Jasmin Samy

Ms. Samy holds a Master of Laws from Indiana University and a Bachelor degree in law from Cairo University. Her experience in the international field extends from being an expert in Middle East, Africa, and United States law. She is a highly skilled professional in international development projects and project manager. Throughout her career, Ms. Samy started as an associate in one of the largest firms in the Middle East, progressing to hold high positions within the State Department in the USAID/Egypt mission. After she moved to Seattle, USA, Ms. Samy led a strong team of attorneys and managers in the Washington State Chapter for the largest Muslim civil rights organization in North America. She has received many awards including several Meritorious Awards from the US State Department for her contributions in the development field. Ms. Samy has been invited numerous times to speak to undergraduates and post graduate students in venues including UC Berkeley, Law department, Washington State University, and was a speaker at TEDx Washington in 2017.

Shannon M. Underwood

Shannon M. Underwood has over seventeen (17) years of experience in the area of Migration Law including as an attorney in the United States and as an International Legal Consultant. She is a founding partner of Washington for International Development (WFID) as well as Global Justice Law Group, both headquartered in Washington State, USA. Shannon studied law in the United States and Europe, earning her Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado School of Law at Boulder, Colorado, USA in 2001.

Shannon’s experience in migration law includes work with non-profit organizations that provide direct representation for detained and non-detained adult and children migrants, work for private law firms representing migrants in defensive and affirmative cases, advocacy efforts including working with government actors to effectuate change in migration laws, and consulting with international migration agencies to review and evaluate individual State’s migration laws, policies, and adherence to regional and international standards.

Shannon has worked directly with refugees, victims of human trafficking and smuggling, child migrants, and family and employment-based migrants. She has also worked with numerous government actors in the area of Migration Law and Policy including elected local and national representatives and their staff, judges, government attorneys, and members of various national ministries.

Shannon is currently located in Dakar, Senegal. Her native language is English and she is conversational in Spanish.

Awards

• Ally for Justice Award, CAIR, WA, May 2017
• Top Women Attorney in Washington, Super Lawyers, 2012-2016
• Rising Star, Super Lawyers, 2012-2016
• Pro Bono Work Having Greatest Impact, AILA-WA, 2010
• Excellent Volunteer Legal Advocacy, ELAP, 2008

Floyd Ngono

Floyd Ngono is a founding partner of Washington for International Development (WFID) headquartered in Washington State, USA. He started his career as a network engineer and worked for companies such as IBM and Nortel before transitioning to Project Management. Floyd holds a Master’s degree in Information Sciences, an MBA in Management, and is PMP, CSM, and ITIL certified.

For the past 15 years, Floyd used his Technology and Management knowledge to help public and private companies improve their systems and processes to achieve optimal operational and financial goals. He led over 75 projects to completion in the areas of Change Management, PMO Deployment, Project Recovery and Review, IT Infrastructure upgrade/redesign, IT audit, Website Design and Implementation, Application Development, Data Center Upgrades, Data Center Move, Office Moves.... Floyd currently resides in Dakar, Senegal. He is a native French and also speaks English, Lingala, and Kikongo.