Board of Directors
Sheryl Israel-Bloch
BOARD CHAIR (and chair of food security programs)
Sheryl has lived in the DC area since graduating from Boston University School of Law in 1986. She received her undergraduate degree from Tulane University. Until her retirement at the end of 2019, Sheryl was counsel at the law firm Hogan Lovells. Prior to that, she worked at Shaw Pittman and the Federal Aviation Administration. Throughout her legal career, she focused primarily on aviation safety and regulatory issues.
Over the past two decades, Sheryl has been dedicated to community service. She is passionate about alleviating poverty and food insecurity, and about connecting people with the resources they need. She has been an enthusiastic volunteer with KindWorks (and its predecessor MoverMoms), A Wider Circle (mentoring and helping people find jobs with the Workforce Development and Neighborhood Partnership programs), and served as a PTA Community Service chair throughout the many years that her two kids attended Bannockburn Elementary School in Bethesda.
Sheryl lives in Cabin John with her husband Peter, and is proud mom to her grown children, Danielle and David.
Denise Schleckser
Former Board Chair (2014-2023) and chair of shelter support programs
Denise joined KindWorks in 2009 as a volunteer when the organization was known as MoverMoms. She joined the board in 2012 and served as board chair from 2014-2023. She especially enjoys supporting KindWorks’ connection with the unhoused in our community, through participation in shelter meals and birthday parties. Having helped KindWorks grow to the respected organization it is today, Denise looks forward to having its ever-expanding connections meet more and more community needs.
In addition to working with KindWorks, Denise enjoys volunteering with nonprofits that help women and children, including the former MOMS program (Mothers Offering Maternal Support), Women for Women International, and Girls on the Run of Montgomery County.
Salma Hasan Ali
VP & CHIEF INSPIRATION OFFICER (also co-chair of KindSoup and Chief Storyteller)
Salma Hasan Ali is a storyteller. She is the author of three books: 30 Days: Stories of Gratitude, Traditions, and Wisdom; the 30 Days Journal; and BenchTalk: Wisdoms Inspired in Nature. As a writer of personal essays and feature stories, her work has been published in national and international media, including the Washington Post, the Washingtonian, and the Huffington Post. Her public speaking and storytelling across the globe have focused on promoting more informed and sensitive ties across cultures, the power of kindness, and the inspiration we can all draw from individual and collective service. Through her storytelling consulting practice, Salma helps individuals and nonprofits develop, write, and market their own stories. She was a finalist for the 2019 March of Dimes Heroines of Washington Award and was nominated twice for the El Hibri Foundation Community Builder Award. She is vice chair of the Concordia Forum, a by-invitation international group of changemakers who are Muslim. She attended Columbia College and received a master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Karen Simon
VICE CHAIR (and Summer Fun Stuff chair)
Karen has worked in radio, theater, and documentary film. Upon graduation from the University of Michigan, she moved to DC for a job with the Voice of America. After several years, she moved on to Voices from the Streets, a theater troupe of homeless and at-risk children and adults. As theater director, she and the troupe brought the real life stories of the troupe members to thousands of people, from students to politicians. She then moved on to documentary film production with Spark Media, where she still freelances.
Working in the community has always been part of her life, and has encompassed projects and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds–from hunger issues and education to awareness -raising and the environment. Karen is married and has three adult children.
Peg Philleo
SECRETARY
Peg has lived in Montgomery County for most of her life. As an information technology project manager at a DC consulting firm, Peg’s professional focus has been in delivering and managing systems.
Peg lives in Bethesda with her husband Steve and has two children, Norris and Kit. Peg received her BS from Towson University in 1986 and her MBA from The American University.
Peg has been involved in many KindWorks (and MoverMoms) activities, including every annual Inspiration Day. In addition, Peg was a very active parent volunteer with several athletic teams at Whitman High School in Bethesda, as well as groups at the US Naval Academy. Peg is an avid tennis player and also loves various creative projects, among them jewelry design, knitting, and cooking.
Susan Burkinshaw
TREASURER
Susan is an operations and accounting professional and recognized leader with an MBA and a passion for community outreach. She has experience in multiple industries, including events services, general service, nonprofit, healthcare/health & fitness, education, real estate, and automotive.
Susan’s volunteer efforts have focused on public safety, public education, public health, and the arts, and advocating for collaborative solutions among our government agencies and elected officials. She has served as treasurer of multiple nonprofit organizations for the past 10-plus years.
