OUR TEAM
Embrace Leadership Team: Virginia Tester, Muzhda Oriakhil, Mu Naw Naw, Aku Dogbe and Heidi Copeland
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Virginia Voyles Tester, CNM, FNP-C |
Heidi Copeland, BSW, CD (DONA) |
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Director
virginia@friendsofrefugees.com Virginia is an Atlanta native with academic and clinical experience in women's health and more than seven years of involvement with Embrace and the Friends of Refugees family. With her background as a Certified Nurse Midwife, Virginia's work is grounded in the approach that culturally sensitive care empowers women with knowledge to make healthy choices for themselves and their families. Virginia maintains her certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner and interests in holistic health, social justice, and patient-centered care. Virginia and her family of five enjoy sipping chai lattes in Clarkston, riding bikes along the Stone Mountain Trail, and summertime camping in National Parks. Read more of Virginia's story on our blog. |
Volunteer and Training Manager
heidimiller@friendsofrefugees.com Heidi Copeland is a certified labor doula with DONA. Originally from Antioch, Tennessee, she received a Bachelor of Social Work from Lipscomb University in Nashville. Heidi moved to Clarkston, Georgia in 2012 to be a neighbor and friend to refugees and immigrants from all over the world who have come to know Clarkston as home. Heidi loves to serve and learn from the pregnant mothers in this community and envisions each and every woman in Clarkston experiencing life to the fullest. Heidi and her husband Daniel live just outside the Clarkston zip code and enjoy playing in their back yard with their husky, Red. |
Dareen Zakharia |
Aku Dogbe |
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Syrian Community Liaison
Dareen is from Syria and came to the United States in 2014 as an asylee with her husband Chadi and her two children. Dareen's extended family remains in Syria, alive and safe. Dareen studied in Damascus and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in early childhood education, while also studying opera and music. Dareen began working with Embrace in 2016 as an Arabic interpreter. Since coming on board with Embrace, she claims that her life has completely changed. Her passions have shifted to working and helping refugees and pregnant women, offering them both comfort and support through their journeys. "Embrace offered me a great opportunity to get a medical interpreter certificate and I am certified now and since I'm helping during labors with interpretation the language and culture, Embrace encouraged me also to become a doula and that will make me more helpful for them because the refugees don't have family here and they need both physical and emotional support." Dareen is currently a doula in training and also recently went back to college to study nursing. She wants to pursue her dream of becoming a labor and delivery nurse, and eventually become a midwife. |
Health Education Manager & African Community Liaison
Aku is originally from Togo, where she was trained and worked as a midwife. Aku moved to Atlanta in 2015 to live with her husband. Aku and her husband have two daughters, Kannafa and Elom. Aku became involved with Embrace while she was attending ESL classes with Refugee Family Literacy, a program that teaches ESL to women and provides a preschool setting for their children. Aku started working for Embrace by providing interpretation for classes. She currently teaches the Healthy Moms class in her first language, French. Aku also works as an assistant teacher at Refugee Family Literacy in the preschool kids room. Aku takes care of the children, by doing various activities to promote their development, and to prepare them for school. It is Aku's wish to return to the medical field as a phlebotomist. |
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Mu Naw Naw |
Muzhda Oriakhil |
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Client Services Manager & Karen Community Liaison
Mu Naw studied at Georgia State University where she received her bachelor's degree in social work. Her family is from Karen state in Burma. Mu Naw's family lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for 20 years before moving to Clarkston, Georgia. Mu Naw came to the US with the rest of her family--her mother, father, brother, and two sisters in the summer of 2007. Mu Naw loves helping pregnant mothers in her community. |
Community Engagement Manager & Afghani Community Liaison
Muzhda is from Afghanistan and came to America with her husband in the spring of 2014. Muzhda graduated high school and began college in Afghanistan but was not able to complete her college education. She brought her desire to learn to America, and committed to learning English. She has worked as an interpreter for New American Pathways and is currently working as an interpreter and Community Liaison for Embrace. Muzhda claims that she has two families here in America: her own family, husband & three children and her Embrace family. Muzhda is passionate about working with Afghani women and building relationships that are built on trust and feel like family. |
