Meet The Team
Leadership and Media Summit Speakers
Shirin Taber, Director of Middle East Women’s Leadership Network (Los Angeles, California)
Shirin is Iranian-American and the author of Muslims Next Door (Zondervan) and Wanting All the Right Things (Relevant). The Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Fox News Christianity Today and NewYorkTimes.com have featured her writing and work among Muslims and Christians alike. She served with Cru, Inspirational Films and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Shirin is passionate about helping women become world-class leaders by creating media for their mission. Partnering with various United Nations, NGOs and faith-based agencies, she helps leaders develop media strategies to expand their visibility and outreach platforms. She is a graduate of the University of Washington and speaks French, Farsi and English.
Nancy Sawyer Schraeder, Screenwriter/Producer (Los Angeles, California)
Nancy scripted the feature film, Magdalena: Released from Shame, which premiered at the United Nations in 2007 and has been translated into over one hundred languages. Rivka, a mini-series she co-wrote, was released worldwide in 2012. In March, "Portions," a short film she wrote and co-produced, screened at the World of Women Film Fair in Dubai. Nancy has also produced promotional videos for corporations and non-profits. Nancy holds a Master of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and has taught writing at Biola University and Long Beach City College and at media summits in Cairo, London, and online.
Jenifer Sarver, Founder and Communications Expert at Sarver Strategies (Austin, Texas)
Jenifer likes stories and likes helping others tell theirs. She has two decades of experience in media relations, crisis communications, speechwriting and media and presentation skills training. Jenifer conducts workshop and one-on-one trainings for a wide range of public figures including CEOs, political candidates and office holders at the state and federal levels, nonprofit leaders and foreign leaders. In 2014, she launched Sarver Strategies to focus her skills on training and storytelling, helping clients develop a narrative that effectively conveys their core
Naji Hendrix, Producer (Los Angeles, California)
Naji and her family escaped Iran during the Iran-Iraq war when she was only six years old. In 2016, she co-produced “Portions,” which won Best Short Fiction Film at the World of Women Film Fair in Dubai, an Award of Merit at the Best Shorts Competition, and screened at the Burbank International Film Festival. She served as a producer and host for a TV broadcaster into the Persian world, including the new Superbook program for Farsi speaking audiences. Previously, Naji worked as a production manager for a film and distribution company in Orlando for eight years. Passionate to use media to reach the Middle East, Naji studied Communication and Film with a minor in Marketing from the University of Central Florida. Naji lives with her husband and two sons in Southern California.
Mariya Dostzadah Goodbrake, Producer and Executive Director, Global FC (Kansas City, Missouri)
Delivering intercultural solutions, diversity and inclusion training, and migrant services, Mariya is the Executive Director of Global FC, a non-profit organization based in Kansas City that uses soccer as a vehicle for transformative impact, supporting refugee youth and families with the tools to overcome obstacles to success. A native from Afghanistan, Mariya was raised in Iran and India, immigrated to Canada with her family, and later to America in 2012. She studied at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada in Political Science and International Relations. She is fluent in English, Dari and Farsi.
Marguerite Evans, Fashion Producer (Los Angeles)
Marguerite’s passion to use beauty to address trauma healing in the lives of hurting women is a reflection of her own journey and life mission. It was through her experience of becoming Miss Universe, South Africa, First Runner Up in 1997 that she realized she could use the platform of fashion and beauty to help empower women around the world. Together with MEWLN, she has helped coordinate several media and leadership forums in London, Tunis, and Los Angeles. Today Marguerite combines her fashion expertise and trauma healing workshops to help empower women in the US, Europe, Middle East and Central Asia.
