Our Board
Joan Sadorf
President
Joan Sadorf has worked in the accounting field since high school. She received an undergraduate degree in accounting and then an MBA. She has worked as a financial administrator for a law firm and now works in client services and reporting for an investment adviser. Although Joan has a business background, her passion is education and she has spent a considerable amount of time volunteering over the years going from kindergarten room parent to High School PTO president. She has served on various boards within the San Diego Unified and Coronado Unified School Districts. Joan is married to a retired Naval Officer and has 2 grown daughters. Having also grown up in a military household, she knows relocation well and the need to adapt to your environment.
Joan enjoys time spent outdoors hiking, paddling, and simply playing with her dogs. She also loves to travel and explore new places.
Rob Lee
Treasurer
Robert Lee has been a part of San Diego Refugee Tutoring since 2009. His heart for justice is rooted in his faith and refined through professional and non-profit work in inner-city Chicago and abroad. He is a family doctor in San Diego and works with students and trainees at the University of California, San Diego.
Brian Becker
Secretary
Brian Becker is an international educator at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego where he directs both International Ministry and Study Abroad programs. He earned the MA Nonprofit Management and Leadership degree at USD School of Leadership and Education Sciences. Brian has also lived and worked in microfinance in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo with HOPE International.
Brian and his family reside in City Heights and have been shaped by close relationships with families from the DR Congo and East African countries.
Sainab Warsame
Director
Sainab Warsame is a former Somali refugee who settled in San Diego in 1992. She earned her associates and began her work with refugees helping them in different capacities to assimilate into the United States. She began working for the International Rescue Committee in 2005 as a family immigration caseworker. Sainab earned the Liv Ullmann Humanitarian Award in 2016 for her work with IRC's Immigration Team by always going above and beyond for her clients.
Art Shingler
Director
Prior to attending law school, Art Shingler taught English at Castle Park and Southwest High Schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District. Today, Art is an attorney who has practiced law in San Diego for over 26 years, with a principal focus on shareholder rights, consumer, and antitrust litigation. He also serves as a mediator, and regularly lectures on the subjects of conflict management and mediator skills with the National Conflict Resolution Center.
Art has been volunteering consistently with SDRT since 2019. He is also an avid bodysurfer and has three grown children.
Johnny Lim
Director
Johnny Lim is an Occupational Hygienist working in San Diego supporting local businesses in eliminating workplace hazards. Originally from Colorado, Johnny moved to San Diego in 2011 after graduating from Colorado State University. He was a camp counselor and coordinator for a summer camp for adoptees from Cambodia from 2005 to 2017.
In 2018, Johnny joined SDRT as a volunteer with an interest in connecting with and supporting the local refugee population. Johnny’s family fled Cambodia in the 80s and made it to Colorado with pit stops at refugee camps in Thailand and in the Philippines. Johnny hopes to advocate and support the new generation with his account of being a first generation Asian-American in a refugee household.
Jennifer Saber
Director
Jennifer Saber has been a Volunteer Tutor with SDRT since September 2019—one of the last groups to experience in-person tutoring before Covid sent everyone to Zoom. She was born and raised in San Diego and discovered SDRT through Facebook. Her experience with this program has taught her so much about the human spirit. She admires the students' resilience and determination to learn, and loves to see the strong connections that SDRT students have with their families. They are an inspiration.
While not doing SDRT stuff, Jennifer works for Boeing where she helps people maintain their government clearances. She also volunteers for the San Diego International Film Festival every year and has an annual side gig as the Easter Bunny for her friends’ mobile children’s craft business.