Greg Wangerin, Executive Director, has devoted more than 27 years to humanitarian work around the world, serving refugees directly in Asia, Africa, Europe, and now in North America.  He spent 21 years working as an international officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  UNHCR appointed Greg to nine separate duty stations, including postings in Kenya where he was participated in site development for the Kakuma refugee camp for people fleeing The Sudan, Pakistan where he revamped repatriation programs leading to the voluntary return of 380,000 Afghanis, and the Philippines where he supervised screening of and assistance for “Boat People” asylum seekers from Vietnam and ensured resettlement processing and pre-resettlement training for Amerasian children.  Prior to joining UNHRC, Greg was a case manager for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the national resettlement arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

He joined Interchurch Refugee and Immigration Ministries in February 2002 and has been instrumental in leading the agency to its re-branding as Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries and, finally, RefugeeOne.  The re-branding efforts made the agency more welcoming to clients, donors and volunteers of all religious beliefs and have improved the agency’s ability to gain support from corporate funding bodies.  Greg attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, and then graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Colorado State University.  He completed the Non-Profit Executive Management Program from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg School of Management.

In addition to his passion for helping people who have fled war, terror and oppression, Greg is the proud husband of a professional artist and father of two adult sons.  He also spent the early part of his life involved in music.  His educational credits include a minor in music; he plays the trombone and piano and in the early 1970s worked tuning, constructing and repairing pipe organs.

Bryan Lee, Board Fellow, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University

Murray Johnson, Director, Charter Bankshares, Inc.

Ty Olson, Retired Professor and Lawyer

Karen Hunt-Ahmed is Assistant Professor of Finance and Management at DePaul University.  She received a BA and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She has worked in the banking sector in Chicago and in private equity in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  She is currently teaching Islamic Finance, Microfinance and Business Ethics at DePaul University’s College of Commerce.  Her research interests include culture and identity, Islamic finance, microfinance, globalization, and the sociocultural implications of business practice; she is working on an edited volume entitled Contemporary Islamic Finance.

Dr. Hunt-Ahmed is a Faculty Fellow of DePaul’s Egan Urban Center and serves on the advisory committee of DePaul’s Center for Financial Services.  She is very involved in the not-for-profit sector in Chicago.  In addition to serving as Treasurer of the Board of Refugee One, she is a member of the Board of Haven Youth Services in Wilmette, IL. She is the President of Chicago Islamic Microfinance Project, a not for profit economic development organization providing Shari’a compliant microcredit to entrepreneurs in Chicago.

Karen lives in Wilmette with her daughters and enjoys karate.  She lived in Dubai for many years and has traveled extensively in the Middle East, Pakistan, Africa and Europe.

Hartwig Zakin is the Operations Manager for Circo Vino, a national importer of fine wines from Austria. Prior to his tenure at Circo Vino, Mr. Zakin was the Operations Manager for the Illinois Medical District; a commercial banking research assistant at DeutscheBank; a sales representative at Vin Divino; and a case specialist in the Better Business Bureau’s consumer arbitration division. Mr. Zakin is a member of the Evanston Citizens Police Academy and has mediated juvenile victim-offender cases with the Neighborhood Restorative Justice Institute. As an immigrant who came to the United States when he was 11, Mr. Zakin has long been passionate about refugee issues and joined the Board of RefugeeOne in October 2009. Mr. Zakin holds a Masters degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Bachelors degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California.

Edward Wheatley is Professor of English at Loyola University. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, and after returning to the U.S. he taught English for the Khmer Resettlement Project of Lutheran Social Services in Jacksonville, Florida. He earned his Ph. D. at the University of Virginia. He has been a Mellon Faculty Fellow at Harvard University, and he has received fellowships from such agencies as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the author of two books and numerous articles, and he has also served as a commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

Befekadu Retta is Field Coordinator at the Cook County Election Department.

Rev. Douglas L. Meyer is pastor of Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in Lincolnshire, Illinois.  Having served Holy Spirit for the past 19 years. Since 1970, the congregation has been involved in the resettlement of over 35 refugees to the greater Chicago area, having  recently assisted a family from Bhutan.

Pastor Meyer currently serves as Dean of the North Conference of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has been a coordinator of Jewish-Christian dialogue and Jewish-Lutheran dialogue.

Pastor Meyer has been ordained for 33 years and has served parishes on the south side of Chicago and in the southwest suburbs.  He has a Master of Divinity from Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in English and Philosophy from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.  He is married to the Rev. Christine Nelson Meyer and has three grown sons.

After graduating from Union College in 2003, Adam Gleich came to Chicago in order to pursue a financial trading career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After four years, Mr. Gleich started his own private trading venture – Adam Gleich Trading – where he is still trading Eurodollar Futures today.