Susan works full-time as the CFO of Slate Productions, LLC, a live events production company in Gaithersburg.
Alexa Abdelatey
Alexa is a Muslim American convert with four teenagers and an Egyptian husband, living in Virginia. She grew up in Chevy Chase and Garrett Park, and majored in French at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Montpellier, France.
As a teen, she became involved with HIV/AIDS education and support at Whitman Walker Clinic, and organized several displays of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt during college and as a teacher at St Margaret’s School in Tappahannock, VA. At St. Margaret’s, she worked with students on service learning projects across a variety of issues. She taught French for five years before staying home, raising and homeschooling her children in their early childhood years. She then taught French for four years at Sidwell Friends Middle School.
In recent years, Alexa has been a Girl Scout leader and an occasional speaker in schools about Islam and her experiences as a Muslim American. She first became involved with KindWorks via interfaith “Stirring it up in the kitchen” dinner discussions. Her volunteer time with Project Affinity, a small Muslim service organization, has deepened an interest in serving the homeless. She is honored to be working with KindWorks on its refugee welcome work and hopes to also serve the homeless through more KindWorks projects.
Azure McFarlane
Azure moved to Maryland after graduating from Virginia Tech, where she completed a BS in Biochemistry, with a research focus in enzymatic drug targets. In her time there, she taught cello with the VT Strings Project, a nonprofit instructional program dedicated to offering affordable string instrument instruction to youth in the area. Currently, Azure works as senior technology associate at GSK, where she supports the manufacture of commercial biologics, and leads her site’s outreach program.
She began working with KindWorks in 2018 as a sous-chef and delivery driver for the Manna Community Food Rescue Cooks! pilot program, and now leads as a SafeServ certified food manager in the kitchen.
In her free time, Azure moonlights as a cellist, long distance runner, and amateur baker.
Project Leaders
Megan Columbus
Digital Empowerment Co-Chair
KindWorks
Clayton Englar
Digital Empowerment Co-Chair
KindWorksMark Paster
Digital Empowerment Co-Chair
KindWorksTony Chen
Digital Empowerment Co-Chair
KindWorksAzure McFarlane
Adopt-a-Road Co-Chair
KindWorksSusan Burkinshaw
Adopt-a-Road Co-Chair
KindWorks
Dominique Rychlik
Welcome Dinner Chair & KindSoup Co-Chair
Dominique is a mom of three and loves DOing KindWorks and cooking! Very moved by her experience helping setting up KindWorks apartments for refugee families, when the opportunity arose to cook a culturally appropriate meal for an arriving family, she jumped on it. Dominique is a real estate agent working with Compass Real Estate in DC, MD, and VA. She is involved with interfaith work in the area, particularly supporting the interfaith youth service group, Capital Area Interfaith Friends.
Salma Hasan Ali
KindSoup Co-Chair
KindWorks
Carol Weil
KindConversations Co-Chair
Carol Juliet Weil was part of MoverMoms, that group that evolved to become KIndWorks, and has been thrilled to witness the incredible expansion of scope that is the KindWorks team mission today. Her passions include the KindWorks welcome dinners for refugees, Manna Food collections at local farmers’ markets for county neighbors in need, and initiating the KindWorks book discussion group (please come!).
Julie Garel
KindConversations Co-Chair
KindWorksStaff
Debra Lang
Executive Director
Deb comes from New York, by way of Chicago, where she attended college at the University of Chicago. She worked for many years in law firm management in Manhattan.
She and her family (including her two wonderful daughters, many loving dogs, and her husband) have lived in Montgomery County for the past 25 years, during which time they have always volunteered at schools and in the community in a wide range of capacities.
Yaa Nti
Administrative Manager
Yaa has an academic background in Human Rights and International Studies. Her volunteer and professional experience in administrative coordination and program delivery have helped her improve projects and programming locally and internationally. She enjoys using her skills to support the KindWorks mission.
Mhrangiz Azami
Refugee Support Program Manager
Proudly hailing from Afghanistan, Mhrangiz earned her MBA in Kyrgyzstan before coming to the U.S. in October 2023. Having faced the challenges of displacement, Mhrangiz brings a special understanding and caring nature to her role supporting fellow refugees. She finds deep satisfaction in helping others and is committed to using her experience to make things better for our new neighbors and to bring some positivity into the mix.