University.


Assad Jebara is President and CEO of Zana-Di Jeans/Alpha Garment, Inc. Zana-Di is one of the largest Junior denim brands and Arab-American owned companies in the United States. Over the years, Zana-Di has won awards from retailers such as JC Penney and Wal-Mart, and was recently listed as one of Top Ten Most Trendsetting Brands by Women’s Wear Daily. Born in 1945 in Aleppo, Syria to a family of textile manufacturers, Ms. Jebara studied in France in the late 1960s, where he met his wife-to-be, Mary Thompson. He immigrated to America and, with his brothers, opened several apparel stores in Manhattan’s wholesale district in the 1980s, creating the basis for Zana-Di. Mr. Jebara is on the Board of Governors of the Arab-American Institute.


Dina Hanna is the Conflict Assessment Specialist at Columbia University's Center for International Conflict Resolution. She is currently focused on an Iraqi civil society peacebuilding project.
Prior to that, Dina was the Senior Diplomatic Liaison at the Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps, and Protocol, an agency within the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York. She served in the administrations of both Mayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg. Dina received her Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Bates College.


George N. Jalinos is founder and President of the Galen Group, . He is also Managing Member of Galen Realty LLC. For fifteen years, the Galen Group has specialized in real estate asset management, investments and consulting. Mr. Jalinos graduated from Fordham University and did his graduate studies at The American University of Beirut and NYU. Prior to his association with the Galen Group, Mr. Jalinos was responsible for overseeing equity invested in diverse commercial real estate properties for a prominent international family office. Earlier in his career, Mr. Jalinos was Vice President with Citibank where he was deputy head for the western region of Saudi Arabia . He serves on several professional and charitable Boards in the New York City area. He is fluent in Arabic and Spanish.

David Sternlieb has served as the General Counsel of The Atlantic Philanthropies since 1999. Based in New York, Mr. Sternlieb oversees Atlantic's legal functions globally. Prior to joining Atlantic, Mr. Sternlieb spent six years at RJR Nabisco as Assistant General Counsel responsible for corporate finance matters. His prior experience was as a corporate lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York and Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Cleveland.

• SAVE THE DATE! Our annual park festival is Sunday, July 18, 2010.