Mr. Gleich first became interested in refugee issues in his late teenage years when he did extensive research on the the Holocaust. The pinnacle of his studies brought him to the Concentration Camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Treblinka, and also to the various Jewish ghettos of Poland. Since that time, Mr. Gleich has worked to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust, “Never Again,” by working with marginalized people of all races and ethnicities.

Mr. Gleich learned of RefugeeOne through his wife, Sarah Poole, who began volunteering for the organization in 2007 and is now a member of the Youth Program staff. Together, they have become more and more connected to RefugeeOne – falling in love with the refugees that are served through the agency’s various programs. Mr. Gleich joined the Board of Directors in 2008 with the hope of helping the Board reach its fullest potential.

Gabrielle Buckley is a Shareholder in the Corporate Practice Group of Vedder Price P.C., an AmLaw 200 law firm, where she chairs the firm’s Business Immigration Practice. Ms. Buckley has over 25 years of experience in international law issues, primarily in the areas of corporate immigration law compliance, global migration and direct investment.   Prior to joining Vedder Price in 2001, Ms. Buckley practiced with the law firms of Kelley Drye & Warren and Katten Muchin Rosenman.  She also served as in-house counsel for Borg-Warner Corporation.

Ms. Buckley currently serves on the American Bar Association’s 13‑member Commission on Immigration, and is the immediate past chair of the International Bar Association’s Immigration & Nationality Committee.  She is an Adjunct Professor of Law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.  In addition to her service on the board of directors of RefugeeOne, she is also a member of  the boards of the U.S.-India Chamber of Commerce (Midwest) and WorldChicago (formerly the International Visitors Center of Chicago).  Ms. Buckley also serves on the Leadership Council of the National Immigrant Justice Center.   She is a member of the Galway Sister Cities Committee and Concern’s Brigid Awards Committee.

Ms. Buckley received her J.D. degree from DePaul University College of Law, and her B.A. from Mundelein College.  She also attended Konan University in Kobe, Japan.  She resides in Evanston with her son, Daire, a student at Loyola Academy.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Paul Bouman is the of Executive Director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission unit.

He previously served as bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod from September 1996 through January 2008.  The Metropolitan New York Synod, or district, embraces the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, and several counties north and west.  It includes 236 member congregations. Pastor Bouman served as Assistant to the Bishop from 1992 until his election as bishop in 1996.  His responsibilities in this capacity included regional care of congregations in the Bronx, Manhattan, Westchester and northern counties of the Hudson Valley.  In addition, he bore primary responsibility for evangelism and social ministry, as well as worship and communications.  He also served as Chair of the ELCA Board of Higher Education and Schools.  He currently serves on the board of Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries in Chicago, Illinois.

Pastor Bouman received his Master of Sacred Theology from New York Theological Seminary in 1978 and his Doctor of Ministry degree in 1980 and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in 2001.

Pastor Bouman is married to the former Janet Luce, and they have three grown children and three grandchildren. They reside in Chicago.

Alan Khalil, Chief Executive, Inverbrass Funds, LLC

Pam Hultgren, National Administrator, Ministry Mentors

Reverend Ken Johnson, a long time board member, is the immediate past Board President for RefugeeOne.  He has been active in refugee resettlement and advocacy, both internationally and locally, for over 45 years.  His interest in refugee issues began in 1965 when he served as Material Aid Supervisor for Tanganyika Christian Refugee Services, a  UNHCR partner, assisting in the resettlement of refugees fleeing into Tanzania from Mozambique, Rwanda and Burundi. Since that initial formative experience, Ken has served as pastor of congregations in Illinois, Minnesota, Egypt and Thailand, where he has encouraged each faith community to sponsor and show hospitality to refugees.  Ken recently retired as Director of International Student Affairs from The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He now spends much of his time and energy serving as an Ambassador for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) and advocating for refugees through RefugeeOne.

Ahmed Rehab is an American Muslim activist and writer with a focus on contemporary social issues including civil rights, media relations, and Islam-West relations.

Rehab is a regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune, the Huffington Post, and CNN.com, his Op-Eds have been published in numerous newspapers around the country, and he has been interviewed numerous times by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, the Washington Post, the Orlando Sentinel, the Economist, the Boston Globe, Crain’s Business Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Germany’s Die Zeit, and many more.

Rehab is also a frequent guest on TV and cable news networksincluding ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, BBC, as well as on radio stations. His commentaries can be heard on Chicago Public Radio.

Prior to joining CAIR in August of 2004, Rehab was a software engineer at Arthur Andersen LLP – a global consulting firm; a consultant for Chicago’s Niagara Foundation – a cutting-edge interfaith organization that promotes global fellowship; and a US Soccer Federation Official. He is the founder of Ibex Computers, and Amrex Media.

Ahmed Rehab holds a Masters degree in Software Engineering from DePaul University and a Bachelors in Psychology from the University of Illinois.

Ahmed Rehab is currently the Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization which under Rehab’s tenure has developed from a start-up into one of the most notable not-for-profit civil rights offices of its kind anywhere in the United States.