Nadia Eleza Khawaja

Co-Founder

Nadia Eleza Khawaja is another co-founder and serves as the COO. After finishing a BA in Business/Economics with a minor in Public Policy from UCLA, she is now pursuing her MPH (with a focus on nutrition) from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Before enrolling in the MPH program, Nadia had worked in the non-profit sector for two years and has strong experience in the day-to-day running of a non-profit organization in the United States. She is passionate about making a difference and is excited to be able to allow others to do so easily and effectively through Jolkona Foundation's unique approach to giving.

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Adnan Mahmud

Co-Founder

Adnan Mahmud is the co-founder of Jolkona Foundation and serves as its CEO. He also has a day-time job – a full-time Program Manager at Microsoft Corporation. He holds a BS from Angelo State University and a MS degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

Adnan's motivation for starting Jolkona Foundation comes from having grown up in Bangladesh and witnessing some of the worst conditions that humans are forced to live through. Although these conditions are very unfortunate, he sees opportunities for using technology to improve these conditions. As CEO, Adnan leads Jolkona Foundation to pursue these opportunities by collaborating with unique and effective partners around the world and creating compelling donor experiences.

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Astha Gupta

Director of Technology

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Laura Kimball

Social Media Coordinator

Laura has a passion for connecting people and making things happen. She comes to the Jolkona Foundation with a background in marketing, book publishing, and literary events. When she was 18, she helped launch Wordstock, the non-profit book festival in Portland, Oregon, as the first intern and author coordinator. She holds an MA in Book Publishing from Portland State University and loves applying her knowledge traditional publishing to online.

Laura is developing and implementing the social media strategy for Jolkona Foundation. Her goal is to build awareness of the foundation, engage a community of supporters online, and support giving campaigns through various social media channels. When not online or attached to her phone, Laura blogs at Lamiki.com, lifts heavy things at CrossFit, and competes in autocross races around the state.

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Seema Bhende

Director of Strategy

Seema is passionate about how Jolkona Foundation connects everyday people with a passion for giving back to high-impact projects. Seema has dedicated her career to philanthropy and specializes in the development of strategic, win-win partnerships between the private and public sector. In her day job, Seema is a Senior Director with Waggener Edstrom's Social Innovation practice focusing on corporate social responsibility projects.

Prior to joining Waggener, Seema served as Director of Strategic Philanthropy with L'Oreal Paris in New York City. Before L'Oreal, Seema worked in India for Futures Group, an international development consulting company where she worked on public healthcare projects. At the same time, she was a project manager for a grassroots nonprofit, The Kutumb Foundation, that provides education and healthcare services to slum communities in New Delhi. Seema started her career in strategy consulting for The Corporate Executive Board in Washington DC.

Seema graduated with a bachelor of arts in International Economics and Spanish from the George Washington University. She is fluent in Spanish, proficient in Hindi and conversational in Mandarin.

Tysen Gannon

Director of Corporate Partnerships

Tysen Gannon brings a background in marketing and business development to Jolkona Foundation's corporate partnerships initiatives. Tysen studied comparative literature at Princeton University and earned a Master of International Business degree from Seattle University while working in the building materials industry. After spending much of 2009 traveling in India, Southern Africa and Easter Europe, Tysen returned to Seattle to start Gannon Associates, a business development, marketing and research consulting company. She is excited about the opportunity to balance her private sector work with making an impact through Jolkona Foundation and its partner projects.

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Zanoon Nissar

Director of Events

Zanoon Nissar is the Director of Events for Jolkona Foundation. She is excited to work with Jolkona's passionate staff members and drive an innovative events strategy. Zanoon is currently working in search advertising at Microsoft and has also had experience managing citizenship & education programs through the Unlimited Potential group. She is an avid volunteer who has fundraised, driven events, and mentored on behalf of several local organizations including Washington CASH, Unitus and the YWCA. In her spare time, Zanoon enjoys playing soccer and volleyball, shopping, and being "event co-ordinator" for her friends and family.

Danielle Rind

Partner Coordinator

Danielle Rind is helping to coordinate and Jolkona Foundation's partners. She is a recent graduate of Boston University with a degree in business administration and a concentration in marketing. She is also a Jr. Media Planner for Mediaedge CIA in Seattle working on the Amazon account. In her spare time, Danielle enjoys reading and painting but mostly spending time with her family and close friends.

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Kaylin King

Development Coordinator

Kaylin King is responsible for Jolkona Foundation's development efforts. Kaylin hopes to build a constituency of donors and partners who share Jolkona Foundation's vision of creative approaches to alleviate socio-economic problems. Prior to joining Jolkona Foundation, Kaylin worked with the Buntain Foundation, assisting in product creation, branding and marketing of fair trade retail products.

While pursuing a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Kaylin's passion for international development impelled her to travel the world - from elementary school teacher in Argentina to development project work in South Africa to participating in student exchange programs in Turkey and Chile. Kaylin's travels have ultimately landed her in Seattle, where she is now pursuing an MA in International Care and Community Development from Northwest University.