Our Team
Tarrie Burnett, LMSW
Executive Director
Tarrie brings more than 15 years of nonprofit policy and program experience with a background in community social work. She graduated from the University of Boulder with an undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies and the University of Denver in 2008 with a Master’s in Social Work, focused on program implementation and design for international social work and a specialization in trauma. Tarrie brings experience in community development, financing, and teaching, as well as an interest in local, national, and international politics to her role as Executive Director of Tomorrow’s Women. Previously, she worked with Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, where she developed nationally recognized mental health and wellness, micro-financing, and sustainable farming initiatives and programs for refugee families. She currently volunteers with the New Mexico Refugee Educational Bridge Project, supporting young women from Afghanistan as they pursue secondary and higher education in the United States and is a speaker on refugee issues for the Santa Fe Council on International Relations.
Ameera
Palestinian Facilitator and West Bank Program Coordinator, Israel/Palestine
Ameera was born in Jenin, Palestine during the first Intifada and grew up in the shadow of the second Intifada. Having never known peace, she joined Tomorrow’s Women in 2005 and as a Senior Young Leader, was able to share her pain and life story while learning about neighbors she had never met. She continued to practice her communication and listening skills through alumnae workshops and became a facilitator-in-training in 2018, an experience that prepared her for her current role at Tomorrow’s Women as Palestinian Facilitator. She is inspired to work for peace, freedom, and human rights, all of which she believes cannot be achieved with violence or hate. “As women, we can make the change. I will continue this work until peace is realized or until the day that I die.” Ameera is the mother of two children and is committed to raising them to accept and respect others no matter their religion or culture.
Itaf Awad
Facilitator, Israel/Palestine
Itaf holds an M.A. in political science from Haifa University. She managed the office of Daburia’s mayor for 26 years and served as a consultant on women’s affairs. She is a licensed facilitator in Marshall Rosenberg’s nonviolent communication method and a member of the steering committee of the NGO Circles of Listening, where she is a facilitator. Itaf also facilitates women empowerment and body and soul workshops.
Cheryl Bell
Administrative Manager
Cheryl Bell has over 20 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations in New Mexico as a development professional, grant writer, volunteer coordinator, and nonprofit manager. She has worked for Esperanza Shelter, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, The Santa Fe Community Foundation, and New Mexico Wildlife Center. She is a passionate advocate for environmental and social justice issues and her volunteer work includes serving as wildlife chair of the Pajarito Group of the local Sierra Club and as a member of the Zero Waste Los Alamos Team. Cheryl holds a BA from the University of California–Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of California–Davis.
Magdalena Karlick, ATR-BC, LPCC
Director, Art
Magdalena Karlick, M.A., LPCC, ATR-BC is full-time core faculty in the Art Therapy/Counseling program and Director of the Art Therapy for Clinical Professionals program, a distance learning program for counseling professionals who want to add an art therapy credential. Magdalena recently finished the qualifying phase for the Doctoral Program in Expressive Arts: Therapy, Coaching, Consulting & Education, Conflict Transformation & Peacebuilding at the European Graduate School in Saas–Fee, Switzerland. She plans to continue her doctoral studies through EGS, focusing on Responsibility and Choice in Leadership. Trained in Somatic Experiencing, Psychodramatic techniques, Sandplay and Expressive Arts, Magdalena facilitates group processes focused on embodiment, social justice and creativity.
Noa Ma’ayan
Co-Director, Israel/Palestine
Noa holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational sociology. For 10 years she has worked in the nonprofit sector, particularly with Jewish and Arab women, to promote societal change. She specializes in leading groups dealing with conflict, using personal narrative to find common ground. She is a project manager, training developer, and certified facilitator of listening councils. An Israeli Jew who lives in the western Galilee, she is the mother of four, a photographer and painter.
Yonit Mansoor-Shachar
Facilitator, Israel/Palestine
For the past 25 years, Yonit has specialized in women’s empowerment, community development and leadership, and mentoring young trainers. She has taught a course for women managers of social change organizations, helped women establish businesses, and facilitated reconciliation groups with Arab and Jewish youth at the Peace School in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, Israel.
Maya Pollack
Communications Associate
Maya is from Monterey, California. She holds a B.A. in International Affairs from American University. In 2015, Maya moved to Israel and participated in the Netzer Olami educational program where she saw firsthand the realities of the conflict. She then focused her university degree studies on peace, global security, and conflict resolution in the Middle East.
Manzar Samii
Program Director
Manzar has an MSc in Gender, Media, and Culture from the London School of Economics and is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths where her research interests have been focused on the potential for social change as imagined and made real. Her work experience is rooted in organizations that focus on community-led empowerment through education and arts and has taken her to Udaipur, Tehran, and New York. She is passionate about intercultural communication and loves learning from others.
Tally Zahour
Facilitator, Israel/Palestine
For 20 years, Tally has worked with teens as a Waldorf educator. She has been involved in Arab-Jewish activities in Israel and Palestine since 1992 and is a qualified facilitator of Listening Circles. She is currently a consultant for Arab and Jewish Waldorf schools and studies peace and conflict resolution at Haifa University.
Sue Breslauer
President
Sue has spent her adult life working for and creating nonprofit organizations in St. Louis and in Santa Fe. She is co-founder of Envision Santa Fe that focuses efforts on transitioning homeless families to permanency and sustainability and now is part of Monte del Sol Charter School. She was coordinator of the Interfaith Leadership Alliance of Santa Fe for 7 years and was a board member of New Mexico Women in the Arts and the Interfaith Community Shelter. She was honored in 2019 as a Santa Fe Living Treasure.
