Alaha Ahrar is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of International Kindness Sharing (IKS), which spreads kindness and helps people in need. IKS advocates for equity, equality, justice and fairness and is anti-poverty, anti-human trafficking, anti-human smuggling.
Prior to founding IKS, Alaha was the Director of Youth for International World Poetry, Canada since 2011 and she has been on the Board of Directors for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project since 2011.

Alaha has a passion for writing and public speaking and has used these skills extensively to advocate for human rights, justice, and peace. She is an award-winning poet, writer, and social justice and human rights expert. In 2008, she received the Talent Scholarship of University of Mary Washington (UMW). In 2011, she was awarded the “Best Poet of the Year for Afghanistan and the United States” by International World Poetry, Canada. In 2012, she was appointed as the Ambassador of Youth and Peace for Afghanistan and the United States by Canada. In 2016, she received the “Big Heart” Award by Facets for her tireless efforts to help people in need. In 2018, she received the Global Goodwill Ambassadors’ award.

In 2018, Alaha initiated a project that won the 2nd Project of the Year Award through Virginia Statewide Neighborhoods Conference 2018. She won that award for her advocacy and leadership efforts of bringing the entire community together to work on Paradise Park Project at Barros Circle in Centreville, Virginia.

Alaha Ahrar graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a triple major and one certificate. Her majors were Human Rights, Political Science, International Affairs, and her certificate is in Middle Eastern Studies.
Alaha Ahrar completed her master’s degree in Social Justice and Human Rights programs at George Mason University in December 2020.

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Jacques Pitteloud was appointed as Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States of America in 2019. Ambassador Pitteloud was born on November 12th, 1962, in Zurich, Switzerland. He joined the Swiss Foreign Service in 1987, being first assigned as an Advisor to the Foreign Minister. From 1988 to 1989, he served as a trade attaché at the Swiss Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From 1990-1995, he served in the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service. Following his service there, he acted as a personal advisor (General Staff matters and Intelligence) to two successive Defence Ministers until 1999. In 1999-2000, he served as the Head of a Study Group tasked to develop the future structures of the Swiss Armed Forces.

After having been a witness of the Rwanda Genocide in 1994, Dr Pitteloud created an organization dedicated to the task of hunting down and bringing to justice the perpetrators and he managed to have several of them prosecuted both by the international as well as by domestic courts. Dr Pitteloud then served as the first Intelligence Coordinator for the Swiss Government from 2000 to 2005: this function entailed drafting intelligence requirements for the executive, overseeing the drafting of strategic assessments on security-relevant topics, coordinating the work of the various intelligence services as well as of law enforcement and analysis agencies. He then became the Director, Arms Control, Disarmament, Security Policy and Intelligence at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bern. For the duration of his tenure, Ambassador Pitteloud also headed the Swiss Delegation to the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

From 2010 to 2015, Jacques Pitteloud was Swiss Ambassador to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and the Seychelles. He was instrumental in initiating and supporting various civil society initiatives as well as conservation programmes. Dr Pitteloud was also involved in a series of mediations in the region.

Jacques Pitteloud was Director General of the Swiss FDFA from September 2015 prior to being appointed as Swiss Ambassador to the United States in September 2019. As a Director General, he oversaw a budget of USD 3 Billion and was responsible for Human Resources of a 5400-FTE Organization. His tasks also entailed running IT and communications for the whole Ministry, as well as heading the legal and translation services. The Director General was also responsible for the management of all FDFA buildings both in Switzerland and abroad.

Dr Pitteloud earned a Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. from the Law School at the University of Zürich (Master 1986, PhD 1987). Following his assignment in the Middle East, he graduated from the International Training Course in Security Policy (ITC) at Geneva University. He is a retired lieutenant colonel (General Staff) in the Swiss Armed Forces and was the commander of a Mechanized Infantry Battalion. A passionate bird photographer, Jacques Pitteloud has published his pictures in several books and publications in Kenya and South Africa.

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In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 through October 15, Monica Smith, our Club Historian shares the story of NASA astronaut, engineer, inventor, author, and Tierra Lunacvineyard owner José M. Hernández. You may have heard of him recently thanks to a movie that just debuted starring Michael Peña as Hernández. “A Million Miles Away” is based on the true story of Hernández’s ascent from itinerant farmhand to NASA Astronaut.

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