Eritrean Community in Seattle and Vicinity
The mission of the Eritrean Community in Seattle and Vicinity is to promote, through its members, the social, economical, educational and cultural interests of Eritrean refugees in Seattle while conserving and passing-on the Eritrean culture and tradition to the children.

Horn of Africa Services
Horn of Africa Services is a nonprofit that serves the East African immigrant and refugee community in Seattle. Our services include social services, educational assistance, youth programs, and economic empowerment to address the needs of the community.

Oromo Community of Seattle
The center is established to serve the as a place where Oromo can congregate, participate in workshops, take classes, and participate in other activities of the like.

Abdulhamid Hassen, Board Secretary

Abdulhamid (“Abdi”) Hassen is the Executive Director of the Oromo Community Services (“OCSS”) in Seattle since 2014. He is a dedicated, committed social service professional with over 10 years of experience working in community organizing and social service field with expertise in supporting people from culturally diverse backgrounds.  

Growing up as an immigrant in Southeast Seattle and witnessing the many challenges youth face within his community, Abdi’s service work has been dedicated to creating safe spaces and environments for youth through both informal and formal settings. Abdi’s leadership at OCSS has allowed for the organization to utilize soccer and other adventure sports as a gateway to connecting, communicating, and motivating youth and young adults to navigate the often challenging and critical coming of age years in Southeast Seattle. OCSS promotes a positive youth development approach and emphasizes the inherent strengths and resilience of young immigrants and refugees while also using some successful tools to bridge intergenerational and intercultural gaps.

Abdi is committed to building a sustainable multicultural, service-delivery center for OCSS and other communities that will be led by people from the community who are committed to supporting and developing the next generation of leaders.  

Abdi aims to maintain existing network and grow OCSS’s network of strategic partners. Abdi is a strong committed leader willing to support collaboration with the City, County, and community in critical community projects to address challenges, barriers, and culturally competent responses to emergent needs.

Asmeret Habte, Board Member

Asmeret has devoted much of her life to building social capital and community development in Seattle Central District, Southeast Seattle, South King County Tukwila, Seatac, and Burien. She possesses a diverse professional background in public health, community development, and economic development for the past 20 years in both civic and professional roles, and has deep relationships across such sectors and within community. 

Asmeret has held many positions throughout her professional career as  Planning and Regulatory Affairs Coordinator for Harborview Medical Center. She has worked as a Community Development Specialist Strategic Advisor for the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development. She was also a small business co-owner of Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine in Seattle's Central District. Hidmo later transitioned to be an anchor tenant at Washington Hall in 2008 to save the historic building. To support this work, Asmeret then transitioned to serve as a member of the Washington Hall Anchor Tenants Advisory Committee. In her current role at King County Department of Community and Human Services, she leads a diverse and innovative management team across three strategies, overseeing a budget of $30 million of voter-approved Best Start for Kids Levy funds. 

Parallel to her professional leadership development is her commitment to supporting community-led solutions through volunteer and civic engagement roles. Asmeret’s community leadership roles include Community Real Estate Stewardship Team (CREST - Leadership Team member), City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods (Community Liaison) , (BASE - Cohort 1 graduate), Cultural Space Agency (Constituency Member) and Race and Social Equity Task Force (RSET).

Tsegaye Gebru, Board Treasurer

Tsegaye Gebru has been the Executive Director of Horn of Africa Services (“HOAS”) since 2009. In addition to his past twelve years of experience at HOAS, he brings extensive experience as a project manager, working as the Network Coordinator and Technology Lab Coordinator at the Rainier Vista Neighborhood House and as Technology Lab Coordinator and Systems Administrator at HOAS. Tsegaye was also a Computer Hardware and Software Distribution Coordinator for Costco of USA and Canada.

Under Tsegaye’s leadership, HOAS has grown from a 3-person staff to now having over 15 and has expanded to having 3 locations. He manages a multilingual and multiethnic staff and over 20 volunteers to deliver programs consistent with HOAS's mission of serving East African immigrants and refugees in Seattle and King County by empowering through education, social servicing and advocacy. Services offered include after-school programs, ParentChild+, Kaleidoscope, social services, job readiness, family management and system navigation and naturalization.

By cultivating relationships, trust, and accountability, he has provided the leadership to expand and include a full-scale social service provider in King County. Through these experiences and understanding the barriers, gaps, and capacity-building needs in BIPOC organizations, Tsegaye became a founding member of South Seattle Organizing for Racial and Regional Equity (SouthCORE), Hate Free Zone (current One America), Rainier Valley Corps, and the Multicultural Community Coalition. Additionally, he has served on the Race and Social Justice Community Roundtable, the Rainier Valley Corps Board, and many other leading City and County collaborative efforts.

Marta Kidane, Board Member

Marta Kidane is a lifelong Seattleite with a passion for youth and mental health advocacy. She is currently working as an Executive Assistant at the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County where she has worked for over 3 years. In her role, she leads board development efforts and supports committees like the Racial Equity Project team for Seattle-King County. 

Marta also serves as a Board member of the Eritrean Community Center, the first Eritrean community center in the country founded in 1981and has owned and operated its property in the Central District since 1994. As a Board member, Marta focuses on community programming and systems change. As a second-generation immigrant, she uses her experience to drive her work in the area of youth development and advocacy with a focus on creating a bridge to close intergenerational gaps that are prevalent in her community.  Her goal is to create a self-sustaining structure within the community center that ensures that the youth can hold positions of leadership and be stewards of change.

Marta is also a leading member of the Eritrean Health Board. Through her 6-year administrative position at Valley Cities Counseling, she became acutely aware of the need for preventive mental health services in her community and is in the process of implementing programs to create the intergenerational healing that propels her. With her expertise in mental health, Marta aims to create mental health programs that incorporate community health practices while also working with the community to break down barriers to mental health resources.

Yordanos Teferi, Executive Director & Board President

Yordanos Teferi is a graduate of Georgetown University, the London School of Economics and Benjamin N. Cardozo, School of Law. She is an eDiscovery Attorney with over 17 years of experience in combined law firm and Fortune 100 companies. Upon returning to Seattle, Yordanos began serving on the board of the Eritrean Community Center which introduced her to the great work of the Multicultural Community Coalition for which she currently serves as the Executive Director. Yordanos’ leadership roles include serving on the Communities of Opportunity (COO) Governance Board, City of Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) Board, City of Seattle’s Strategic Investment Community Advisory Group; City of Seattle's Department of Transportation (SDOT) Equity Workgroup (Co-chair); the Community Health Board Coalition (Co-chair); King County Public Health’s Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group (Steering Committee member); Cultural Space Agency (Constituency Member); Race and Social Equity Task Force (RSET); Building Art Space Equitably (BASE - Cohort 2 graduate) and SDOT’s Policy and Operations Advisory Group.

Shikū Wainaina, Capacity Building Coordinator  

Shikū was born in Kenya and raised in South King County. She graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Public Health. She received her start in nonprofit work in 2012 when she helped to co-found a small NGO called Tumaini for Health for which she now serves as a board member. She is passionate about community health and serves as a community leader in the Kenyan community through her participation and leadership in the Kenyan COVID Response Team. As a participant of the Rainier Valley Corp (RVC)’s Community Impact Fellowship program, Shikū began her work with the Multicultural Community Coalition as a Capacity Building Coordinator and expects to join as a permanent MCC staff member following her fellowship. Shikū is also a Building Art Space Equitably (BASE - Cohort 3 participant).