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Ashraf El Nour
Director of the International Organization for Migration¡¯s Office to the United Nations in New York

Ashraf El Nour is the Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)¡¯s Office to the United Nations in New York. He has held this position since May 2015. In this capacity, Mr. El Nour oversees IOM¡¯s strategic engagement with the United Nations Secretariat, UN agencies, Member States, and civil society. In addition, he leads IOM New York policy development work in the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. Mr. El Nour has 25 years of work experience in diverse positions at both headquarters and field level, working on policy development as well as crisis management and post conflict recovery.
 

H.E. Ms. Mar¨ªa del Carmen Dom¨ªnguez ?lvarez
Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations

Mar¨ªa del Carmen Dom¨ªnguez has been an employee of the Chilean Foreign Service since 1991. She is currently the Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations. She has served as Director of Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (2014-2017), Deputy Head of the Mission to the OECD (2011-2013), Deputy Head of the Mission to the WTO (2002-2006) and Economic Officer in Washington, D.C. (1995-2000). In Santiago, she served as chief of staff of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006-2008) and commercial policy advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000-2002).
 

Bela Hovy
Chief of Migration, Department of Economic and Social Affairs

As Chief of the Migration Section at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Bela Hovy oversees the estimation of global migration trends, the organization of expert and coordination meetings on migration and the organization of workshops to support migration data collection and analysis in developing countries. His team supports relevant intergovernmental processes by preparing reports for the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council and backstopping intergovernmental negotiations. From 1993 to 2005, Mr. Hovy was responsible for statistics at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland.
 

Kevin Appleby
Director of International Policy of the Scalabrini International Migration Network and the Centre for Migration Studies of New York

Kevin Appleby is the Senior Director for International Migration Policy for the Center for Migration Studies of New York and the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN). SIMN is a network of 270 schools, shelters, educational institutes, and community centers for migrants operated globally by the Missionaries of St. Charles, Scalabrini, Catholic religious order. Kevin was formerly director of Migration Policy and Public Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Prior to joining USCCB, Kevin worked as Deputy Director of the Maryland Catholic Conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Kevin has testified before Congress on immigration issues and represented the U.S. Catholic bishops on these issues at public events and with the media.

 

Manal Kahi
Co-Founder and CEO of Eat offBeat

Manal Kahi is the co-founder and CEO of Eat Offbeat, a social enterprise that delivers authentic meals made by refugees who now call New York City home. She moved to NYC to pursue a career in international affairs but the hummus she found on supermarket shelves led her on a different journey. She launched Eat Offbeat in 2015 to help the people of New York discover authentic dishes from around the world all the while creating quality jobs. Eat Offbeat¡¯s story has been featured in numerous media outlets including Forbes, The Guardian, the Huffington Post, Newsweek, Fast Company and more.
 

Manyang Reath Kher
Founder and Entrepreneur, 734 Coffee

Manyang Reath Kher is a respected authority on the South Sudanese refugee crisis. He spent nearly 14 years of his childhood as a Lost Boy of Sudan before coming to America. For the past ten years, Kher has not only pursued his education but also dedicated his life to raising awareness and money for the refugee crisis through his non-profit, Humanity Helping Sudan. Recently, he launched a coffee brand called 734 (734, or 7.9220¡ãN and 34.1532¡ãE, is the geographical coordinates for Gambela, a region in Ethiopia where over 200,000 South Sudanese citizens take refuge.) Proceeds from 734 go towards supporting farming enterprises in this region to allow refugees to live a more meaningful and aid-free life.