Our Board
Samad Saifudin
BOARD CHAIR
Samad is the founder and lead strategist at FunnelWorkSuite, a highly specialized IT and development firm in Rockville, Md.. With over ten years of experience in the industry, Samad is a master at IT strategy. He specializes in helping businesses revamp their IT governance, automation, and building applications to improve ROI.
Under Samad's leadership, FunnelWorkSuite has helped businesses of all sizes and industries
achieve their IT and development goals, including helping Homes Not Borders develop its New Neighbor Designs online store in 2022.
Samad feels most at home with his family either hanging out at home or exploring new trails while hiking or biking.
Tom Ellison
BOARD MEMBER
Tom Ellison is Deputy Director of the research institute The Center for Climate and Security,
where he helps lead work on food insecurity, migration and displacement, climate
disinformation, and other topics. Previously, he spent a decade in the US intelligence
community, analyzing the implications of climate change for US government policymakers,
tracking terrorist threats and political turmoil during the Arab Spring, and traveling extensively in
Europe and the Middle East. Tom is a former Fulbright Fellow, an Arabic speaker, and a humor
writer in outlets like McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and The New Yorker.
Tom has volunteered with refugees in Egypt, Jordan, and the Washington, DC area, and began
working with HNB on home setups and the State Department-sponsored Sew Successful
training program for Afghan refugee women.
Tom feels most at home laughing, getting cozy with his wife and dog, and spending time in the
mountains.
Karl Johnson
BOARD MEMBER, TREASURER
Karl Johnson is a Managing Director and Partner at BCG, a global management consultancy, and was previously at Microsoft, Booz Allen, and Accenture. He has an MBA from Spain’s IE Business School and over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, consultant, and executive in digital, technology, and marketing. He specializes in helping senior executives at Fortune 100 enterprises to transform their digital and marketing capabilities.
Originally from small-town West Virginia, Karl is an avid traveler and has a deep passion for culture, food, language and experiences from all over the world. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two children. His passions for helping those in need and appreciation for other cultures has led him to HNB.
Karl feels most at home surrounded by family and friends with a few dogs, as well as anytime he can sit at an outdoor café somewhere in the world having a conversation with someone new.
Dr. Jeni Klugman
BOARD MEMBER
Dr. Jeni Klugman is a senior fellow (non residential) at the Brookings
Institutions. She has held a range of senior positions in the World Bank, UN and academia, specializing in tackling gender inequality, poverty and advancing human development. These include a Managing Director at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security fellow at the Kennedy School of Government’s Women in Public Policy Program at Harvard University, Director of Gender and Development at the World Bank, and director and lead author of three global Human Development Reports, published by the UNDP.
Jeni holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Australian National University and postgraduate degrees in both Law and Development Economics from the University of Oxford where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
Originally from Australia, Jeni has two adult children, lives on a horse farm in Montgomery County Maryland, and enjoys friends, family and travel.
Erica Mongelli
BOARD MEMBER, SECRETARY
Erica Mongelli is the Director of Program Operations at Food for the Hungry, a humanitarian aid and global development organization that designs, develops and delivers solutions that build resilience so that children, families and communities can flourish. She leads system and process improvement initiatives to strengthen the effectiveness of operations and project implementation across FH’s portfolio of 18 country offices. She has held several positions in various international development organizations over the past twenty years focused primarily on programming in public health, microfinance, and organizational capacity development.
Erica started volunteering with Homes Not Borders back in 2017 prior to it even being established as an independent organization. She has many wonderful memories of those first set ups, including her young son jumping on the beds right after they were made and testing out all of the toys! She believes deeply in community development and HNB's mission.
Erica feels most at home when she is doing something active with her husband and three kids, having a dinner party with friends, or exploring our beautiful world!
Wendy Chan
BOARD MEMBER
Wendy Chan is an award-winning AI executive at Accenture, a global IT consultancy. Wendy has over a decade of experience advising Fortune 500 executives and public sector clients on strategy and digital and AI transformation. She focuses on the intersection of technology and social impact and leads Accenture’s AI for Good initiative with the United Nations. Her work at Accenture was featured as a leadership case study by the UVA Darden School of Business.
As a first-generation immigrant from China, Wendy is passionate about the immigrant and refugee cause. At Accenture, she volunteered as the national co-lead of the Refugee Employee Resource Group. In the community, Wendy is an avid organizer and has co-founded NOVA Friends of Refugees, a grassroot network of 1,500 individuals connected to support those who are seeking refuge.
Wendy is a recipient of the Washington Business Journal’s Minority Business Leaders Award. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and two children.
Wendy feels most at home when spending time with her family making food, music and art and relaxing with friends over a home-cooked meal under her cherry trees.
Tamar Lechter
BOARD MEMBER
Tamar is a leadership coach and an Intermittent Expert with the United States Peace Corps. She began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan and Ukraine, and earned a Master's Degree in Public Administration, focused on Newly Independent States. Her career has centered on international development, with a commitment to strengthening leaders and communities across cultures.
The daughter of an immigrant, Tamar has always been drawn to travel, languages, and discovering new cultures - especially through food.
Tamar feels at home spending time with her husband are two adventurous daughters and one mischievous Goldendoodle.
Jerry Martin
BOARD MEMBER
Jerry began his international career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire in the 1970s. Over the next 45 years he worked on a diverse range of international development priorities, including food security, agricultural marketing, as well as a business and economic growth. For the decade prior to his retirement, he oversaw and directed a series of pandemic prevention and preparedness projects in South East Asia, Africa and Latin America. He also served two terms as an employee member of the DAI Board of Directors.
Jerry has worked for and with individuals from a wide range of cultures, which has been fundamental in his understanding of the work of Homes Not Borders. The opportunity to volunteer for the HNB Storytelling workshop provided Jerry with a chance to explore his own experience as the grandson of an immigrant and connect with current HNB clients.
Jerry feels most at home when he is cycling with his wife on the C&O canal bike path and walking his dogs in the woods.