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Tarumbeta Obed (Obed) |
Tracy Noland
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African Community Liaison
You might be wondering how a male got involved with supporting and educating pregnant women. Obed's involvement with health education for women started long before he came to America, actually. When Obed was a refugee in a camp in Tanzania, he started out getting menial work such as construction and soap-making/selling, but the leaders in the camp quickly saw his leadership capabilities and asked him to help interpret in their clinic. From there, he was trained to be an HIV counselor helping to educate families on the prevention of spreading HIV from mothers to babies. With his knowledge of 7+ languages, Obed has been helping us with interpretation for classes for the past couple years since we met him and his wife when his wife was expecting her 7th child. Now, he also helps women get to appointments, fill out paperwork, and connect to the resources they need. |
Administrator & Gifts in Kind Coordinator
embrace.birth@friendsofrefugees.com Tracy Noland has been a volunteer at Embrace since 2014. After a career in HIV research, she lived in Kenya for two years with her husband and two small children. It was there that she realized her life's work would be in serving new moms. Once she and her family returned to Atlanta, she knew her heart was in Clarkston and with Embrace. When she first started volunteering with Embrace it was to help mothers get to and from doctor's appointments as well as attending births to provide labor support. It wasn't long before she noticed the need for basic newborn items so she began collecting items from around the community. Tracy now coordinates the receiving and distribution of donated baby supplies such as clothing and gear for the new arrivals, as well as contributing her organizational skill for any and all administrative needs at Embrace. On top of all this, she still volunteers her time with doctors appointments and labor support. |
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Rahina Kamal Hasina Aljeer
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Rohingya Community Liaison
Rahina is from the Rohingya community of Burma. She left home when she was only 16 to be married in Malaysia. In 2017, after much hardship there, she moved to the US with only herself and her small baby to start a new life. Rahina’s strength in overcoming struggles propels her in her work at Embrace. She continually inspires women in her community to be empowered in their health and well being, as mothers and leaders and in their community. Rahina loves to accompany women to doctor’s appointments, interpret for them, and offer hours of labor, birth, and postpartum support. Working at Embrace has been part of Rahina's own healing and restoration journey. She always tells us that her mother birthed her once, but Embrace has birthed her a second time. 
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Program Impact Associate
Hasina Aljeer joined Embrace in June 2022 as a Program Impact Associate. She is from Afghanistan and did her masters degree in Business Administration in Kabul. She has ten years experience in Finance and Management at different Universities within Afghanistan. She came from a war torn country and had many challenges before arriving to America. Embrace gives her an opportunity to help other refugees especially mothers and children. She enjoys discovering new cultures, reading, relaxing with family and friends, and listening to music.
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Jenny Cochran |
Liz Johnson |
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Founder
Jenny has been working in the childbirth field since 2002 teaching childbirth classes and attending births as a doula since 2008. She is one of the founders of Embrace along with Liz Johnson and has really enjoyed being a part of this program. She is a CAPPA certified Childbirth Educator and Evidence Based Birth Instructor. She also helped to develop Embrace's curriculum. Jenny has a passion to see women provided with the best care possible before, during and after their time of pregnancy. It is her desire to see the refugee women of Clarkston empowered through education and support so they can advocate for themselves and have better birth outcomes. |
Founder
Liz came to Atlanta in 2000 after studies and experiences in International Development. After her personal journey into motherhood with the support of a doula, childbirth education, and community of other women, she desires that all have the same opportunities. She became a certified labor doula and childbirth educator in 2009. Connecting these skills with her passions for equitable access and cross-cultural engagement, she moved near to the Clarkston area. After listening to her refugee friends and others working in the resettlement process, she and Jenny Cochran began dreaming and building Embrace. |
