Volunteers
Amin H. Jahromi, MD-PhD
Co-Founder and President
Amin H. Jahromi, MD-PhD
Co-Founder and PresidentPassionate about helping children in need and empowering the oppressed, Amin is called to help orphans as the president/co-founder of Golestan Foundation. He is a practicing nuclear medicine physician and radiologist. Amin was born and raised in Jahrom, Iran and emigrated to the US. He has seen the stark contrast in resources available to children and has been passionate about helping orphans, missing out on one or both parents’ caring love. His vision is to empower the most vulnerable and innocent children, one orphan at a time. Amin has built a team of talented volunteers who are dedicated to growing the mission of Golestan.
Mohsen Dadfarnia, PhD
Co-Founder, Treasurer
Mohsen Dadfarnia, PhD
Co-Founder, TreasurerMohsen is an avid educator and teacher. He is a university instructor and he uses his free time to teach children in his local community. His passion in helping children in need stems from his belief that all children deserve the opportunity to fulfill their potential and that humanity knows no race or border.
Reza Ebrahimi, PhD
Secretary
Reza Ebrahimi, PhD
SecretaryCommitted to making a difference in the lives of underprivileged children and empowering marginalized communities, I'm a dedicated volunteer with Golestan Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to creating brighter futures. Born and raised in Ghir, Fars, Iran, and now residing in California, I hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and work at Apple. My journey is driven by the belief that every child, particularly orphans, deserves an opportunity to reach their full potential and lead happier lives.
Behzad Biglarbegian, PhD
Volunteer
Behzad Biglarbegian, PhD
VolunteerBehzad joined Golestan Foundation to help children in need, specially in Iran. Currently Behzad is a RF hardware engineer at Apple in California. In his spare time, he likes to spend time with friends and family, watching soccer and playing setar.
Pooya Khoshgoftar, PhD
Board member
Pooya Khoshgoftar, PhD
Board memberPooya has studied and worked in Iran, Europe and the United States and is currently an engineering manager in the semiconductor industry. He strives to help children in need with focus on their health and education. Pooya is passionate about empowering children so they can find their area of talents and thereby can make a bright future for themselves. Pooya is very excited to join Golestan Foundation as a volunteer.
Mojtaba Azadi
Education Committee Chair
Mojtaba Azadi
Education Committee ChairMojtaba is a volunteer at Golestan Foundation. He enjoys spending time with his family and friends here in the US and in his beloved motherland Iran through social media platforms. He is a faculty member at San Francisco State University.
Mahdieh Taher, PhD
Social Media Chair
Mahdieh Taher, PhD
Social Media ChairMahdieh was born and raised in Iran. She moved to California and studied at UC Berkeley. Currently, she is working as a data engineer in Bay Area. Her passion for education started a few years ago when she found Montessori method and attended early education classes. She got her AMI Montessori certificate in 2015. Then she translated a montessori book to Persian. She joined the Golestan Foundation with this belief : “Within the child lies the fate of future”, Dr Montessori.
Mehrdad Farajtabar, PhD
Fundraising Committee
Mehrdad Farajtabar, PhD
Fundraising CommitteeMehrdad joined Golestan Foundation because he cares about Iran and most importantly its people. He believes that the best way to bring sustainable development and eradicate poverty is through educating and empowering children especially those who are vulnerable, underprivileged, and orphans. When not volunteering, or spending time with family and friends, reading, or listening to Persian music, he is working on machine learning and applications at Google DeepMind as a senior research scientist.
Narges Molavi, M.S.
Education Committee
Narges Molavi, M.S.
Education CommitteeNarges was born and raised in Tehran and immigrated at a very young age to Berlin-Germany to study. She moved to California a couple of years ago, and is currently working as a Research Scientist at Roche in Santa Clara. Narges joined the Golestan Foundation due to her passion to help Children in need and to bring more meaning and happiness to her life. It has always been her dream to be able to do something meaningful to help the Orphans in Iran. The volunteer activities at the Golestan Foundation are her very first steps towards this goal. Narges hopes for a better future for all children in Iran and all around the world and believes this dream can come true if we all support each other in fighting poverty and believe everyone deserves to live a happy and healthy life.
Amirhossein Khosrojerdi, PhD
Fundraising Committee
Amirhossein Khosrojerdi, PhD
Fundraising CommitteeAmirhossein started his volunteer journey at Golestan foundation with the hope that his activities can help orphans and unprivileged children reach their full potentials and live a happier life. Amirhossein grew up in Iran and came to the US in 2011 to pursue his education in Operations Research. He is currently residing in Chicago and working as a data science manager in financial services.
