Lots of staff changes at Monsoon! We say goodbye to Weiwen Chen, Sylvia Zhou and Amelia Quek who graduated and now are moving either to graduate school or going back home to China or Malaysia. We will miss them!
We also recently hired Leah Soweid, Mona Mohamed and Maria Boemeh.
Leah Soweid was hired as one of our full-time multilingual advocate for our Iowa City office serving Eastern Iowa. Leah grew up in Beirut, Lebanon and currently resides in Iowa City. She has a BA in Psychology from the American University of Beirut and is finalizing her MSc in Reproductive and Sexual Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is very passionate about public health and health inequities worldwide, particularly access to health resources and gender equality.
Mona Mohamed was hired as one of our campus advocate and outreach at University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College. She grew up in Kasala, Sudan, and lived for a few years in Saudi Arabia before moving to Iowa with her family. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Gezira, and currently working on completing her Masters in Social Work at the University of Iowa. She has three passions in life: my family, volleyball and helping women in need. She always received great satisfaction from helping others, and believe that it creates positive energy and increases our humanity. She has past experience working for Oxfam, UNICEF and the Women Resource and Action Center, assisting in many different projects in poverty reduction, education and female empowerment.
Maria Boemeh is one of our campus advocate and outreach at the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). She was born and raised in a Karenni refugee camp in Thailand. Originally from Burma and from the Karenni ethnic group. She graduated from Norfolk Senior High school in Nebraska, and currently majoring in Human Service at DMACC. She is very passionate about working with diverse people. She is multilingual and English as her third language.