Jameeleh Shelo
Emmy Award-winning Writer, Producer, and Performer
Jameeleh Shelo is a native Chicagoan and proud Southsider. Jameeleh wrote “Laith the Lion Goes to Palestine,” because she wanted her son to have a positive representation of his culture.
Jameeleh is an Emmy award-winning writer, producer, and performer. She attended Columbia College (Chicago) where she earned a B.A. in Television Writing and Production. This degree gave her the skills necessary to become a waitress. Since no one would trust her to handle food she became a TV producer. As a creative outlet, she began doing improv, sketch, and stand-up. She has performed with Second City’s Brown Co., improvised at iO and Annoyance theater, and performed her one-woman show, My American Cousin at UCB, Magnet and PIT in New York City and at Silk Road Theater, iO, and Second City in Chicago. She is also a regular at the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.
Jameeleh is very lucky to have interned and worked for some very funny people in her career. She interned at Late Night with Conan O’Brien and worked for Stephen Colbert, Lisa Lampanelli and Cedric the Entertainer. If you ask any of these people about her they will pretend to remember her. In addition to that, she has produced for TBS, Comedy Central, HGTV and DIY Network, Harpo, TLC.
Jameeleh is the former Executive Director of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival and believes that all people have a right to share their narrative in any media they see fit. She wants to thank you all for taking time to read this and will now go back to sharing her narrative via macaroni necklaces.
Greg DiDomenico
President and CEO at Community Memorial Foundation
Greg DiDomenico serves as President and CEO at Community Memorial Foundation (CMF). Established in 1995, Community Memorial Foundation is a private foundation with a focus on community health improvement. During Greg’s tenure the Foundation has become a regional leader in philanthropy, launching new initiatives that include a Leadership Institute focused on strengthening grantee capacity and a Regional Health and Human Services Agenda rooted in a collective impact strategy to improve positive local health outcomes.
Greg joined the Foundation team as Vice President in January 2009 after serving as Executive Director for a number of years at local non-profits, including the Rich Port YMCA (now the Greater La Grange YMCA) and Hinsdale Center for the Arts. He also held management positions at Little City Foundation and leadership roles in his native Pennsylvania, where he coordinated community mental health services in Montgomery County.
Greg serves on several community boards and advisory committees, including as Chair of Forefront’s Board of Directors; Trustee of the Chicago Zoological Society; member of the Village of La Grange’s Community and Economic Development Commission; and as Past Board President of the West Suburban Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2012, the Young Nonprofit Professional Network of Chicago honored Greg as its inaugural Nonprofit Mentor of the Year. Most recently, Greg co-leads Forefront’s Mission Sustainability Initiative Grants Committee – a funding collaborative aimed at strengthening the nonprofit sector through strategic partnerships.
Greg’s experience mirrors Community Memorial Foundation’s belief of being both a grantmaker and change-maker in the Western Suburbs.
Bilal Almasri
Former City of Chicago Commissioner & Chief Engineer
Bilal Almasri is a Civil Engineer. He holds bachelor degrees in civil engineering and physics and has over 40 years of experience in the private and public sectors. Bilal has worked for contractors, engineering firms, the City of Chicago, and currently is with Illinois Department of Transportation. Some of his positions during his career was Chief Engineer, Deputy Commissioner, Managing Deputy Commissioner, and Acting Commissioner.
During his career, Bilal has served his employers with the highest level of integrity, efficiency, and professionalism, which has enabled him to be promoted to highly responsible positions.
In addition to serving as the founding president of the National Arab American Association of Engineers and Architects (NAAAEA), he served also as the Chicago AAAEA founding president, chairman, and member of the board of trustees, and a member on other committees of the Arab American Association of Engineers and Architects on the national and local level since their inception in the fall of 1996.
Bilal is civic-minded and is involved in various capacities with schools and community organizations. He was the leader in creating a caucus for the Arab Professionals in Chicago (Medical, Bar, Business, and AAAEA) in the fall of 1999, and has served as the founding president of the Council of Arab Organizations (consist of 13 organizations)in Chicago. Recently Bilal has become involved with the Jerusalem Fund and Mediterranean Mosaic Community Center. He strongly believes that it is his professional duty to help others because “our aspirations are our possibilities.”
Eric Olsen
Principal of Amos Alonzo Stagg High School
Eric Olsen began his career in education in 1996, working in Thornton, Illinois as a junior high language arts teacher. There he also had the opportunity to teach social studies, mathematics and health, while also serving as the district’s dean of students and technology coordinator teaching computer classes to student’s ranging in age from kindergarten to 8th grade.
In 2001, Eric received his Masters in School Administration from Governor’s State University and became the Assistant Principal of Mokena Junior High School. In 2005, Eric was hired as the Associate Principal for Curriculum and Instruction at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills. In 2006, Eric was named interim principal of Stagg and named principal at the end of the school year and has served in this position since.
During his tenure at Stagg, the administrative team at Stagg has worked to form collaborative partnerships with numerous community organizations including Arab American Family Services. Stagg High School has proudly assisted AAFS in hosting immigration seminars, computer education classes, Palestinian Film Festival speakers, cultural awareness training and domestic violence fundraisers.
Eric has been the recipient of the Illinois Principal’s Association’s Principal of the Year for the South Cook Region, was a Golden Apple Stanley C. Colder Leadership Award Nominee, served as the Southwest Suburban Conference President and received the Mosque Foundation Friendship Award. Eric lives in the southwest suburbs with his wife Caroline and sons Matthew, Daniel, and Andrew.
Eric is humbled to receive the AAFS Spirit of Empowerment Award and believes that such a prestigious award is a recognition of the Stagg Community and the effort to engage their rich, diverse community in a holistic education focused on the development of students.
