About Us

Our Team

MataHari: Eye of the Day works with a select team of community members and professional consultants from a variety of fields who are uniquely equipped to assist community members negotiate a path through complex governmental systems and social networks. Our clients are immigrants from all over the world as well as persons from the US who are trafficked and exploited domestically. Our staff and consultants have origins in countries and cultures throughout Africa; Asia; Europe; South America; Latin America; and North America. We are many different colors, races, and religions. We speak at least 15 languages including: Bahasa Indonesia, Bangla, English, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Japanese, Malay, Nepali, Oriya, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Urdu.

We are actively pursuing candidates for the following positions:

• Advisory Committee members: Professionals who have the skills and time to help advance MataHari's mission
• Associates: College students who can provide operational support

Please email jennifer.chiu@bridgespan.org if you are interested.

Core Team Directors

Carol Gomez, Founding Director: Malaysian South Asian community organizer, educator and anti-violence advocate, Carol founded TVOS in 2002. She has worked in public health, healthcare, criminal justice fields and on community based research projects. Besides her work as a community organizer & counselor for survivors of abuse and family violence, she offers training, education and consulting on the issues of violence prevention, safety planning, immigrant care, modern day slavery, violence against women, anti-oppression work, organizational development, community organizing and empowerment.

Lilly Marcelin, Associate Director: French and Haitian Creole speaking sexual assault and domestic violence counselor and educator. She has extensive experience working on issues such has human trafficking, modern day slavery, gender based violence and immigrants rights. She is also a skilled grassroots community organizer, event planner and fundraiser.

Program Volunteers

Urmi Chakrabarti: Clinical psychology graduate student at UMass Boston. Focusing on feminist and multicultural health psychology. Currently looking at cognitive effects of women on antiepileptic medication. She is a bicultural Indian American and fluent in Bangla. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Calcutta, India.

Sheetal Patel: Interests include working with women in immigrant communities. She is also a gifted artist and contributes to much of the design work for MataHari. She is currently a gradute student at Simmons School of Social Work. She previously obtained her Counseling degree from Lesley University.

Rasta Bagheri: Social work intern from Boston College who has worked on projects in South Africa and California

Rodela Khan

Nadia Manzoor

Advisory Committee

Carly Burton: Carly is a Policy Associate who joins us from Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. She offers us technical assistance and strategy in advocating for sound policy.

Betsey Chace: With over a decade of experience contract and management work with US immigrant and refugee programs in the US and international development work, Betsey advises us on organizational development. She currently works at Partners in Health.

Jennifer Chiu:  Jennifer is a nonprofit consultant at the Bridgespan Group, which works with nonprofits to develop their overall strategy and business plans as well as answer key organizational questions.  

Jonghyun Lee

Junko Kim: Educator and non-profit development specialist, Junko sits on our organizational development committee.

Lisa Hartwick: Currently director of the Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Lisa is a seasoned clinician and has worked with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The program initiatives of the Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery are: Safe Transitions: Domestic Violence Intervention Program, Rape Crisis Intervention Program, Community Violence Program and the Advocate, Education and Support Project. Contact the program by calling 617.667.8141.

Yoko Harumi: Long time Japanese domestic violence and anti-trafficking activist in her home country, Yoko is skilled in domestic violence and immigrant advocacy as well as being in housing and public benefits remedies in Massachusetts.

Nancy Kelly: Greater Boston Legal Services, Immigration Unit Co-Director, Nancy is a bilingual Spanish attorney and advocate who advises and represents our clients.

Marina Livshits: Marina is a bi-lingual clinical psychologist and educator with expertise in domestic violence and immigrant adjustment providing training and care both in the US and in her home country in the Former Soviet Union. Marina offers her services to the community at Jewish Family and Children's Services and at her practice.

Barbara Lomax: Barbara is an African American long-time Boston resident, clinician with experience working with youth, in public housing and community organizing. She sits on our clinical team.

Diego Low: Bilingual Portuguese community organizer at the Brazilian Immigrant Center, Diego is a seasoned advocate working with migrant workers and immigrants from Brazil and other countries.

Rick Mann: Rick offers probono services and expert legal representation to our clients in slavery through the law offices of Holland & Knight.

Tracy Pereira: Tracy helped found one of Malaysia's first grass-roots non-governmental organizations, Friends of Women, in the early 1980s. A lawyer by training, she embarked on a new career after moving to Boston, graduating from Boston University's culinary arts program in 2006. Along with occassional volunteer work, she is helping MataHari develop a women's cooperative project, called Global Women's Kitchen, which is aimed at providing work opportunities for immigrant women in the Boston Area.

Jane Rocamora: Bi-lingual French attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and supervisor for Harvard's Immigration & Refugee Clinic, Jane is a tireless advocate who advises and represents many of our clients.

Hema Sarangapani: Hema a staff attorney at the Immigration Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services, offers us resources and commitment to working on immigrant legal rights matters. Hema is bilingual Spanish.

Ramani Sripada: Director of Programs & Capacity Building at the MA Asian & Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health. Ramani provides us organization planning support. She has extensive experience designing, facilitating and evaluating educational trainings; oversees a regional capacity building project; and has developed curriculum and train-the-trainer programs for immigrant and refugee communities of color.  

Lourdes Villaruz: Filipina community activist providing ongoing care to Filipina women fleeing domestic violence, servile marriages and domestic worker trafficking in the greater Boston area.

Heather Wightman: Heather is a public health professional with long time experience in youth work and anti-violence programming. She sits on our development committee.

International Advisors

Sriram Anathanarayanan: South Indian, Boston based, anti-violence, gender rights, sexual health educator and activist. Sriram comes to Boston from India where he worked with local Indian women on empowerment, peer supported, grassroots HIV and peace initiatives.

Roshan Bhandary: Nepalese, Hindi and Urdu speaking domestic violence counselor, trained in public health models, Roshan is a seasoned educator and cultural broker who works at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence.

Brian Lariche

Melindah Sharma: Melindah is a passionate advocate specializing in building grassroots organizations dealing with issues of domestic violence, migration, education and children's safety. She founded PEACE (Prevention, Empowerment & Community Education) and co- founded SACAV (the South Asian Coalition against Violence). She is the recipeint of the "Creating a Voice" award for leadership and commitment to the South Asian American community. She served on the Gates Millennium Scholars Program (GMSP) to promote the academic success of high risk high school students. She has most recently served life science companies and non profits as a management consultant both in the US and in India.