San Francisco Western Regional Office

The San Francisco Regional Office services student and community groups throughout the 13 state Western Region. The office also handles media contacts and can provide speakers on a wide range of human rights issues.

Contact: San Francisco Western Office, +1 415 288 1800, aiusasf@aiusa.org, for more information.
350 Sansome Street, Suite 210
San Francisco, California 94104

List of AIUSA offices

Western Regional Director

The Western Regional Office would like to thank Banafsheh Aghlakhi for her contributions to Amnesty’s advocacy efforts as Western Regional Director in 2009. Banafsheh Aghlakhi has moved on to new opportunities in human rights work. During the interim period while the organization searches for a new Regional Director, Jared Feuer will serve as the interim Regional Director. Jared is also the Regional Director for the Southern Regional Office and can be reached at jfeuer@aiusa.org.

Grassroots Consultant

Krishanti Dharmaraj

The Western Regional Office of Amnesty International USA would like to welcome Krishanti Dharmaraj! Krishanti will be joining the Western Regional Team as a grassroots consultant. In this role Krishanti will help provide a face of the Western Region while we are between permanent Directors. She will take on upper level media opportunities, reach out to Amnesty’s membership and volunteer leader base in tandem with the Field Organizers, and be a speaker for major events. During the last twenty–five years, Ms. Dharmaraj has served as a volunteer leader, a staff member with the Western Region, and a board member for Amnesty International USA.

Krishanti Dharmaraj is the Principal of the SamasaMdhi Initiative, focusing on realizing a just and equitable world through the progressive measurement of human rights. SamasaMdhi refers to “peace on equal terms”. She is also the co–founder of Children’s Fund for Peace, an organization providing resources to children affected by armed conflict in South Asia. Ms. Dharmaraj is the former founding Executive Director of Women’s Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights (WILD for Human Rights). Ms. Dharmaraj develops strategies to impact public policy by utilizing international human rights treaties and through grassroots advocacy. With her leadership, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to pass legislation implementing an international human rights treaty—the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Ms. Dharmaraj also helped initiate the US Human Rights Network, the US NGO Steering Committee to the World Conference Against Racism (2001) and the Women’s Human Rights Caucus for WCAR, and co–founded the Sri Lanka Children’s Fund to support children affected by the tsunami and civil war in Sri Lanka. Ms.Dharmaraj can be reached at kdharmaraj@aiusa.org.

Western Regional Field Organizers

Kalaya’an Mendoza

Kalaya’an Mendoza has spent his 15–year activist career working for various issues ranging from Queer rights to Tibetan independence to anti–racist organizing and beyond. Most recently he served as the Grassroots Coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet International during the Beijing 2008 Olympics campaign. In his role as Grassroots Coordinator Kalaya’an launched and coordinated numerous social network–based campaigns globally, utilizing social media platforms ranging from Facebook to Twitter to Youtube. Kalaya’an was part of a team Tibet activists who were detained, interrogated and ejected from China for protesting human rights abuses in Beijing during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Along with Tibetan independence organizing, Kalaya’an facilitates a multitude of workshops for community groups, high school and university students. These info-shares include everything from “Non-violent Direct Action Organizing” to “Decolonizing The Mind” to “Social Media Strategy For Activists.” When he is not protesting or facilitating workshops, he enjoys having lengthy discussions with his peers about combating oppression on a systemic and individual level.

Kalaya’an strongly believes that grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action in conjunction with other tactics can be used to empower our communities and put power back into the hands of the people.

He is responsible for groups in the states of Colorado, Idaho, Southern California and Wyoming. He can be reached at +1 415 288 1800 ext. 207 and kmendoza@aiusa.org.

Sara Schmidt

One of the Western Regional Field Organizers is Sara Schmidt. Until 2009 she was the Field Organizer for Southern California, but her current responsibility is organization in the following states: Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Sara comes to AIUSA with 5 years of social justice, public health and international development experience, as well as a Master of Social Work and Public Health from the University of Michigan. As a Lead Organizer for the Social Welfare Action Alliance, Sara built vigorous student advocacy movements and designed countless creative and impactful actions. Sara joins AI with a passion for creative, community-based activism and mobilization and hopes to foster and support local and student AI groups.

William Butkus

William Butkus is the Field Organizer for Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada and Northern California.

Page last updated February 2010