The IWC Welcomes Three New Board Members

The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center is excited to have three new members of our Board of Directors. We look forward to all they will bring to the organization. Our new members are below.

Ninette Irabaruta

Currently, Ninette is employed by Nourish^n (The Nourishment Economies Coalition) as their Global Associate, coordinating learning and research, public communications, and project management among nourishment-cycle enterprisers and other collaborators worldwide. Ninette is also contracted by Maine Community Foundation where she coordinates the ‘Investing in Leader of Color’ program, a program that focuses on building the field of people and organizations working to promote and increase racial equity in Maine.

Previously, she supported research and outreach with the Mental Health & Racial Equity project at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University; and development of workshops to help cultivate young talent in U.S. immigrants and underserved communities on leadership, cross-cultural communication, social justice, and civic engagement. A native of Burundi, she holds degrees in Political Science from St. Joseph’s College of Maine and in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Dolgormaa (Dolly) Hersom

Dolly Hersom is the owner of House of Languages, a language services company in Portland. She moved to Maine from Mongolia to study political science at University of Farmington. Prior to starting her business in 2012, Dolly worked at United Way of Greater Portland and Catholic Charities Maine Refugee & Immigration Services for over ten years on projects to improve language access to services for Mainers with limited English proficiency.

John Ochira

John Ochira is a program officer at Maine Community Foundation.  John recently worked as a disability benefit specialist at Unum and has served as vice president of the board of Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and president of the South Sudanese Community Association of Maine. He also founded and directed an immigrant-led soccer program in the Greater Portland area.

John also served on several nonprofit boards and committees including the Southern Maine Workers Center, City of Portland Community Development Block Grant Allocation Committee. In his free time, he likes to play soccer and take photographs.