We are Mona Foundation

Mahnaz has a doctorate in Educational Leadership. She has taught as an adjunct faculty at the University of Washington Computer and software systems, worked at Microsoft for several years, and more recently at Avanade, a high tech consultancy in Seattle, as the Sr. Vice President of Talent Acquisition. In September of 2017 and after 20 years in Academia and high tech industry, Mahnaz left Avanade to commit herself full time to the critical mission of Mona Foundation as its CEO and President.

Mahnaz is one of the founding members of Mona Foundation, passionate about social justice and access to education for all, particularly for women and girls, and has been involved in learning about social and economic development projects around the world since the 1990s.

Philanthropy speaks to the core of our humanity. It defines who we are and shapes us to be the best we can be.

Tanya Zabeti is an attorney and an active member of the Oregon and Illinois state bars. Her practice focuses primarily on estate planning and business. She earned her Juris Doctor from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, with a concentration in tax and business.

Since connecting with Mona Foundation in 2016, Tanya has been an advocate for its mission and work. She joined Mona with the desire to be a part of meaningful change towards universal education and gender equality. Her love of traveling has allowed her to experience many cultures that have provided perspective and focus in her volunteering efforts.

“I’m excited about the social and economic change this organization will continue to inspire globally in making education more accessible to all. Education provides opportunities. Opportunities help cultivate independence and autonomy. I believe Mona’s focused initiatives to educate women and children in regions where education is scarce will be a catalyst in alleviating poverty and injustice.”

David Wood is the CEO of Human Touch, originally hired to develop a turnaround and growth strategy for this 35-year old health and wellness Company. An innovative and driven business professional, he managed a restructuring which led to debt retirement and strong annual growth and profitability. David’s expertise led to successful market and product strategies that drove product innovation in such companies as GN Netcom/Jabra and Bose Corporation.

While at Bose, David pioneered and developed an extensive leadership development program for high performing colleagues and has been a frequent presenter for both internal and external learning programs. David engaged his undergraduate education in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, has general management certificates from Harvard Business School and an MBA from Boston University.

It is my core and conscious mission and privilege to engage my own strengths and virtues for the benefit of others.

Duy-Loan started her career at Texas Instruments (TI) at 19 and two decades later became the first Asian American and the only female to be elected to the highest title Senior Fellow in TI’s history. During her 35 year career at TI, she led the development to grow TI’s Memory product line across 5 countries and 3 continents to generate multi-billion dollar revenue, oversaw the development of the world’s fastest Digital Signal Processor per 2004 Guinness World Records, and pioneered products enabling TI’s entry into base station & VOIP markets. 

Duy-Loan holds 24 patents and currently serves on the board of directors at National Instruments, Cree, Ballard Power Systems, Atomera and other private & start-up companies. She obtained her BSEE from The Cockrell College of Engineering at The University of Texas in Austin and MBA from The Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and currently serves on the board of advisors at both institutions.

Duy-Loan’s service to the global community in the last 25 years is extensive, but her deepest love is with Sunflower Mission and Mona Foundation, two non-profit organizations supporting education and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) worldwide. She is married with 2 sons and lives in Texas. 

My purpose of doing well in life is to do good …

and giving a child the gift of education enables goodness in perpetuity.

Over the past several decades, Mark Sisson has been engaged, at the grassroots, national and international levels, in various aspects of community development, communications, education, and advocacy.  Mark's extensive international development experience includes living in Papua New Guinea for 11 years where he worked as the director of Educational Television in Papa New Guinea Ministry of Education and traveling extensively over the years to Pacific Islands and Oceania, include American Samoa, the Cook and Solomon Islands, and Fiji, French Polynesia, Tonga, Guam, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands among others.  He has also worked with a number of UN agencies including UNDP, UNICEF, and the WHO, and the European Union.

His experience extends from Information and communications and social mobilization to advocacy for the empowerment of women, youth and indigenous peoples. He has written, produced, and directed media content for film, television and radio programs centered principally around advocacy, and secondary and tertiary education and training. He has experience in instructional media development and design, and is currently a professor of the Film, Television, and Media Arts program in the School of Arts, Communications and Social Sciences at Southwestern College.

Education, both academic and character, is the best remedy for the current ills of the world.

Sima has a Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering from UCLA. She has worked in both private industry and public organizations for fifteen years and in 1997 stepped out to spend more time with her three children, with the ultimate hope of getting involved with meaningful projects that serve humanity.

She learned about Mona Foundation in 2003 and has been volunteering ever since. Site visits to some of Mona's projects taught her the value of social and economic development and have enhanced her life. These visits proved to her that there are truly gems inside every individual regardless of their race, gender, or nationality and that what is needed is to recognize and discover these gems.

