Media Spokespeople

Contact: To contact our media spokes people, please call 415-221-8400 or (cell) 703-989-1955 or email press.darfursf@gmail.com.

Mohamed E. Suleiman, Director and President

Mohamed Suleiman is a native of North Darfur and a member of the Zaghawa tribe. He is currently a resident of Northern California and a member of the Darfur Leaders Network. His village, Umbarow, was burned and destroyed by the Goverment of Sudan and Janjaweed. Mr. Suleiman lost members of his family in the Darfur genocide; his mother and siblings still reside in Darfur. Today, 13,000 individuals reside in a camp for displaced persons near the remains of Umbarow. Mr. Suleiman’s activism includes spreading awareness of the depth and extent of the genocide through his blog, “While We Wait” at www.whilewewaitsudan.org. He also translates English language news and advocacy into Arabic and posts these materials on the Internet. He was named a “Darfur Hero” by the Save Darfur Coalition in October 2007.

Martina W. Knee, Director and Secretary

Martina Knee has been a part of teams that organized numerous awareness and educational events and participated in lobby efforts for Darfur and Sudan on Capitol Hill, at the U.S. State Department, the California legislature and the City and County of San Francisco. She is a 2009 Carl Wilkens Fellow of the Genocide Intervention Network (GINet) and a member of the Advisory Board of the Human Rights Center at University of California, Berkeley. Martina was the Northern California Director of GINet’s 2009 Pledge to Protect National Canvass, an effort to build a broad base of support in advance of legislation implementing key provisions of the Genocide Prevention Task Force Report of 2008. She is a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council and a recipient of the JCRC’s 2008 Honorable Tom Lantos Memorial Humanitarian Award. She was named a “Darfur Hero” by the Save Darfur Coalition in October 2007. Martina is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and the descendant of six Holocaust victims and works to end and prevent genocide in honor of her ancestors. She previously practiced corporate and securities law for over twenty years. She earned her J.D. from The UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law and her B.A. from The University of California, Berkeley.

Gerri Miller, Director and Vice President

Gerri Miller is an educator and community organizer who has worked for the end of the Darfur genocide since 2003. She is the founder and coordinator of Dear Sudan, Love Marin, a grassroots organization which has mobilized residents of Marin County, California, to work toward the end of genocide in Darfur. She has served on committees which have organized rallies, vigils, educational events, art exhibits, films, and other events about Darfur and Sudan. She has participated in lobbying events with Congress and the California state legislature. Gerri is a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council and in 2008 was a recipient of the JCRC Honorable Tom Lantos Humanitarian Award.

Stephen McNeil, Director and Treasurer

Stephen McNeil is Assistant Regional Director for Peacebuilding Work with American Friends Service Committee, a non-sectarian Quaker organization that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. He is on the Board of Directors of the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, DC, a Quaker lobby in the public interest that has a Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict Program (www.fcnl.org) and Volunteers in Asia which supports exchanges and placements in Asia. Since 2004 he has served with the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition.