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Leadership

ESKINDER NEGASH

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Eskinder Negash is President and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), an organization founded in 1911 to protect the rights and address the needs of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide and support their transition to a dignified life. Mr. Negash is a recognized senior executive leader and brings nearly 40 years of proven non-profit management experience on behalf of refugees and immigrants.

Prior to joining USCRI, he served from 2009-2015 as Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the largest government-funded refugee resettlement organization in the world. With a budget of over $1.5 billion, the ORR plays a critical role in providing essential services to a wide range of vulnerable people through the Resettlement Program, Rescue & Restore anti-trafficking campaign, and the Unaccompanied Children’s Program. Under his leadership, ORR served more than 850,000 people in six years.

Under Negash’s leadership, ORR served more than 400,000 refugees, 150,000 asylees, 125,000 Cuban and Haitian Entrants, nearly 21,000 Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders, 3,200 Victims of Trafficking, over 32,000 U.S. repatriates, and almost 116,000 unaccompanied children, totaling more than 850,000 people during his six years of service.

Prior to his appointment by the Obama Administration, Mr. Negash served as the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of USCRI for seven years. He also was the Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of the International Institute of Los Angeles for 15 years. Mr. Negash served as a board member with several non-profit organizations, including two years as Chair of the Joint Voluntary Agencies Committee of California, Chair of the California State Refugee Advisory Council, and Board Member of the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

In 2016, Mr. Negash served in the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee for Public-Private Partnership considering the formulation of U.S. polices, proposals, and strategies for developing public-private partnership that promote shares value with the private sector worldwide. In 2009, Mr. Negash received an “Outstanding American By Choice” award from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security, which recognizes naturalized U.S. citizens who have made significant contributions to both their community and their adopted country. In 2010, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) honored Mr. Negash as one of ten distinguished men and women whose stories of hope and transformation epitomize the refugee journey.
ANNAMARIE BENA

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

AnnaMarie Bena is responsible for overall management, growth, and quality service delivery of USCRI’s programs for unaccompanied immigrant children, including residential care program, unaccompanied minors post-release and home study services; legal services program; and trafficking survivors support programs. Her portfolio includes USCRI’s policy and advocacy unit. AnnaMarie brings over 20 years of experience working on refugee and immigrant issues. Most recently, she served as the Director of Policy in the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She also has worked for UNHCR, the HHS Office of the General Counsel and CLINIC. AnnaMarie holds a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame and a B.S. in journalism from the University of Maryland. AnnaMarie served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon.
XAVIER GRAHAM

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Xavier Graham joined USCRI in 2019 as the Director of Finance and Compliance. Prior to joining USCRI, Mr. Graham served as the Executive Director of Finance with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children leading the finance operations. He also served in several leadership positions in New York City and London. He has over 15 years of accounting and finance experience working with private, non-profits and public practice. Mr. Graham is a Certified Accountant and holds a Master’s degree in Accounting & Finance studies.

Directors

SENADA ALIHODZIC

DIRECTOR, ERIE, PA OFFICE

Senada Alihodzic arrived as a refugee from Bosnia during the civil war and genocide of the mid-1990s and began volunteering and working as an interpreter with the International Institute of Erie in 1994, prior to the merger with USCRI in 2009. With a wide background in resettlement programs, Ms. Alihodzic recently served as the in-house licensed Notary and the Program Coordinator for Inclusion and Compliance with responsibilities for overseeing USCRI Erie’s staff of on-call interpreters/document translators. Prior to this, she supervised the Erie field office’s programs for R & P, Match Grant, Refugee Family Strengthening, and Individual Development Accounts to promote financial literacy and savings. Ms. Alihodzic represents the agency in the larger community, serving as a liaison to the New American Council for the City of Erie, a representative to the advisory board of the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College, and local task forces addressing mental health issues and domestic violence in Erie.
TWAFIK ALAZEM

DIRECTOR, DEARBORN, MI OFFICE

In July 2007, Tawfik joined USCRI as the Director of USCRI’s Detroit, Michigan field office in Dearborn. Since that time, Mr. Alazem has been responsible for the operational and personnel management of the field office. Mr. Alazem administers the Reception and Placement, Matching Grant, Healthy Marriage & Relationship Education, Individual Development Accounts, and Preferred Communities programs. He also oversees office operations and programs delivery to immigrants and refugees who settle in the greater Detroit, Michigan area. Before joining USCRI, Mr. Alazem held several management positions in finance, marketing, sales, and general business management. Mr. Alazem holds a Bachelor of Science degree and is fluent in Arabic.
CHELSEY BUTCHEREIT

STATE REFUGEE HEALTH COORDINATOR, MISSOURI OFFICE

Chelsey Butchereit leads the USCRI Missouri field office and serves as the Refugee Health Coordinator for Missouri. She brings with her 10 years of experience coordinating community-based programs and most recently was employed as a Health Program Coordinator in the Refugee Health Program at the Utah Department of Health where efforts focused on offering culturally and linguistically appropriate health screenings, health education, and referrals to all newly arriving refugees to the state of Utah. She also previously taught an undergraduate course on refugee and migrant health at Brigham Young University. Chelsey has a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Utah State University, a master’s degree in Public Health from Brigham Young University, and a certificate in Forced Migration from the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. For more than a decade she’s volunteered with new Americans in different capacities including as a family mentor, English tutor, and Citizenship tutor.
DYLANNA GRASINGER

SENIOR FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR

An expert in the field of refugee resettlement, Dylanna has spent more than 17 years working to help refugees and immigrants throughout the Midwest. Prior to joining the International Institute of Erie in April 2012, Dylanna served as the Director of Community Assistance and Refugee Resettlement for the Northern Area Multi-Service Center (NAMS) and as Director of Refugee Resettlement and Educational Programs at the International Institute of Akron (IIA). Experienced in a variety of direct service and administrative functions, including grant-writing, curriculum design, teaching, program evaluation, fiscal management, volunteer management, and program development, Dylanna combines her commitment to refugees and immigrants with her superpower of simplifying complexity to create strong client-centered programming that works. Dylanna earned her B.A. in English from Kent State University, where she also received certification in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), as well as her Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Creighton University.
DARREN HAMM

DIRECTOR, CLEVELAND, OH OFFICE

For more than fifteen years, Darren Hamm has worked as a volunteer, intern, staff, manager and director in the non-profit sector, helping to improve operations, build nationally-recognized programs, secure highly-competitive awards, and maintain quality during periods of significant organizational growth. Much of Darren’s work has involved developing collaborative partnerships and seeking innovative ways to address systematic issues. Darren earned a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Drawing from Kent State University and a Master’s of Nonprofit Management from Case Western Reserve University. He has been serving as a part-time instructor of Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the Oberlin College & Conservatory. Darren served as Executive Director of the Refugee Response in Cleveland, an organization focused on supporting refugee community integration through youth mentoring and support, employment support, multilingual resources, and agricultural programming. Through his service on the leadership committee of the Refugee Services Collaborative, he has experience working in partnership with Cleveland’s refugee resettlement and social services organizations. Darren was selected as the first executive director of Oberlin Center for the Arts in 2017, providing leadership for establishing the organization’s vision and programming and support for advancing arts and culture throughout the region.
MATT HAYGOOD

DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES & POST RELEASE MANAGER AT USCRI

Matt is responsible for the oversight of USCRI’s Children’s Services including Post Release and Home Study Services for Unaccompanied Children. These programs connect children, who have arrived in the United States without their parents or guardians, to vital services that facilitate the successful integration into their new communities across the country. Matt is a clinical social worker who has been working with refugee and immigrant youth for more than 13 years in the areas of behavioral health, youth development, and child welfare. Having worked as a PRS case manager himself, Matt is dedicated to supporting the national network of case managers serving vulnerable unaccompanied children. His professional career has been driven by the belief that serving children and youth can have the greatest impact on the well-being of communities. Matt served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and received his Masters of Social Work from Columbia University. He has been working at USCRI since 2016.
AMILA MERDZANOVIC

DIRECTOR, COLCHESTER, VT OFFICE

Amila Merdzanovic came to Vermont in 1995 as a refugee from Bosnia and Herzegovina and is the first former refugee leading the USCRI Vermont field office. She brings over 10 years of experience working in refugee resettlement providing direct services, program management, and advocacy on behalf of refugees and asylees in Vermont. Most recently, she graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University with a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy. She holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College. Her interests span across disciplines including forced migration, human rights, and conflict resolution. Amila is fluent in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and has basic knowledge of Russian.
JESSICA MONTOUR

