Meet The AAWC Board
Yasaman Zaca
Executive Director
Born and raised in Northern California, Yasaman has always had a passion towards serving and helping women in her community. Whether it be getting involved and joining Afghan Student Association at UC Berkeley or starting Afghan American Women's Collective, she is looking for ways to help Afghan-American women reach their full potential in both their personal and professional lives.
Yasaman currently works in Marketing at an educational technology company called Course Hero. She received her B.S. in Political Science at UC Berkeley in 2012, and currently resides in the Bay Area.
Homaira Shirzai
Born in Afghanistan and raised in the United States, Homaira has always had a passion in helping her Afghan American community. She grew up in a city where there were not many Afghans but this did not stop her from venturing out and volunteering in many different fundraising events in the hopes of helping her fellow Afghans. She is passionate about starting her work with the Afghan American Women’s Collective and sharing her experiences both professionally and personally to not only empower Afghan American Women, but to also learn and grow from one another.
Homaira is currently a Project Manager working for the risk and compliance department at Wells Fargo. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from the
University of Colorado and is currently living in Orange County.
Dr. Leeda Rashid
Dr. Leeda Rashid is a practicing physician and health technology expert. She currently practices Hospital Medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area. She advises health technology companies that are building various solutions to improve patients’ lives. She also advises med tech investors on strategic opportunities in a growing digital healthcare marketplace. She is the Cofounder of the Kabul based nonprofit, HEEDA.org, and has led one of the first research teams in Afghanistan, exploring the health impacts of war and conflict. She is also a native of Afghanistan and has worked both as a researcher and clinician in Afghanistan during multiple engagements with government, academic and private organizations. She holds an MD from the Oregon Health Sciences University and a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Somaya Kazimi
Like many Afghan American families, Somaya's family immigrated to the United States as refugees in 1983 when she was just a year and a half old. Her family settled in San Diego, CA. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband of 12 years and their two beautiful boys. Although Somaya was raised in a large community of Afghans, she has felt disconnected from the Afghan community for quite some time. She has realized she cannot teach her children about their roots and culture without a community to look up to, thus her involvement in Afghan American Women's Collective. There is a lack of much needed resources for Afghan American women and she is passionate about creating a space for these women to come together to exchange knowledge and experiences; essentially a community she desperately needed growing up as a 1st generation immigrant.
Somaya is a process improvement analyst with the PMO office of a major financial institution.