George E. K. MacDonald, a transplanted Canadian, was president and CEO of Hawkins & Campbell Inc., an attorney support service, and is currently the managing partner of Trimac Investments, a private investment group.

Previously, George was involved with Valley Big Brothers and served on the Good Samaritan Internal Review Board. George joined the board of Body Positive and served as member at large for 10 years. As chair of the board, George worked to increase the visibility and credibility of the agency working with organizations such as the United Nations (UNFPA) and Stephen Lewis (United Nations special HIV envoy to Africa) to help promote the role of Body Positive and its clinical trials at local, national and international levels. George also volunteered as a therapist in the behavioral health department and is currently on the advisory council for Body Positive.

In addition to local commitments, George is involved with efforts tin Africa and Afghanistan to better understand and help in the fight against HIV and the repression of women and children. George is a donor and consultant for the Child Welfare and Adoption Society of Uganda and works directly with the administrators of Nsambya Babies Home and Kankobe Children’s Home to help develop programs to promote self-reliance. George is also a supporter and consultant for PARSA (Physiotherapy and Rehabilitative Services Afghanistan) a non-profit agency headquartered in Kabul.

George has recently initiated a scholarship fund in Uganda to help students attend university with the understanding that once they graduate, they are to help someone else in return. The gratifying experience of helping people learn to help themselves is one of the encouraging passions that keeps George involved.

Karen Dougherty Marton’s education includes a B.S. in Communication Disorders and an M.S. in Audiology. She was an Audiologist for 20 years and during that time she was a clinical Audiologist, working closely with a group of Otolaryngology physicians. She also owned an Audiology private practice, Hearing Consultants Ltd. Her role in the company was to provide Audiology services and all marketing responsibilities for the company. She was a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology, American Speech Language and Hearing Association, American Auditory Society and the Arizona Speech Language and Hearing Association.

Since selling her interest in the company, she dabbled in other businesses but decide to go back to ASU to pursue a teaching career. She is currently in her third year of teaching United States History at Cesar Chavez High School. She chose to teach at what some call an inner city high school because of the diverse student population. This experience has proven to be one of the most challenging and most rewarding experiences of her life. Karen has also served on several boards. She was on the Board of Directors of Body Positive, a large nonprofit devoted to AIDS service and research. She is now on the advisory board. Her experience at Body Positive made her realize how important it is to give back to the community in which we live.

Kristin is associate professor of anthropology in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University @ the West campus, where she has taught since 1992. Her central research and teaching interests focus on urbanism and migration in transnational context, and she is trained in a broad interdisciplinary range of cultural studies and social theory. She always keeps an eye on race/ethnicity and difference, in cultural representations, social practices, and political-economic relations, such as in her sociolegal research on the “cultural defense” strategy used in criminal cases of gender/sexual violence involving US diaspora Asians, and on the effects of US “third-worlding.”

She published a book based on her research on Egyptian artisans in Cairo, where she lived for three years. Her current research narrates contemporary cultural, racial, spatial practices of discipline and resistance at the intersection of urban culture and social space in Phoenix.  She teaches courses on migration and culture, urban studies, cultural diversity, transnational studies, and social anthropology, and engages her students with the local/global community through fieldwork, web projects, and other activities.

Kristin lends a hand in community migration and social justice issues through her involvements with No More Deaths and other organizations, is one of the founding members of the Ethnic Studies program at West campus, and has helped to coordinate the annual series of Border Justice events there since 2003. Her amazing voyage around the world with the Semester at Sea in 2006 broke her out of the area studies model in which she was trained as a Middle East specialist, so that now she directs ASU’s summer study abroad program in Costa Rica. She is a bit of a technophile, enamored with integrating digital media into her various projects (http://www.west.asu.edu/koptiuch/), and tries to practice anthropology as much performance art as social science.

Kyrsten is the youngest member of the Arizona House of Representatives. She holds a Juris Doctorate and a Master’s degree in Social work from Arizona State University. Kyrsten currently teaches at Arizona State University in the School of Social Work and practices criminal defense while not in session. As a social worker in the Washington School District in central-north Phoenix for almost a decade, Kyrsten created and directed the community’s first Family Resource Center, designed and implemented community development programs, and administrated the provision of mental health services for the school community. Kyrsten has been a vocal advocate for human rights and social justice over the past decade as a community activist, and has served on numerous boards of non-profit and advocacy organizations. She joined COAR’s Board of Directors in November 2005 and was elected to serve as its President in January 2006.

Lejla Bogdanovic has been with the Area Agency on Aging since 1999 as the  Mosaic Elder Refugee Program Coordinator and since 2004 as Director of Program Development. She received a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Sarajevo, majoring in French and Latin languages, with an emphasis on Sociology and Psychology.  Lejla is fluent in English, Bosnian-Serbo-Croatian, and French. To further her education and knowledge in her chosen field, Lejla has received her certificate in Aging Services Management and Administrative Training.

For more than14 years Lejla has been active in helping the refugee communities. First five years she was employed at the Lutheran Social Ministry of the Southwest.  From managing and administering the Mosaic Elder Refugee Program to training, supervising and coordinating staff, Lejla has been committed to the refugee program in Arizona and has grown to be one of the most highly respected individuals in the field. She has vast experience and an extensive knowledge of current local, state and federal laws, regulations and policies pertaining to refugees.

Lejla is committed to helping the elder refugee during the difficult adjustment period in their new country. As the Coordinator of the Mosaic Elder Refugee Program, which serves as a bridge between elder refugees and the aging network, Lejla is an integral part of the adjustment process.
Mosaic Elder refugee Program has been nationally recognized by n4a as one of most innovative programs  for elders in the country.

Vahid Dejwakh has had the honor of  serving as Business Manager and board member of COAR since July 2006. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Religious Studies and an honors thesis that fused the works of Baruch Spinoza and Herman Hesse, and now works as a Research Analyst for a high-tech market research company in Scottsdale, Arizona. While at ASU, Vahid served as an econ and math tutor to ASU athletes, was an Undergraduate Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, the President of the African Student Association, and the CEO of an award-winning entrepreneurial venture to commercialize machines that turn humid air into potable water. Vahid has also had the honor of being in the first graduating class of the Pat Tillman Leadership Through Action program, and now also volunteers for the Pat Tillman Foundation. Born and raised in Niger, West Africa, Vahid has been blessed early on with the realization that life can be both intensely joyful when there is unity and devastatingly unjust when there isn't. He has since focused on increasing instances of the former.