Behnam Neyshabur, PhD
Fundraising Committee
Behnam Neyshabur, PhD
Fundraising CommitteeBehnam is passionate about empowering unprivileged children and envisions a world where children have equal opportunity to fulfil their potential. He firmly believes in the power of communities. In the past, Behnam has founded/led three non-profit organizations with a focus on community building and is currently a board member of Iranian Women in Computing (IranWiC). Behnam was born and raised in Neyshabur — a small city in northeast Iran and later immigrated to the US for graduate education. He is currently a staff research scientist at Google where his research is on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Hadis Askari, B.S.A
Social Media Committee
Hadis Askari, B.S.A
Social Media CommitteeHadis is a Biochemistry/pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin, meanwhile she is pursuing Spanish in Medical Professions and Forensic in Science certificate. Her passion to join Golestan rose out of her concern for children in Iran who do not have any voice for their pains. Hadis is glad to be part of this journey with Golestan to ameliorate this condition for children and empower them to enrich their experiences by accessing proper education and care.
Mahshid Mohseni
Human Resources Chair
Mahshid Mohseni
Human Resources ChairMahshid has had a long time passion for helping the children in need. She is a practicing endocrinologist woking as an assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She grew up in Iran and moved to United States for medical training. She believes all kids deserve the opportunity to live a happy and healthy life.
Ali Askari, B.S.A
Data Manager
Ali Askari, B.S.A
Data ManagerAli is passionate about taking part in the community to help others, especially assisting children and orphans in need who are full of potential. Ali was born and raised in Marvdasht, Iran. He moved to Texas to continue his high school education. He is a pre-medical student at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies Biochemistry.
Zohair Fazilati
Education Committee
Zohair Fazilati
Education CommitteeZohair was born and raised in Iran. He has degrees from Iran and Australia as a master of Mechanical Engineer. He moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2019. He is currently working as an Advanced Mechanical Lead Engineer in Honeywell. He believes that facilitating safe and quality education for unprivileged children could empower them to succeed in their future and thus enabling them to help their communities to flourish. He found passion and purpose in his previous volunteer experience, and he sees the same kind of passion working in Golestan Foundation.
Pooya Hosseinzadeh
Education Committee
Pooya Hosseinzadeh
Education CommitteePooya enjoys being a part of Golestan team where he can help in a building a better future for the children in need. He is an orthopedic surgeon and practices at Washington University in Saint Louis. He grew up in Iran and moved to United Sates for medical training.
Fahimeh Baftizadeh, PhD
Education Committee
Fahimeh Baftizadeh, PhD
Education CommitteeFahimeh, originally from Mashhad, Iran, pursued a path in physics that spanned several countries. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Physics from Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, Iran. She then earned her PhD in Physics in Trieste, Italy. Afterward, she continued her academic journey in the United States, spending four years as a postdoc researcher at MIT. Currently, she works as a scientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. She’s passionate about volunteering and aims to work with underprivileged kids, encouraging them to dream big and believe in themselves.
Parsa Samandi
Finance Committee
Parsa Samandi
Finance CommitteeBorn and raised in Tehran, recently moved to Canada, I have a background in Web Development with a passion for sports and literature. Currently pursuing a major in Business at Douglas College in metro Vancouver. As education is a fundamental need of every individual, it would be my honor to be part of the Golestan Foundation in this journey of helping orphans.
Zayna Bhurgri
Community Building
Zayna Bhurgri
Community BuildingZayna is a University of Washington graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Biology, she will be continuing her academic journey into medical school this upcoming year. Zayna has always possessed a deep-seated empathy for underprivileged populations, especially those that reside near her homeland. As a volunteer for the Golestan Foundation, she hopes to embark on a lifelong path of almsgiving, and ultimately the opportunity to address medical deficiencies for these underserved populations.
Shabnam ghotbi
Education Committee
Shabnam ghotbi
Education CommitteeShabnam was born and raised in Iran. After leaving Iran as a telecommunication engineer, she came to Indiana to pursue her Ph.D., immersing herself in the world of academic research. Shabnam graduated from Purdue university with a master's degree in Economics and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. Today she lives in the Bay area, where she applies her expertise to tackle engineering challenges in the tech industry. She first discovered the Golestan through a fundraising post. Intrigued by the organization's mission and the potential impact it could have, she became deeply interested in Golestan work. Since then, she has closely followed Golestan activities and initiatives, continually inspired by the positive changes they bring to the lives of children and families. This initial encounter ignited a strong commitment within her. She has actively supported the foundation through personal donations and strives to encourage her friends and acquaintances to contribute as well. The Golestan Foundation's dedication to nurturing children's development and fostering cultural understanding deeply resonates with her, and she feels privileged to be a part of this community.