ParsaCommunityFoundation

Niaz Dorry, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance

Niaz Dorry is the coordinating director at Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, whose mission is to restore and enhance an enduring marine system supporting a healthy diversity and an abundance of marine life and human uses through a self-organizing and self-governing organization. They have built programs that support local, small-scale fishermen and fishing communities; and decision-making processes and policies based on sound science and the need for a healthy marine ecosystem.

Niaz began working with small-scale, traditional, and indigenous fishing communities in the U.S. and from around the globe as a Greenpeace oceans and fisheries campaigner. After spending eleven years at Greenpeace, she went on to working on advancing the rights and ecological benefits of the small-scale fishing communities as a means of protecting global marine biodiversity independently. Time Magazine named Niaz as a Hero for the Planet for this work.

Her fisheries articles appear regularly in Fishermen's Voice and SAMUDRA as well as a range of random publications. Niaz' work and approach have been noted in a number of books including Against the Tide, Deeper Shade of Green, The Spirit's Terrain, Vanishing Species, The Great Gulf, Swimming in Circles, A Troublemaker's Teaparty and The Doryman's Reflection. She is a graduate of the Rockwood Leadership Program's Leading From Inside Out as well as Art of Leadership trainings. She most recently served as the Interim Chief Operations Office for the Healthy Building Network.

Nader Khalili (1936-2008), Cal-Earth

Nader Khalili was the founder and director of Cal-Earth.  Cal-Earth is at the cutting edge of Earth and Ceramic Architecture technologies today. Its scope spans technical innovations published by NASA for lunar and Martian construction, to housing design and development for the world's homeless for the United Nations.  Cal-Earth houses and infrastructure are constructed by unskilled labor, using available on-site earthen material, local supplies of sandbags and barbed wire, and usually a locally produced stabilizer (lime, cement, or asphalt). Hands-on team work molds the solutions for sustainable development while the flexibility of plan and finishes allows the integration of indigenous, traditional forms, patterns, and colors.

Nader is a world-renowned Iranian-American architect, author, humanitarian, teacher, and innovator of the Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire system known as Ceramic Houses, and of the Superadobe construction system. He received his philosophy and architectural education in Iran, Turkey, and the United States.

In 1984, Lunar and Space habitation became an integral part of his work. He presented his "Magma Structures" design, based on Geltaftan System, and "Velcro-Adobe" system (later to become Superadobe) at the 1984 NASA symposium, "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century." He was subsequently invited to Los Alamos National Laboratory as a visiting scientist.  Nader was a member of the team of "Lunar Resources Processing Project," along with the Princeton based Space Studies Institute, McDonnell Douglas Space Systems, and Alcoa.

Nader was the founder and director of the Geltaftan Foundation (1986), and the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture (Cal-Earth) (1991). At Cal-Earth Nader taught his philosophy and earth architecture techniques. His sustainable solutions to human shelter have been published by NASA, and awarded by the United Nations.  He wrote six books of which two are translations of Rumi's poems.  Rumi was the inspiration behind his work for his wisdom concerning humanity and the elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

Nader passed away in March 2008 at the age of 72.  His son Dastan, and daughter Sheefteh, are now working to carry forward his vision throughout the world.

Mahfam Malek and Ladan Sobhani, Green for All

Green For All is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through a clean energy economy.  They work in collaboration with the business, government, labor, and grassroots communities to create and implement programs that increase quality jobs and opportunities in green industry - all while holding the most vulnerable people at the center of their agenda. Mahfam Malek (right) and Ladan Sobhani (left) are both program managers at Green for All.

At Green for All Academy, Mahfam supports emerging leaders from around the country in taking their leadership in the green economy to the next level. She is an activist, writer, performer, educator, and facilitator, with a background in environmental education and a strong passion for social justice issues. Prior to Green for All she served as Office Manager at environmental group Circle of Life; developed and implemented the La Manzanilla Environmental Education Project in Jalisco, Mexico; and had hands-on practical sustainability experience with renewable energy such as solar and hydro-electric and green business practices.

Ladan is developing a Community of Practice, a program established to connect practitioners so they may share expertise and collaborate in order to advance their work while contributing to the national effort to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Ladan graduated from UC Davis with a major in International Relations and minor in Environmental Economics. Following graduation Ladan spent a life-transforming year in Venezuela teaching English and learning Spanish. Her eye-opening travels in Latin America led her to work for two years at the International Forum on Globalization where she researched and wrote about the environmental impact of economic globalization and helped to organize large teach-ins on the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund.

Ladan went on to spend five years at the human rights organization, Global Exchange where she worked on a variety of campaigns including: a response to the California Energy crisis, organizing protests against the war on Iraq, and leading political fact finding delegations to Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Israel. Ladan is also one of the founders of Golestan Kids, which has received a grant from PARSA CF in the past.

Mahlagha Mallah, Women Society Against Environmental Pollution

Mahlagha Mallah is the founder of Women Society Against Environmental Pollution, an NGO based in Tehran with branches in a number of other cities in Iran, which educates people and high officials, and especially housewives and mothers, about pollution.

