About AAI

Meet the Staff

Office of the President

Dr. James Zogby
Dr. Zogby serves as the President of the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC. He co-founded the organization in 1985 and has been involved in a full range of Arab American issues for over two decades. He also co-founded the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in the late 1970s, and later co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He serves on the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee as well as on the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Zogby hosts a weekly television show called “Viewpoint with James Zogby” and writes a weekly newspaper column, “Washington Watch.”

Peter Timko
Mr. Timko is the Director of the Office of the President, and is responsible for managing Dr. Zogby’s schedule, communications and special projects. After returning from positions at the U.S. Embassies in Kuwait and Baghdad in 1990, he worked in the AAI Communications Department from 1990 to 1996. Between stints at AAI, he taught in the University of Maryland System, directed and taught in the Law and Public Policy Program at Fairmont Heights High School in Maryland, and consulted in the audio industry. Timko holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Georgetown University.

AAI Foundation

Helen Samhan
Ms. Samhan is Executive Director of the Arab American Institute Foundation (AAIF), a 501©(3) non-profit in Washington, DC dedicated to promoting and studying the Arab American experience. AAIF is an affiliate of the Arab American Institute that represents Arab American issues in politics, elections, leadership training and public policy. Samhan has been with the Institute since its formation in 1985. Her professional memberships include the 2010 Census Advisory Committee to the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Arab American National Museum Advisory Board. Samhan is a 2003 graduate of Leadership America.

Sabeen Altaf
Ms. Altaf is the Program Coordinator for AAIF. She earned a B.A. in International Relations and Economics from the University of Minnesota. She holds a joint Master’s degree in Public Policy and Business Administration from Humphrey School of Public Policy and Carlson School of Management. Altaf previously worked in Pakistan at the Aga Khan Foundation specializing in poverty alleviation and debt relief. She first joined AAIF in 2005 as a Cultural Outreach Specialist and a member of the Arab American Resource Corps (ARC).

Yasmeen Shaheen-McConnell
Yasmeen Shaheen-McConnell is the Cultural Outreach Specialist for AAIF. She is an AmeriCorps member serving through the Arab American Resource Corps. Ms. Shaheen-McConnell graduated from the George Washington University with a B.A. in International Affairs and Anthropology from the Elliott School of International Affairs, where she specialized in the Middle East, Societies and Cultures, and Religion. Throughout her time at GW she focused on community service and involvement on campus. While a student, Ms. Shaheen-McConnell studied and traveled throughout the Middle East and West Africa.

Government Relations

Leigh O’Neill

Ms. O’Neill is the Government Relations and Policy Analyst at AAI. Prior to joining AAI in November 2007, she served as a research assistant at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy in Amman as a Fulbright fellow. O’Neill began working with the Arab American community in her home state of Massachusetts while serving as Assistant to the State Director in the Boston Senate office of Senator John Kerry. She holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from Boston College and an M.A. in American Foreign Policy and International Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. O’Neill was Managing Editor of Conflict in Focus, the bi-monthly journal of the Regional Centre on Conflict Prevention at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy, and has also been published in JO Magazine. O’Neill is the current author of Countdown.

Communications

Andy Sabino
Mr. Sabino is the Public Affairs Coordinator at AAI. Prior to joining the Communications Department in October 2006, he taught English at an ethnically and religiously diverse school in Austria through the Austrian Fulbright Program. He was a Communications intern at AAI in the summer of 2005. Sabino is a graduate of Tufts University, where he earned a B.A. in International Relations and German Area Studies.

Community Relations

Valerie Smith
Ms. Smith is AAI’s Midwest Director, based in Dearborn, Michigan. She previously served as AAI’s Iowa Field Organizer and as Community Relations Coordinator and Program Manager in Washington, DC. Smith holds a B.A. in Egyptology and Linguistic Anthropology from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in Middle East Studies – Arabic, from the University of Utah. Smith has also studied in Jordan and Yemen. She was treasurer of the 1988 Berkeley ballot measure to adopt Jabaliya as a sister city, newsletter editor for the East Bay Arab Community Center, and administrative secretary at the University of Utah’s Middle East Center.

Maram Abdelhamid
Ms. Abdelhamid is the National Field and Political Coordinator at AAI. Abdelhamid’s career in political organizing and activism began with her work as a legislative assistant to Colorado State Rep. Desiree Sanchez. Abdelhamid then worked as the National Field Organizer for 21st Century Democrats and served as deputy campaign manager for Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia. Abdelhamid earned her B.A. from the University of Denver in Political Science and Economics.

Brandon Hess
Mr. Hess is a Community Relations Associate at AAI. He recently graduated from California’s Pepperdine University in with a B.A. in International Studies, specializing in the political economies of Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. During his time at Pepperdine, Hess researched and created a website educating the American public on the peoples and cultures of the Middle East. Hess spent a summer studying at the University of Balamand in North Lebanon and is fluent in Arabic, Spanish, and French.

Development

Jane Kaddouri
Ms. Kaddouri is the Director of Development for AAI and AAIF. She has worked in fundraising for more than a decade with international professional associations and national and international non-profits. Kaddouri has been published in outlets including The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, and the Washington Post. She holds a B.A. in French and Comparative Literatures and an M.A. in English and Cultural Studies, both from George Mason University.