Tony Gerlicz
Vice-President
Tony is an educator who taught and administered in public and private schools in Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado. He founded two schools in Santa Fe, New Mexico and led two schools internationally, The International School Nido de Aguilas in Santiago, Chile and the American School of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. He believes Nelson Mandela, when Mr. Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon one can use to change the world,” and brings that ethos to his work. He was born in Argentina of Polish refugees, lives in Santa Fe with his wife Diane, and has two children and two grandchildren.
Lamia Faruki
Secretary
Lamia has a degree in Business Management from Arizona State University and has been in residential property sales in Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1995. She speaks Arabic and French and often does public speaking in an effort to further interfaith understanding and reconciliation.
Sam M. Hocking
Treasurer
Sam is the owner of a computer firm that outsources accounting services. He formerly worked for International Paper Company and IBM. He served for five years on the Dallas United Way budget committee and was treasurer of the Dallas Shakespeare Festival.
Shaza Anderson
Shaza was born in the Middle East to a diplomatic family and has lived in nine countries. An avid supporter of peace making, social justice, and interfaith dialogue she has worked and volunteered with a variety of organizations. After earning a degree in English Literature, she studied journalism and parapsychology. She is also fluent in Arabic and French. She has two adult children and resides with her husband in Houston.
Sue Barnum
Sue was a psychotherapist and psychodramatist in private practice for 35 years, specializing in adult care, group therapy, and helping people heal childhood trauma. She has been a major volunteer and passionate advocate for Tomorrow’s Women since 2007, providing emotional support to staff, Young Leaders and campers. She retired from her camp duties and became a Board member in 2018. Sue has two adult children and five nearly-adult grandchildren, one of whom participated in a Girls’ Circle with Tomorrow’s Women campers in 2016.
Pamela Blackwell
Pamela Blackwell is the Policy and Communications Director for the New Mexico Hospital Association where she leads key communications and advocacy work collaborating with others to develop evidence-based policy solutions to improve healthcare access at state and federal levels. Previously, as Senior Policy Director for nonpartisan, nonprofit New Mexico First, she conducted independent research, facilitated bringing diverse groups to consensus, and lobbied on healthcare, education, journalism and ethics in government issues affecting New Mexico. Pamela also served as legislative staff in Washington, D.C. for U.S. Congressional Representatives. She earned her B.A. in journalism at Colorado State University and her J.D. at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, VA. A seventh generation New Mexican, she resides in Albuquerque with her husband and three children and enjoys swimming, hiking, travel and cooking for family and friends.
Rob Elliott
Rob owned and operated a whitewater rafting company on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon for 34 years, which he bought from his parents in 1974 and sold to his daughter and son-in-law in 2008. Rob’s company was the first Grand Canyon outfitter to recruit, train, and hire women rafting guides in the 1970s. Rob has been a community activist much of his life. He has three grown children, is now retired, and lives with his wife, Sharon Woods, in Santa Fe. Together, Rob and Sharon have been blessed with 11 grandchildren. Rob is an avid outdoorsman, photographer, and environmentalist. He joined the Board of Directors of Tomorrow’s Women in 2011 and served as its President from 2013 to 2016.
Barbara Gudwin
Barbara has spent over 40 years working on behalf of children and youth in Santa Fe. She began her career at the Santa Fe Mountain Center and retired as Executive Director of Girls Inc. She continued her advocacy work as a member of various philanthropic boards including the Foundation Board of SFCC and as a member of the Santa Fe Community Foundation Board. Barbara served 4 years on the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education followed by two terms on the board of Community in Schools of New Mexico. As the mother of two adult daughters, Barbara believes in the empowerment of young women to achieve their education and career goals, including the development of leadership and communication skills to be used to give back and improve their home communities.
Ruth Kovnat
Ruth is a lawyer who spent 40 years as an academic specializing in U.S. constitutional law and federal courts. Her community activities have included serving on the boards of an interfaith homeless shelter, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, and a local public radio station. For 10 years, she has been a member of the Santa Fe Campaign Ethics Review Board. Her commitment to Tomorrow’s Women began when her husband, Paul, now an emeritus board member, first learned of the organization. She is honored to continue the tradition of a Kovnat on the board.
Todd Lopez
Todd has been active for 15 years in private practice as a natural resource attorney and more than 20 years in social justice work. He also serves as President of Rio Grande Return, a non-profit organization dedicated to protection of riverine natural environments and the wildlife they serve, he is a co-founder and administrator of the Inspire Santa Fe youth mentorship program, and he is actively engaged with Mediators Beyond Borders International in building a more peace-able world.
Rudeina A. Baasiri
Leslie A. Boni
Beverley Byers-Pevitts
Kathie Cole
John Connell
Nancy Dickenson
Glenn Dickter
Karl Ferguson
Paul Kovnat
Elizabeth Martin
Leslie Nathanson Juris
Amyra Rasak
Joyce Salhoot
Merna Saliman
Alicia Smith
Jane Yohalem
Tamara Bates
Tamara Bates is a former financial advisor for UBS and Raymond James. She also spent much of her career in nonprofit fundraising and philanthropy, as VP of Strategy and Programs for Innovate+Educate, and as a Program Officer at the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Tamara founded the program, The Dots Between, at the start of COVID-19 to help artists diversify their revenue streams. This is a six-month fellowship on financial sustainability serving its first cohort of 19 artists across New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. She holds a BA from the College of Santa Fe and an M.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and Child Development from Tufts University. She is an Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Fe, and on the boards of Southwest Creations Collaborative and the National Advisory Council for Creative Capital.
Sandra Wechsler
Sandra Wechsler specializes in designing social impact strategies and working with campaigns and large organizations to advance meaningful change. Sandra received her B.A. in Social Thought and Political Economy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her Master’s in Public Health from the University of New Mexico. She lives in Santa Fe with her husband, toddler and dog Omar, named after her favorite character in The Wire.
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