We are delighted to welcome Cassie Bean, Maggie Habashy and Paramita Sarkar to our Board of Directors! Learn more below about these talented additions to our team. They will be powerful assets as we work to ensure all New Americans thrive in Minnesota.
Cassie Bean
Cassie Bean is a Program Associate at GHR Foundation, providing support to the foundation’s education initiative. In this role, she manages the grants process, monitoring and evaluation, operations, and assists in strategic programming efforts to advance the foundation’s mission.
Prior to joining GHR, she worked in international education where her work centered on championing campus-wide internationalization, promoting cross-cultural learning through programming, immigration advising, management and advocacy.
She cares deeply for the experience and well-being of New Americans and in addition to her professional work, she has volunteered with the Institute’s refugee program and the International Center in New York City, among other organizations.
Cassie earned a master’s degree in educational leadership with a graduate certificate in international development from the University of St. Thomas, where she also completed her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and international studies. Apart from finding creative ways to grow her 11-year-old son into an informed global citizen, Cassie uses her free time to indulge her love of nature and the arts by taking advantage of our state parks and thriving live music scene.
Maggie Habashy
Maggie Habashy is a bilingual leader with a global mindset, strong communication skills and a passion for building relationships and teams. She thrives in a cross-functional environment to build authentic relationships, achieve meaningful outcomes and drive results. Maggie has strong media relations and leadership skills with the ability to succeed and thrive under pressure. She is passionate about social issues and leading corporate responsibility programs that have a true impact on society.
Most recently, she served as the Director of External Operations for the 2019 Men’s Final Four in Minneapolis, leading social media, marketing, communications, local business and communication engagement. Prior to the Final Four, Maggie managed all aspects of corporate PR for Sleep Number, including issues management, cultivating strong relationships with reporters, coaching senior leadership team, facilitating business and tech media interviews, along with external speaking engagements. Prior to Sleep Number, Maggie served on the PR team at Best Buy where she managed media in various regions of the U.S.
Maggie grew up in Eden Prairie, spending several years and every summer in Egypt with her family. She graduated from the University of Minnesota, majoring in journalism. Maggie also lived in South Korea and Washington before returning to the region. She lives in Plymouth with her husband, daughter (5) and son (1).
Paramita Sarkar
Paramita Sarkar is Vice President, Product Management in the Wealth Management Solutions Team at Ameriprise Financial Inc. Her portfolio includes managing multiple product lines, product innovation, pricing strategy, performance reporting and analytics as well as supporting marketing, training and business development efforts to help advisors grow their practices.
Before assuming her current role, Paramita spent six years in the Corporate Strategy team at Ameriprise where she worked closely with Ameriprise Executive Leadership and senior business leaders in developing and implementing solutions related to corporate and business unit growth strategies, business development, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and other priorities.
Paramita grew up in Kolkata, India, and lived in Brighton, United Kingdom before moving to the United States. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University, India and a MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Paramita is a deep believer in the transformative power of education and is passionate about leveraging education in order to achieve financial and economic empowerment of all community members, especially women.