Youth Program Manager
Kajal joined Refugee & Immigrant Transitions in April 2019 and currently works as the Senior Youth Program Manager, overseeing RIT's after-school and youth tutoring/ mentoring and newcomer student enrollment support programs.
Social Adjustment Counselor
Sandra joined RIT in June 2016. She is the first generation in her family to attend college. She received a B.A. in Sociology & Education from UC Santa Cruz. After working with a high population of refugees and asylees at Catholic Charities of the East Bay, she grew fervor to guide and help newly arrived and low-income families. It quickly became apparent that Sandra not only shared a deep passion for helping refugees, but also cared deeply for the community that she served.
Co-Executive Director (Co-ED)
Laura Vaudreuil has been honored to serve as Executive Director at Refugee & Immigrant Transitions since 2003 and to be part of the organization since 2001. Laura values collaborative models and shared leadership and was delighted to transition to the role of Co-Executive Director with Jane Pak in 2021. With a passion for human rights and education, Laura provides leadership for Refugee & Immigrant Transitions, partnering with an amazing team to welcome and partner with people who’ve sought refuge, expand services responsive to their needs/requests, and center the collective well-being of the RIT community.
Adult English Language and Literacy Instructor
Malalai Wiar joined Refugee & Immigrant Transitions in 2022, with a passion for human rights and wellbeing. Malalai is from Kabul, Afghanistan, and she speaks various languages including Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Hindi, English, and Urdu. After years of being a housewife, Malalai decided to achieve her goals by continuing her education after 16 years and now she holds a degree in psychology to understand human behavior and mental processes that allows her to better understand how we think, act and feel.
Associate Education Program Director
Sonia joined Refugee & Immigrant Transitions in July 2014 as the South Bay Education Coordinator. In our South Bay location, she recruits and trains volunteers for home-based tutoring and provides them with ongoing support. She manages English language classes for adults in San Jose and works on curriculum development with RIT’s San Francisco Education Associate Manager. She also helps oversee the Department of Education Adult English Language and Family Literacy (AEFLA) Grant with the Executive Director.
RIT Educational Fellow
Haibin joined RIT as in 2024. He was born in Guangdong, China and raised in Mexico. He moved to the US back in 2016 at the age of 16, and had the opportunity to finish his secondary education at San Francisco International High School (SFI) — go Huskies! SFI and RIT played a very important role in his academic and personal development, so he always had the desire to come back and give back to the community that helped him so much. He just graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Computer Science and was offered the amazing opportunity to join the RIT team as an intern to help and work with students at SFI and Visitacion Valley Middle School.
English Language Instructor and Curriculum Designer
Dion joined Refugee & Immigrant Transitions in 2014. She has M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from San Francisco State University with a focus on literacy development. She has taught literacy level through intermediate English classes in our community-based programs, and she currently teaches the Women’s Initiative classes at our Oakland Hub and online. She enjoys developing curriculum and assessments for our programs and facilitating teacher collaboration.
