U.S. Executive Board

Alex Aleinikoff, JD

Treasurer

Alex Aleinikoff is a professor at The New School in New York City and Director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility. Before coming to The New School, Alex served as United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees (2010-15) and was a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he also served as dean and Executive Vice President of Georgetown University. He was co-chair of the Immigration Task Force for President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the general counsel, and then executive associate commissioner for programs, at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He brings with him immeasurably valuable experience with asylum law. Married to our founder, Dr. Rachel Cohen, Mr. Aleinikoff has been an enthusiastic supporter of CTP from the beginning, and looks forward to helping us in our mission to offer survivors the best possible treatment!

Ann Blume

Co-President

Ann Blume is a community leader living in Seattle, Washington. She currently serves on Seattle University’s Board of Trustees and the College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Council. Ann also was on the SightLife Board, the University of Washington’s Center for Infant Mental Health and Development Council and Teens in Public Service Board. After graduating from Cornell University with a Biology and Nutrition degree in 1978, Ann moved to Washington D.C. where she helped implement the first generation of personal computers as a staff assistant to Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon. Ann met her husband, Bruce, while working in the U.S. Senate. In 1982, Bruce and Ann founded the Blume Company, a Seattle real estate development business which has helped transform Seattle’s South Lake Union, University, Eastlake and Fremont neighborhoods. The parents of five children, they share a passion for family, public policy, and philanthropy.

Cynthia Pacutho

Cynthia Pacutho is a communications practitioner, sales and marketing expert and advocate for special needs children, based in Kampala, Uganda. With nine years’ experience in profitable business growth, efficient customer portfolio management and effective stakeholder management in the logistics industry within Africa, she now utilizes her expertise as an independent consultant in the not-for-profit sector. She’s worked with organizations including the Forum for Women in Democracy Uganda, Malaria Partners Uganda, and the Ugandan National NGO Forum. Cynthia is a member of the Uganda Women Writers’ Association Readers’ & Writers’ Club and volunteers with the New Life Foundation Uganda and the Society for Social Transformation Uganda.

Eva Ross

Eva Ross started her career as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company and has spent the past decade in different strategic and operational roles in the technology industry. Eva worked for the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Accra, Ghana on a project to support over 300,000 smallholder cashew farmers and for the Global Agri-Development Company (GADCO), an award winning agri-food start-up, in rural Ghana. Besides that, she has worked on projects in Nigeria and South Africa. She is an angel investor and advisor to multiple start-ups and founders across Europe and the United States. Eva is originally German but currently lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.

Katie Passaretti, JD

Katie Passaretti is an Austin-based attorney and Director in PwC’s Legal Business Solutions practice, where she is a trusted advisor to her clients as they improve their contract lifecycle management processes. Skilled in quick-thinking and devising creative solutions, she offers a demonstrated record of results in complex business environments across a variety of highly competitive industries. She is passionate about team building and has led global teams for more than 10 years and built a global women’s mentoring program to support her team members and create opportunities for advancement and empowerment. She graduated from Vassar College and Northeastern University School of Law.

N. Lynn Hiestand, JD

Lynn is a corporate lawyer and former partner of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP resident in Chicago and London. Lynn previously served as Iraqi Country Director for Heartland Alliance International, a human rights organization providing legal, social and mental health services to vulnerable populations, including survivors of GBC and SGBV, and continues to consult on human rights issues. She serves on the Board of Visitors of Georgetown University Law Center and on the Executive Board of JUSTICE, a law reform and human rights organization working to strengthen the justice system in the United Kingdom. She is also a trustee for Wellbeing of Women, a UK charitable organization investing in pioneering medical research to keep women well at each stage of life, and for Literature for All of Us, which helps disadvantaged individuals realize the transformative strength of their voices in by growing communities of readers and writers.

Mary M. Luke, RN, MS, MBA

Mary Luke has 35 years of executive management experience in women’s reproductive health, rights and development programs. She held executive leadership positions in NGOs in women’s reproductive healthcare, opening offices and managing programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Mary brings expertise in strategic planning, advocacy, program and budget management and fundraising to the board. She began her career in reproductive healthcare at Planned Parenthood in San Francisco and went on to a 24 year international career in women’s reproductive health and development. She currently serves on the Board of Directors at UN Women USA and PowHer NY and on the Advisory Board of Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy.

Mary Briese Matheron

Co-President

Mary Briese Matheron is a retired fundraising professional and one of the founding board members of Common Threads Project. During her professional career, Mary held a variety of leadership fundraising positions at three of the top U.S. law schools: the University of California Berkeley, Yale, and Georgetown University. In between stints at Georgetown and Yale, Mary served as a consultant on leadership giving to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Prior to entering fundraising, she worked in college athletics as the first full-time women’s basketball coach at Georgetown University during the early days of the university’s compliance with Title IX.