Mahlagha was among the first people in Iran who realized that environmental pollution was a serious issue.  This was in 1973, when she was the head of the Psychology Research Institute Library at Tehran University.  "I wanted us to have new books in the latest areas of science, and I received this book about environmental pollution in a box of books I had ordered" Recalls Mahlagha. "I needed to file the book under the right category, but I had no idea what it was about.  So I started reading it to decide where it belonged, and I ended up reading it cover to cover".

She started talking to the head of the newly formed Environmental Protection Institute of Iran to brainstorm and collaborate, and after retiring worked on research projects around air pollution and water pollution in Tehran.  The eye-opening results of the research projects made fighting environmental pollution her mission in life.

She continued her efforts after the Iran-Iraq war, and in 1992 she founded Women Society Against Environmental Pollution.   With her fifty years of background in women studies she decided to count on women as the "natural teachers" within the family and therefore the society to increase awareness about environmental pollution and protection.   She has been constantly working on improving and expanding WSAEP ever since, and along the way she has inspired several others, including her husband Hossein Abolhassani, who helped her in expanding WSAEP for many years before passing away just a few months ago.  See the "NGOs in Iran" section below for more information on WSAEP.

Ahmad Nadalian, River Art

Ahmad Nadalian is an environmental artist.  His art can be found on his website, River Art.  He uses his art to increase awareness about environmental issues. He is internationally known for his environmental art projects. His works draw upon a wide range of symbols from ancient rituals and mythologies with new interpretations to those belonging to the contemporary subject matters that emerge from the use of his new style of languages and technologies. His concepts therefore, are expressed through a variety of media and techniques, including carved stones, installations, performances, video, and web art and interactive pieces which require the participation of the general public.

Ahmad has been supported and sponsored by many different organizations in many countries throughout the world, where he has performed numerous environmental art projects in countries such as Italy, Germany, USA, UK, Spain, France, China, Netherlands, Greece, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Finland, Lebanon, Syria, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Switzerland, Serbia, and his homeland Iran.

He has also been invited as a guest lecturer to different universities, organizations, and art centers. During his visits he has given talks and workshops on a variety of relevant art issues such as Environmental and Interactive arts. Ahmad has organized many major environmental art festivals in his native country Iran, and has helped to supervised young environmental artists around the globe.

Ali Sharif, Permacultura America Latina

Ali Sharif founded Permacultura America Latina in the US to expand Permaculture, founded by Bill Mollison of Australia, into Latin America.  The Permaculture methodology is based on the connections between the combined issues of food, clean water, renewable energy, biological sanitation and dignified shelter and how they coalesce into an integrated process. Permaculture is an ecological design system for creating sustainable communities and regenerating landscape. Ali helped it to become established in the US, and in 1989 he founded PAL to pioneer Permaculture in Latin America.

Ali was born in Iran, educated in Europe and has been working in Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Brazil since 1988 when PAL, under his direction, started to teach Permaculture in Latin America.  PAL supports grassroots sustainable development initiatives and low impact economic practices in poor and indigenous communities throughout Latin America.

PAL manages and provides technical and financial support to their affiliated Permaculture schools and demonstration centers abroad.  PAL works on sustainable forms of agriculture, presents pragmatic, sustainable development alternatives for long-term rehabilitation and enrichment of environments depleted by conventional forms of building, agriculture, and overgrazing.  "What made a lasting impact on me was a visit to the Permaculture Institute in the Amazon. In little more than a decade, this remarkable project has integrated agroforestry, aquaculture, and multiple animal systems within a restored landscape that had been utterly destroyed by deforestation." Said Prince Charles about PAL in a 2009 interview on his Amazon tour. "The whole now forms a Virtuous Circle within which all the necessary animal feed is grown and biofuels for the farm vehicles and machinery are produced. What is so deeply impressive is the practical way in which the Institute demonstrates how genuine sustainability can be achieved by applying the principles it has developed."

Ali has established more than 26 projects on three continents, and been involved at every level of their development. Over the past 20 years of living in Amazon Ali established demonstration centers in Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala and the largest four in Brazil.  Ali's particular expertise lies in tropical agroforestry systems and in the design and construction of aquaculture systems.  While he coordinates the Permaculture movement in Brazil, he's also establishing projects in South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique.  In his own words, "I am too old to be doing this sort of thing anymore but frankly cannot think of anything more interesting."

Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch

Atossa Soltani is the founder of Amazon Watch which works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. Amazon Watch partners with indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.

Atossa's passion as a forest defender originated at the age of 11 in her native Iran when she first encountered the beauty and majesty of the temperate rainforests of the Alborz Mountain Range.  Her commitment to indigenous people's rights and cultural survival was first ignited in the Iranian countryside by her encounters with ethnic groups whose close relationships to the land were a source of inspiration and curiosity.  She has dedicated her life to defending the rights of indigenous peoples, protecting the rainforest and scaling citizen action through documenting human rights abuses and environmental disasters.

As the Founder and Executive Director of Amazon Watch, she leads campaigns on behalf of indigenous peoples in South America and works to hold corporations and governments accountable for their actions. Soltani is heavily involved in public service, serving on the Board of Directors of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, the Board of Trustees of the Christensen Fund and on the Advisory Board of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples. Atossa was the recipient of the PARSA Community Foundation's 2009 Volunteerism and Action Award.

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