Alaha Ahrar is a Social Justice and Human Rights expert based in Virginia, USA. She holds a master’s degree in Social Justice and Human Rights from George Mason University, where she completed an outstanding final book focused on survivors of human trafficking and human smuggling.

Ms. Ahrar earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Mary Washington, graduating on time in four years with a triple major in Human Rights, Political Science, and International Affairs, as well as a certificate in Middle Eastern Studies.

She is a multilingual professional fluent in English, Persian (Dari and Farsi), Hindi, Pashto, and Urdu, with working proficiency in Arabic and Spanish. She also possesses advanced computer and research skills.

Ms. Ahrar has collaborated with numerous national and international organizations, leading and initiating impactful projects that have benefited communities in the United States, Afghanistan, Canada, and countries within the European Union.

She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of International Kindness Sharing (IKS), a 501(c)(3) international nonprofit organization based in Virginia, and as a Gender Consultant working across the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition, she has served on the Board of Directors of International World Poetry (Canada) and the Afghan Women’s Writing Project and is an active member of the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Foundation (GGAF).

Ms. Ahrar is a nationally and internationally multi-award-winning poet, writer, and gender equality and human rights expert. As an accomplished public speaker, she uses her voice extensively to advocate for human rights, social justice, peacebuilding, and global solidarity.

Ryla Students are visiting our club
Help us give a warm welcome to this year’s RYLA students. In February they took part in the RYLA leadership gathering, and this morning they’re joining us to share what they learned and how the experience has shaped them. We’re delighted to have them with us.

Dhardon Sharlin – Where Mind and Media Meet Moral Futures
Dhardon Sharling is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist with more than 20 years of experience in public advocacy communication, democracy promotion, and advancing gender, social and climate justice. She serves as a Lecturer in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned her PhD in Communication and a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies. Her research examines how human communication practices – especially those shaped by emerging media – advance social change, with particular attention to gender and climate justice. Drawing on intersections among communication studies, new media, critical feminist theory, cultural anthropology, and lived experience, Dhardon seeks to generate knowledge that challenges and intervenes in systemic structures of power and injustice.

Dhardon’s career spans leadership roles, including Information Secretary of the Central Tibetan Administration and elected Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile. She has also served as a Non-Resident Scholar at the Milton Eisenhower Foundation, co-leading a book project on democracy in exile. In addition, she has taught at Hampshire College and Syracuse University, contributed extensively to peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and currently serves as an Associate Editor of Anthropology of Consciousness. Dhardon is the founder of TenDrel Initative – Where Mind and Media Meet Moral Futures.

Bart Marcois is a career diplomat with deep and broad experience in highly regulated economic sectors. After the Foreign Service he served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy. During the first Trump Administration he led a team at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to achieve a key White House policy, streamlining the permitting process for very large infrastructure projects.

He has worked in the European defense and energy sectors, opening markets for American products and systems. As an official in the Republican Party of Virginia, he has worked on each of President Trump’s campaigns since 2016.