Maureen Brotherton

Maureen Brotherton currently sits on Seattle University’s Board of Trustees and Achon Uganda Children’s Board. Service includes past President of Seattle Rotary Service Foundation Board and continued membership in Seattle Rotary/Rotary International. Maureen was past chairman of Seattle University’s Board of Regents an Seattle University’s College of Arts and Sciences’ Leadership Council. When her children were young she served for several years on Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Uncompensated Care Board as well as The Villa Academy Board of Trustees. She has a BA in Society and Justice, University of Washington and a master’s degree in Not-for-Profit Leadership from Seattle University. Maureen co-founded, with her daughter Tia, Teens In Public Service (TIPS) in 1997. Maureen and her husband, Joe, are the proprietors of Doe Bay Resort & Retreat located on Orcas Island.

Patricia Friedman, MD

Secretary

Patty Friedman is a retired pediatric geneticist who has been active in her retirement with a variety of volunteer activities. In addition to her work as a geneticist, Patty is a trained forester and naturalist and a certified yoga instructor. She fulfills her interest in patient care with hospice work and her love of the outdoors with work for the Audubon Naturalist Society. She as been a great supporter of Common Threads since its beginning and she looks forward to being more active now that she is a board member.

Sandy Falk, MD

Sandy Falk is an obstetrician/gynecologist and has focused her career on women's health and digital health resources to support clinicians and patients. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Merck Manuals, which provides free access to health information worldwide. She is also the Director of Gynecology, Sexual Health Program in the Adult Survivorship Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Sone-Seeré Burrell, MA, MS

Sone-Seeré Burrell is an artist and art therapist living in Richmond, VA. She completed her undergraduate degree in Graphic Design and Technology at North Carolina A&T, where she was also a member of the E. Gwynn Dance Company. Sone-Seeré relocated to Washington DC for several years where she worked as a high school art teacher. Desiring more specialized training to address the needs of students, Sone-Seeré went on to earn her MS in Mental Health Counseling and MA in Art Therapy from The George Washington University. It was at GW where she was introduced to story-cloth making, a modality which she still finds powerful in both her personal and professional life. She served as the student liaison for the multicultural committee for AATA (The American Art Therapy Association) circa 2015. Sone-Seeré has worked as an artist, instructor and art therapist, providing services and experiences in residential facilities, hospital settings, school systems, and in the community. Her personal art journey has been an integral part of her world, engaging in creative expression as a community muralist, commissioned portrait artist, live painter for special events, and quilter.

 

Faculty & Staff

Vesna Golic, MA

Executive Director

Vesna specializes in implementation of community approaches in assisting refugees, from grass-root level to international programs. She has been involved in assisting refugees since 1995 when she coordinated humanitarian aid and psychosocial programs in former Yugoslavia. From 2000-2006 she served as a Director of Group 484 - an NGO in Serbia that promotes the rights of forcibly displaced people. From 2008-2013 in Australia she led community development programs with resettled refugees and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia. She formed and led capacity development program for NGOs serving refugees in Malaysia in association with UNHCR. Vesna joined Common Threads Project in 2020, as one of the creators of the exhibit The Fabric of Healing, and later as a Senior Advisor for Strategy, then Deputy Director. She has an MA in international development.

Rachel A. Cohen, Ph.D

Founder, Clinical Director

Rachel is a clinical psychologist who has been in practice for over 30 years. She founded Common Threads in Geneva Switzerland in 2012. Now based in New York, she is a consultant specializing in psychosocial support for survivors of trauma. She has designed recovery projects in the developing world, training local staff and implementing interventions in post conflict areas including Bosnia, South Sudan, Uganda, Ecuador and Nepal. She earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1986, and a certificate in global mental health from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma in 2010.  

Lisa Raye Garlock, ATCS, LCPAT

Director of Education and Art Therapy

Lisa is a faculty member in the graduate Art Therapy program at George Washington University. She has presented workshops and given lectures on art therapy topics in the U.S. and abroad. She is a credentialed art therapy supervisor (ATCS) and is a Licensed Clinical Professional Art Therapist (LCPAT). She has worked with adults, adolescents and children in hospitals, schools, community-based organizations and shelters. In addition Lisa is an accomplished artist, exhibiting work in a variety of media, with a current focus on arpilleras. She studied printmaking and textiles at Rochester Institute of Technology and earned a Masters degree in Art Therapy from Nazareth College of Rochester.