There is a saying in China, ‘women hold up half the sky’. This is only possible if girls can achieve their full potential through universal education.

Peter Neumann is an International Partner with the PRC law firm of Broad & Bright in their Los Angeles office. Previously, Peter’s 20+ years in China and Shanghai included corporate counsel and managing roles with the Celanese Corporation, Greenberg Traurig LLP, Faegre & Benson LLP, and Deacons Graham & James. His law practice has focused on foreign direct investment, M&A, general commercial, and IP/technology matters, as well as strategic counseling on market entry and expansion.

His civic contributions include membership on the Pacific Counsel on International Policy, and as former member of the Shanghai American Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors. Peter is fluent in spoken and written Chinese.

"I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service.  I served and I saw that service is joy.”- Kahlil Gibran.

I relate so much to this quote. I love Mona because it is a total act of selflessness benefiting little helpless gems.  

Neda Moeini received her degree in Software Engineering from York University’s Computer Science Department and went on to build a successful technology company with her husband and life partner, Ata Moeini. Together they built GL | Group of Gold Line, a group of companies specializing in using technology to erase borders and connect the diaspora back home. Most notable among their products is their first product, the prepaid long distance calling card that revolutionized the long distance calling market in Canada, and their IPTV streaming product GLWiZ, which is today known as the largest streamer of multicultural television and entertainment content in the world – colloquially known as the global, multicultural Netflix!

Mrs. Moeini’s true passion is philanthropy and she has over the years contributed to great organizations in Medicine, and the Arts and Education. Her support of Medical research includes the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Breast Cancer Society of Canada and Sick Kids Hospital. She is also a longtime patron of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Her contributions to Education includes her own charity, Borani Global Education; a not-for-profit association dedicated to the principle of education for all, which matches deserving students to fully online university degree programs, allowing them to be empowered through education despite the social, political, religious and monetary boundaries they face. Mrs. Moeini also initiated a bursary at the University of Toronto’s Law School and the establishment the GL | Group of Gold Line International Human Rights Internships, which allows law students to work on human rights issues in foreign countries.

Mrs. Neda Moeini was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal on September 8th, 2012 by the Governor General of Canada for her distinguished contributions to the field of education being characterized as an effective community leader whose work has enriched the lives of many throughout the

Education ensures the equal rights of all children to be a part of building a better future.

Diane Samandi is the founder of Jonquil, a romantic sleepwear collection evoking the glamour of old Hollywood. A favorite with brides, Diane created a new collection in 2007 with more whimsy and named it In Bloom by Jonquil. It soon became the most sought after bridal sleepwear around the world. Designing for nearly 40 years, her dedication to making a woman feel beautiful is still her inspiration.

Diane has served on the board of directors of the Mona Foundation as a volunteer for fourteen years. In her own words, ”supporting initiatives that begin with a few working together to create schools in their own village or region changes lives and transform communities. Education ensures the equal rights of all children to be part of building a better future. This is the emerging model of development philanthropy that I am very excited to be part of.”

Dr. Nooshin Khoshkhessal Darvish’s life purpose is to serve through healing the mind, body and spirit by practicing the art and science of medicine, integrating the wisdom of Eastern Medicine with the science of Wastern Medicine. She is a board-licensed naturopathic physician, having founded award-winning ‘Holistique Medical Center’ as the first integrative medical clinic on any hospital campus in Washington State in 2002. Later, in 2019, she and her husband, Jahanshah (John), founded Washington’s first ‘Holistique IV Lounge’ in Bellevue, Washington. Dr. Darvish is board-certified in Anti-aging and Regenerative Medicine, and has earned Fellowships in Integrative Cancer Therapies as well as in Nutritional and Metabolic Medicine. Since 2009, she has been awarded over ten local, national and international awards for her work in medicine and philanthropy.

Dr. Darvish received her undergraduate degree in Speech Science and Pre-Med from University of British Columbia in 1991 and then earned her naturopathic medical degree from Bastyr University in 1995. She completed a two year residency in Naturopathic Family Medicine in 1997 at Bastyr University serving as  Chief Resident Physician and then adjunctive faculty for six years. Currently, Dr. Darvish continues to volunteer as an affiliate faculty member of Bastyr University, providing naturopathic and integrative medical training to resident physicians and naturopathic medical interns. 

She is a member of several medical associations such as the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, amongst others.  

Her passion is to educate and to be of service to the healing and advancement of our global civilization. As such, she recently founded ‘Holistique Health Hour Podcast’ to provide public access to evidence-based integrative and regenerative medical health education.  She is a volunteer writer for medical journals, and is interviewed often on podcasts and radio shows on various topics of regenerative, naturopathic, functional, and integrative medicine. She has served on the editorial boards of several medical journals, published articles in peer-review medical journals, and serves as guest speaker at international and national medical conferences.