KEY STAFF
Gayle Zilber, Executive Director
Gayle Zilber is a lawyer with a passion for international human rights, women’s rights, and gender equality. She obtained her law degree in 1997 from the University of Michigan Law School where she ran a large international women’s rights conference; subsequently she juggled practicing civil litigation at major national firms and counseling companies with women’s and children’s rights work. Gayle’s interest in working towards a more just global society has fueled her time at AIWR where she has been a mentor since 2008. Over that time, she has mentored dozens of Afghan attorneys, law professors, and judges who worked in women’s rights, human rights, and on eradicating corruption. Gayle has overseen the Mentor Program for AIWR since 2014, expanding the program to benefit more women leaders throughout Afghanistan and now in the diaspora, and stepped into the executive director role for AIWR in late 2024.
e-mail: [email protected]
Scarlett Chidgey, Technology Director
Scarlett has been involved with AIWR since 2006, when she served as an In-Country Volunteer in Mongolia. She joined the AIWR staff in 2007 as a Program Manager, in which she coordinated a variety of volunteer projects, assisted with the English Program, and managed and developed the AIWR website and organizational database. Currently, her primary focus with AIWR is on technology support. Scarlett holds an MA in International Studies from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, with a concentration in Gender, Human Rights, and Development. In 2011, she was an Advocacy Project Peace Fellow in Uganda and supported a women’s maternal health project in Ethopia. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently Director of Development for the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation.
e-mail: [email protected]
Laura Waters, English Program Coordinator
Laura Waters was living in Nunavut, Canada when she started with AIWR as a volunteer teacher. From that remote area she was able to help students in Mongolia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan toward their goals of learning English. Moving to Ontario, she continued in this capacity, until last year, when she became a coordinator of the English Program, helping with the scheduling and administrative needs of the Program.
e-mail: [email protected]
Nancy Arnold-Hunting, Mentor Program Coordinator
Nancy first joined AIWR in 2007 as a volunteer teacher in the English Program and has volunteered in the Mentor Program since 2015. In January of 2018, Nancy generously agreed to join our core team by stepping into the role of Mentor Program Coordinator. Nancy has a lifelong interest in languages and cultures and a passion for social justice. She holds a BA in French and a Post-Graduate Certificate in TESOL. She experienced the challenges of language acquisition and integrating into new cultures while living and working in Europe, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Mexico. Her professional experience includes teaching English to adult immigrants, refugees, and disadvantaged children in developing countries, and teacher training. As a Mentor Program Coordinator, Nancy oversees scheduling and reporting for volunteer mentors and mentees.
e-mail: [email protected]
BOARD MEMBERS
Gayle Zilber, Director and President of the Board
(See bio above)
e-mail: [email protected]
Mary Maloney Roberts, Board Member and Secretary
Mary Maloney Roberts is a retired California lawyer with extensive private sector experience as a labor and employment law specialist and in the public sector as General Counsel to the Judicial Council of California, the policymaking body for the California court system. A 1981 graduate of the University of California College of the Law San Francisco, Mary has been a volunteer legal mentor with AIWR since 2023, working with Afghan lawyers in London and California.
Sara Garvey, Board Member and Vice President
Sara Garvey joined AIWR as a mentor in 2016. In connection with her efforts for AIWR, Sara has worked extensively with the International Women Judges Association, the UK Women Judges Association and Georgetown Law School to identify educational and career opportunities for AIWR mentees. Sara began her career as a commercial litigator and transitioned to counseling global insurance clients as corporate counsel. Sara is currently Deputy General Counsel of AEGIS Insurance Services, Inc. Sara is committed to providing pro bono legal services in her community and is an active member of the Association of Corporate Counsel.
Lucy Webster, Board Member and Vice President
Lucy Webster is a lawyer based in the UK. Through her extensive pro bono work she has supported several AIWR mentees with career and professional development opportunities. Lucy specializes in strategic and legal risk, complex cross-border disputes and reputation management. She is a Partner at global law firm Squire Patton Boggs where she co-leads the women’s sport group and is a gender equity leader.
Lisa Herb, Founder & Advisor to the Board
Lisa Herb is the founder of AIWR and for twenty years served as its Executive Director, retiring from that role in late 2024 and moving into an advisory, emerita role. Although Lisa’s professional life has focused on practicing law, her love of travel and passion for women’s rights led her to many opportunities to travel and live in Asia where she was able to learn firsthand about the experiences of women in many Asian and Central Asian cultures. Lisa’s inspiration for founding AIWR and its long-distance Empowerment Programs came from Mongolian women’s rights advocates with whom Lisa worked while she was living in Mongolia in 2003 and 2004. Upon her return to the U.S. in 2005, Lisa’s Mongolian acquaintances asked if she could continue to support them long-distance, through email and Skype, and Lisa realized that she could indeed continue to work with Asian women leaders despite being thousands of miles away. Based on this experience, in 2005 Lisa founded AIWR for the purpose of providing long-distance capacity building support to women leaders and future women leaders in Central Asia. In 2007 Lisa traveled to Afghanistan and after witnessing firsthand the challenges faced by Afghan women and girls, AIWR decided to focus its primary resources and energy on its Afghanistan programs. Lisa practices commercial litigation in the Seattle area and is the busy mother of a very active son.
e-mail: [email protected]