STATE REFUGEE HEALTH COORDINATOR, AUSTIN, TX OFFICE

Jessica Montour leads the USCRI-Texas field office and serves as the Refugee Health Coordinator (RHC) for Texas. Prior to joining USCRI, Ms. Montour served as the RHC for 8 years under the state-administered refugee health program. Jessica works closely with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and is a member of the executive board of the Association of Refugee Health Coordinators. She has a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in International Relations and East Asian Studies from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s in Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Texas A&M University. Jessica has published several articles and presented at international refugee health conferences. She tutored refugees learning English and has in-country experience in China, Malaysia and the Dominican Republic.
HILA MOSS

DIRECTOR OF LEGAL SERVICES

Hila Moss joined USCRI in November 2015 as a Staff Attorney with the Nuevo Comienzo, unaccompanied minor program, where she represented children in their applications for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, asylum and family-based petitions. In March of 2019, she was promoted to Managing Attorney and implemented a cohesive management structure while obtaining new funding opportunities for pro- and low-bono legal representation of survivors of crime, trafficking, and unaccompanied minors. In April 2022, she was promoted to the Associate Director of Legal Services and expanded USCRI’s legal department to include 14 offices with nearly 40 staff members serving refugees, immigrants and paroled Afghan arrivals. In December 2022, she was promoted to Director of Legal Services and currently oversees USCRI’s legal department and serves as the Project Director for USCRI’s government contract representing paroled Afghans nationwide. She resides in North Carolina with her family and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Appalachian State University and a Juris Doctorate from Campbell Law School.
OMER OMER

DIRECTOR, RALEIGH, NC OFFICE

Omer is a community development specialist with over 20 years in the international and humanitarian development sector. He graduated with a PhD. from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and Msc. in International Development from the University of London. Omer has led senior leadership, advisory, and consulting positions with various international organizations across four continents in challenging and complex contexts. Omer joins USCRI North Carolina with knowledge and wide skills to address institutional, organizational, and programmatic priorities and needs.

In North Carolina, Omer previously worked for the Center for New North Carolinians and Lutheran Services in the Carolinas, before leading the North Carolina African Services Coalition for Refugee Resettlement in Greensboro as Executive Director for 12 years. He is happy to return to the refugee services in North Carolina, and to have opportunity to engage the broader community in our mission.

Since 2013, he has worked internationally for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and Mercy Corps on operations and M&E for emergency food security, sanitation, and health programs, as well as on Syrian refugee programming in Turkey. Most recently, he has served as Chief of Party for German Portfolio Health Programs for ADRA in Yemen.

Associate Directors

BART BACHMAN

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF TRAFFICKING SERVICES

Bart Bachman is the Associate Director of Trafficking Services at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), where he oversees administration of the Trafficking Victim Assistance Program (TVAP). He started with USCRI’s TVAP program in 2017, and previously served as the regional Program Officer monitoring project implementation in ACF Regions 1, 2, 3, and 10. Prior to joining USCRI, Bart worked at the Migration Policy Institute in its International Program, where he published an article in the Migration Information Source entitled “Diminishing Solidarity: Polish Attitudes toward the European Migration and Refugee Crisis.” He holds an M.A. in German and European Studies and a B.S. in International Politics from Georgetown University.
TANISHA ELIZAIRE

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF REFUGEE HEALTH SERVICES

Tanisha oversees USCRI’s Refugee Health Services Program and serves as the HIPAA Privacy Officer. She brings more than 15 years of experience managing an array of health and mental health programs, including HIV medical screening and education; psychological preparedness training for military personnel; counseling programs to Unaccompanied Children and victims of human trafficking; and coordinating the multi-state Refugee Medical Assistance program. Prior to taking the position at USCRI, Tanisha was the Assistant Director for a child welfare agency where she led a multidisciplinary team of group home managers, behavioral health specialists, HIV medical screening specialists and frontline team members, who were responsible for overseeing the health and mental health of youth in care.