Q&A with Rachel Perić

🟢 Name: Rachel Perić

🟢 Role and organization: Executive Director, Welcoming America

🟢 Where do you live? #DC area — Montgomery County, Maryland

🟢 And where do you call home? The same.

🟢 How did the experiences of people who have been forcibly displaced first become important to you? I grew up with the stories of my grandparents, Holocaust survivors who came to the US, along with my mother, as #refugees.  As I got older, I learned that the experience of being scapegoated, dehumanized and displaced were also universal stories.  My friends whose migration journeys, or experience as Black Americans, for example, carried similar lessons and patterns about the importance of hearing each others’ stories and defending each others' full humanity and basic rights.

🟢 My professional journey: My professional journey started at my family's kitchen table, listening to harrowing stories of survival and to discussions about government and public policy.  The clear message was that we need to take responsibility for a more just world. This led me to work first in international development, and later community development, leading a United Way campaign and then a grassroots English literacy coalition. Then, 13 years ago, I found myself knocking on the door of Welcoming America as a volunteer — I came to help our founder and amazing team get the organization off the ground, and it has been a labor of love ever since.

🟢 What's your superpower, either real or desired? Illuminating the good. 

🟢 Tell us your fantasy dinner party guests! Let me say that I would love to sit down for dinner with some of the Sparking Change Fellows — true unsung heroes supported thanks to USA for UNHCR , in collaboration with Refugee Congress and Welcoming America.  If some famous historical figures wanted to drop by, they'd be welcome — but I've got my eyes on our future leaders and history-makers.