Saloua Lahlou is the founder of Crafting Love and Hope. She grew up in Morocco and  completed her studies in the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Jacksonville State University and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering in Health Systems from Georgia Institute of Technology. She is currently a Health and Life Sciences Senior Solutions Consultant at Salesforce. Saloua was inspired to start Crafting Love and Hope by her mother’s use of crafts to support her family and enable her children to create a better life for themselves through education. Saloua believes that technology has the power to improve people’s lives and wanted to pass those skills to youth to empower them to discover opportunities for themselves across the globe.

Elizabeth holds a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from DePauw University and an MA in Applied Sociology from the University of Indianapolis where she was an adjunct professor in the sociology department at the University of Indianapolis.  Her time in Morocco has been dedicated towards empowering youth and women through sustainable, grassroots projects. She has a great passion towards Crafting Love and Hope initiatives and focuses on establishing partnerships with like-minded organizations and creating engaging programming to help marginalized groups build the necessary skills to break the cycle of poverty.

Nick Boedicker is an international development professional with experience in project and program design, management, and monitoring and evaluation. He has worked extensively in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the US, and his past positions have included work in post-conflict recovery, community health, education, disability, migration and refugee issues, and sustainable livelihoods. Nick holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree from the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC. He is the founder of Strategic Good, a consulting firm focused on social enterprise, impact, and innovation.

Lily Erickson  is a recipient of the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship, Lily is spending a gap year studying Arabic in Rabat, Morocco while being an Intern at CLH before attending the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in fall 2019. While with CLH, she works on integrating in the community on a deeper level and engaging with Moroccan women in important conversations, specifically surrounding women’s health and entrepreneurship.

Mara Fong is a gap year student with the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, a State Department-funded language program. After her year in Morocco, she will attend Brown University in Fall 2019. She was the lead welder and head hand tools trainer on her school’s robotics team and spent a summer in Bochum, Germany tutoring Syrian refugees and volunteering at a refugee center. Mara applies those skills to expanding CLH’s Technovation program.

Nezha Lamine is a graduate from the National School of Business and Management In Settat- Morocco, with a BBA in Supply Chain Management. She was born in Rabat,  though her family is originally from Taroudant the region. Apart from her business background, she loves to dedicate her time and effort to youth and women’s empowerment, which is why she chose to be part of the CLH team. She is confident that through CLH, we can achieve great things and move towards a better world where everyone gets the chance to be who they truly want to be.