Executive Director and Board Members
Sahar Taman, Executive Director
Sahar holds a Juris Doctorate from the Appalachian School of Law. Her careers have spanned public policy, international youth development, and now law. She previously worked on the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program (YES) at American Councils for International Education where she created leadership programming for youth in 15 countries including Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Albania, and Indonesia. From 2006 to 2010, Sahar directed the Religion and Society Dialogue Program at the National Peace Foundation, a program to foster dialogue between Muslims from the Arabic-speaking Middle East and American religious communities. Sahar received the 2010 National Award for Citizen Diplomacy from the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy for her work in U.S. -Muslim relations. In 2011 she received the Peace X Peace Women, Power, and Peace Connection Point Award for building dialogue and understanding between Arab, Muslim, and Western women. She previously worked at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
Ali Abootalebi, PhD., President
Ali R. Abootalebi was born in 1958 in Tehran, Iran. He has his master’s degrees in International Studies and Political Science and received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Arizona in 1993. He has been teaching courses in Middle Eastern and Global politics for the past 28 years. He is the author of numerous articles and three books on Islam and Democracy, Politics of the Middle East, and the US Middle Eastern Policy. He has served as the President of the MST Foundation since its inception.
Tarik Taman, Vice-President
Tarik is the Vice President and General Manager, Sales at Infor Corporation where he is responsible for bringing Infor's innovative strategy and the full product portfolio to customers in India, the Middle East and Africa. In his previous position as the General Manager of human capital management and cloud enterprise resource management, he was responsible for converging multiple products into a single, end to end HCM solution. Prior to Infor, Taman was the CEO at Quantum Retail Technology Inc. He also served as the VP of EMEA for Oracle Corporation and Retek Inc. Mr. Taman earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and St. Cloud State University.
Thomas Chisholm, M.D.
Dr. Chisholm is a semi-retired surgeon who served as colonel in the United States Army Medical Corps from 1948-1993. Thom is a lifelong progressive activist who is a member of many peace organizations including Veterans for Peace. Dr. Chisholm received his medical training at Marquette University Medical School (now the Medical College of Wisconsin) from 1951-59. He received training at Georgetown University in cardiac surgery, at St. Joseph’s and Affiliated Hospitals in Flint, Michigan in medicine, OB/GYN, and orthopedics, and at the Army Burn Center, Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas in surgery, trauma and burn care. He served at a variety of Army and Navy Hospitals in the U.S. and Europe and with an Air Force Surgical Team in Canto, Vietnam caring for Vietnamese civilians. He was assigned to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in West Germany in the 1980s. Dr. Chisholm opposed the Vietnam war early on, joined the Vets for Peace when he retired from the Army in 1993, and protested against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He currently lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin where he was born and where he and his wife, Nancy, hold a weekly Saturday peace vigil since 2007. He is a founder of the Open Door Clinic, (https://chippewaopendoor.org/history.html) a free health clinic in Chippewa Falls.
Chris Meyer
Chris is an information technology specialist at the Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA 10) an educational agency serving 29 school districts in West Central Wisconsin. Chris has a life time of progressive activism and service. He is a member of several peace organizations in the Chippewa Valley and nationally. Chris’ has a vision for world peace without war and is a strongly opposed to U.S. military intervention.
Mona Taman
Mona is an educator who has taught elementary education for 14 years and is currently at the Evanston Township School District in Evanston, Illinois. She was also a licensed social worker with 15 years experience in many facets of the field including; hospital social work, foster care, clinical and school counseling. Mona holds a Masters of Social Work from the University of Chicago, a teaching certification from Northeastern University in Chicago, and a Bachelor of Applied Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago.