Our Team

Sarah Ahmad Abedin
Founder

Sarah Ahmad Abedin is the founder and CEO of BreaktheTide, a nonprofit she has founded in 2020, to provide financial support and empower women, children and underserved communities to obtain education, vocational training, creating sustainable livelihood and self-employment in renewable and environmentally sustainable projects.

Sarah is an Information Technology and Cybersecurity expert by profession and has worked as an IT auditor, consultant and information security specialist in both public and private sectors. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.  But her true passion has always been to work in the developmental areas for empowering girls and women.  She has been a mentor and a founding advisory council member of ISACA’s SheLeadsTech and has been a long-time sponsor of Save the Children, Women for Women International, Doctors without Borders, and many other organizations.  She has been influenced by the great works of numerous humanitarians, some in her immediate family but many whose lifeworks she admired since her early childhood.  Her first introduction to the world of women empowerment work was in 1994 when she spent a short time in a village in Norshindi, Bangladesh to experience the great works of Grameen Bank (2006 Nobel Prize recipient along with its founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus).  The experience has left a lasting impression on her and made her a firm believer that with a little support everyone can realize their own potential.

Samina Jahangir
Founding Director

Serving the community has always been Samina’s passion. In the last few years, she has been supporting many US-based and international organizations to foster women’s independence and children’s education. As a member of BreaktheTide, Samina has been exercising her expertise to guide appropriate resource allocations.

Samina has been an educator in a Maryland’s public school system for the last 15 years. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She started her career as a network security personnel in a multinational company in the US. Later, Samina discovered true her passion for teaching and completed her Masters degree in early Childhood Education from the University of North Texas and obtained her teaching certifications.

Spring George
Founding Director

Spring George serves the community by providing services to women and children living in local homeless shelters and has previously served in international missions through Change Agent Network and CANAFRICA. Spring became part of BreaktheTide in order to continue to assist with projects that make a difference in the lives of the underserved.

Spring is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and her work experience includes management positions in state and federal government as well as serving as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with non-profit organizations.

Nahid Rianon
Director

Nahid Rianon is a physician and a public health professional by training but she has always been passionate about human rights for all, specifically those who are oppressed, e.g., women, underserved and underprivileged. Nahid believes that education, health, financial freedom for all are essential for making sure everyone can enjoy their human rights. Her goal is to work towards building a society where everyone can enjoy their human rights.

Alya Kayal
Director

Alya Kayal is Founder and Senior Advisor at ImpactARC LLC, a women-owned sustainability investment consultancy. She has been working in the ESG (environmental, social and governance) and impact investing space since 1994. Alya is committed to helping create positive social and environmental impact that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of people and for our planet. Among the issues that most concern her are social inequity; violence against women, children, violence against women, children and underserved communities. Alya’s background in impact investing combined with her experience growing up in Bangladesh and India have made her aware of the power of sustainable finance to generate meaningful impact and the responsibility that each of us have to create the positive change that we want to see in our world.

Alya is a sustainable investment expert by profession. Prior to co-founding ImpactARC, she was a Partner at Affirmative Investment Management (AIM), a London-based investment firm focused on impact investing. She worked to generate positive environmental and social outcomes in accordance with the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Before AIM, Alya managed programs and advanced policy priorities on behalf of members of US SIF, an organization advancing sustainable investing in the United States. Prior to her work at US SIF, Alya was the Vice President for Sustainability Research at Calvert Investments (now Morgan Stanley), where she managed ESG research and analytics for sustainable investment funds. While there, she led the work on the implementation and management of ESG research and engagement with stakeholders. Prior to her career at Calvert, Alya worked at the US Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau on child labor, where she documented the use of child labor in imported goods from Asia for a report to the US Congress. Alya has worked in Geneva at the United Nations Sub‐Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities assisting expert members to research and negotiate complex political and social issues with representatives from various countries. Alya has BA in Sociology and Communications from Rutgers University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School. She is a Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Sadia D. Parveen
Director

Sadia is a dynamic leader with proven skills to rapidly adapt to changes in the global and US development space, Sadia most recently held the post of Senior Family Planning Advisor at USAID. A clinician and trained OB/GYN with a Masters in Population and Reproductive Health, Sadia applies her background in medical training to design programs in global health, to strengthen health systems, to improve and ensure quality and service delivery across the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health spectrum. She has served in positions in policy, strategy and program implementation, and engages with donors and communities at all stages of program and policy design.

Sadia has years of experience collaborating with the private sector, multilateral donors, and local communities, and has recently integrated programs in health, education and environment for communities facing shocks and stressors from disaster, conflict, and displacement. She has additionally created and launched marketing campaigns around the world, throughout Africa and Asia.

Sadia’s passion for serving people and communities stemmed from a short term gig where she supported a small local NGO in Tongi, Bangladesh (founded by the Late Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, Founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra) to increase community awareness and willingness to use contraceptive services to improve their lives and livelihoods. She traveled from village to village in the greater Tongi area, speaking with women, men, community leaders. Learning about their lives, being welcomed into their inner circles was the turning point in Sadia’s career — she pivoted from being a clinician to being a public health worker, a move that Sadia never regretted.

Former Directors

Zeeren Ali
Former Founding Director

Zereen Ali was a founding Director of BreaktheTide. If you like the name BreaktheTide, guess who had suggested it. Zereen is a Marketing and Communications professional. She remains a friend and a supporter of BreaktheTide.

Esther Pujol Rodriguez
Former Founding Director

Esther Pujol Rodriguez is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She was the Founding Director and Treasurer of BreaktheTide. She remains a friend and a supporter of BreaktheTide.

Monika Mangla - Former Director BreaktheTide

Monika Mangla
Former Director

Monika Mangla was a Director of BreaktheTide. She remains a friend and a supporter of BreaktheTide.