Catherine Butterly, BA, DIP PSYCH, HDIP, CFT, MSC

Senior Adviser for Trauma Theory and Training

Catherine is a Psychotherapist, Family and Play Therapist and has trained in a number of Body-based approaches to working with Trauma. She has been a practitioner, lecturer, clinical supervisor and trainer for many years and is the Programme Coordinator of the M.A in Counselling at Webster, University, Geneva. Catherine has been a part of  Common Threads for the past 8 years, training in Bosnia, Eastern Congo and New York . She has been involved in project planning, training, supervising, grant writing and theory building. Catherine has spoken about the work of Common threads at a number of International Conferences - in Geneva, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Novi Sad in Serbia and Dublin.  Prior to working in Geneva, Catherine worked in Zimbabwe for 8 years. She collaborates with a number of organizations working in challenging environments including in refugee communities in Greece and has run Mind/Body stress management programs for U.N organizations and others. She passionately believes in community oriented approaches to healing and the intrinsic power of Common Threads work to be a witness to silenced atrocities. She loves to quilt.

Jamuna Maharjan Shrestha

Senior Consultant for CTP Programs in Nepal

Jamuna is a senior Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) practitioner. She currently works as a freelancing expert with several organizations in Nepal and abroad. She worked for several years at TPO Nepal as a clinical manager where she supervised colleagues and led the Sajha Dhago (Common Threads) program since 2014. She has been working in the mental health and psychosocial service field for over 25 years with various populations including refugees, torture survivors, conflict-affected people, and trauma survivors. She has worked with women and children, SGBV survivors, LGBTQ, trafficked survivors, and families alike. She is a globally certified Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) service provider and Common Threads facilitator. She has run the 21 circles of the Sajha Dhago program with women across Nepal.

Isabel Enriquez

Ecuador Program Coordinator

Isabel Enríquez is a Sociologist from Ecuador, who graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica in Quito, Ecuador in 2017. After working for a few years in a local public organization, she continued her studies and obtained a master’s degree in peace, conflict and human rights in Granada, Spain in 2020. She worked with a local ONG specialized in migration, gender equality and human trafficking and she has dedicated her career to promote and defend woman, human and nature’s rights.

Anne K Eckman, PHD, LICSW, LCSW-C, LCSW

DC-Area Program Coordinator

Anne Eckman has twenty-plus years of experience working globally and in the U.S. at the intersections of 1) preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV), 2) trauma-informed mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and 3) HIV/sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)/reproductive justice.

Her expertise includes advancing gender-transformative approaches and fostering gendered social norms change, along with mainstreaming gender equality and social inclusion with an emphasis on leadership by and for those most affected. Her experience also includes eight years of providing direct survivor-centered, culturally-attuned counseling and MHPSS with survivors of SGBV, torture, and displacement, as well as capacity-strengthening and secondary trauma prevention with front-line staff. She is committed to centering leadership by and for those most affected, and issues of power and participation.

Anne holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, completed post-doctoral work in public health, and earned a M.A. in clinical social work with a focus on violence prevention. Anne’s clinical training includes advanced approaches for supporting GBV and trauma survivors, including being a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), a certified EMDR clinician, and post-graduate certification in expressive arts and trauma healing. Since 2000, her work has included on-the ground experience in 25 countries.

Mastora Hassan

Seattle Program Coordinator

Mastora Hassan joins Common Threads Project as our Seattle Program Coordinator. She is a circle facilitator, Mental Health counselor, and staff member at Refugees Northwest. She also performs community service with Word Relief Western Washington, the International Rescue Committee, and the Afghan Health Initiative. 

Mastora has a BA in Human Resource Management from Mariam University with over 10 years of diverse experience. She previously worked for 8 years at the US Embassy and USAID/ Afghanistan. 

In her free time, she likes to spend quality time with family, and friends, and practice her religion.

Caroline Donnelly Moran

Operations Manager

Caroline joined Common Threads Project in 2022 as our Administration Officer. She has a background in art history and experience in education, program development, and writing. While in college, she co-founded a student-run initiative to increase civic education opportunities for local middle schoolers and completed two senior theses projects. She has a B.A. in art history and urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nissim Ram

IT Consultant

Nissim Ram is an IT and development consultant who specializes in Web and JavaScript development. He is passionate about streamlining processes for non-for-profits on the organizational end so that the experts can provide assistance to the communities who need it most. As a graduate from Brandeis University in history and anthropology he has a wide range of interests and is always excited for moments when the humanities and digital world intersect. He travels between the New York and Boston area. In his free time he enjoys music production and following world soccer.

 
 
 

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