Marjeela Basij-Rasikh
Marjeela Basij-Rasikh is the Founder and CEO of REESHA. Born and raised in Kabul city, she spent her childhood in a country embroiled in decades of conflict. Through her extraordinary parents’ steadfast commitment to the importance of education, Marjeela was able to attend an outlawed secret school for girls until fifth grade. At age fourteen she received a full scholarship to Brooks School, a boarding school in the United States, where she continued to pursue her education. Marjeela holds an M.A. in International Environmental Policy with a focus in Business and Sustainability and Resource Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a focus in Policy and Public Health from Middlebury College. Her global journey has fostered a unique perspective informed by her intercultural upbringing which she has used to fuel her passions for social and racial justice, environmental sustainability, and economic empowerment – both on an individual to communal level.
Marjeela has taken her firsthand experience of the damaging effects of climate change and decades of conflict in Afghanistan to inform her work furthering the causes of NGOs, UN agencies, and local governments across Afghanistan, Europe, and the Americas through the lens of equity and inclusivity. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Bee the Change. She has also served as a Board Member of the United Nations Association – Monterey Bay Chapter (UNA – MB), worked as an Environmental Consultant with Afghan youth; managed and led service trips to permaculture farms in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and served as Coordinator of Grants and Fund Development in Carmel, California. She speaks five languages, and was even a member of the Student Advisory Board in charge of planning the 2012 trip of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Middlebury College. When she’s not working, she loves exploring nature with her two children and husband, and is additionally an avid hiker, biker, and swimmer. She is also an enthusiast of farmers’ markets and classical music.