Executive Board

Hon. Nadia Jamil Keilani (President)

Judge Nadia Jamil Keilani was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and immigrated to the United States at the age of nine.  She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego, in 1994, and her Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1997.  Judge Keilani has volunteered with and helped lead numerous non-profit organizations over the course of her career, including the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the National Association of Women Judge’s Fairness and Access Committee and the Ensuring Racial Equity Committee.  She is a judge of the Superior Court of California in San Diego.

Hon. Nahal Iravani-Sani (Vice President)

Judge Iravani-Sani is a Superior Court Judge in Santa Clara County, California, where she currently presides in civil case management in the Civil Division. Prior to joining the bench, she was a Deputy District Attorney in Santa Clara County for 23 years. A committed public servant and impact leader, she is a founding member of two statewide organizations, the California Women Judges Association and the Middle Eastern North African Judicial Officers of California, where she works tirelessly to promote diversity and inclusivity within the judiciary. 

Judge Iravani-Sani is passionate about education and mentorship. She has taught Trial Techniques and Critical Lawyering Skills at Santa Clara University School of Law, Trial Advocacy at Stanford Law School, and is a frequent presenter and panelist on a wide range of topics including Civility in the Legal Profession. Through these roles, she has mentored countless current and aspiring trial attorneys.

Judge Iravani-Sani was born in Tehran, Iran and immigrated to the United States at the age of 10. In 2017, Governor Edmund G. Brown appointed her as the first Iranian-American judge to serve on the Santa Clara County Superior Court. In 2019, in partnership with the Iranian American Bar Association, she established the Judge Iravani-Sani Public Interest Scholarship, which supports law students pursuing careers in public interest law. A strong advocate for fair access to our courts, Judge Iravani-Sani also co-chairs the Judicial Mentor Program, which aims to recruit and develop a highly qualified judicial applicant pool that reflects California’s rich cultural landscape. 

Judge Iravani-Sani has been recognized with numerous awards for her leadership and enduring commitment to education, mentorship, diversity, and social justice including: the Unity Award from the San Francisco Minority Bar Coalition, the 2021 Social Justice and Human Rights Award from Santa Clara University School of Law, the 2022 Mary Jo Levinger Woman Jurist of the Year by the Santa Clara County Bar Association; the 2024 San Francisco City Hall Community Leadership Award, and the 2025 Woman of the Year Award by the California 28th Assembly District. 

Hon. Sylvia Hanna (Secretary)

Judge Sylvia Hanna is a first generation Egyptian-American.  Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Hanna served as the Chief Deputy Public Defender in Tulare.

In November of 2021, Governor Newsom appointed Judge Hanna to the California Superior Court in Tulare County.  Judge Hanna presided over the Drug Court, Recovery Court, South County Veteran Diversion, and misdemeanor calendars.  Since April 2023, Judge Hanna has presided over Juvenile Justice and Dependency matters.  Judge Hanna serves on the Appellate Division of her court, as well as on the Library Board.

As one of the founding members of the Tulare County Unity Bar, Judge Hanna has been a proponent of diversity and inclusivity on the bench.  She currently serves on the Tulare County Judicial Mentorship Committee designed to mentor those who are seeking judicial appointments.  Judge Hanna is the first Egyptian-American appointed to the Tulare County bench.

Hon. Gassia Apkarian (Treasurer)

Judge Gassia Apkarian is a Superior Court Judge in California, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2014, currently presiding over civil unlimited trials after previously serving on the juvenile and criminal panels. She is also a co-founder and Senior Board Advisor of the Center for Truth and Justice, a community-based organization that trains law students and legal professionals to collect and preserve testimonial evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, giving victims a voice.

Born in 1967 in Aleppo, Syria, during the outbreak of the Six-Day War, she grew up amid the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon. At age 16, she immigrated to the United States and finished high school in Irvine, California. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine, and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of La Verne College of Law.

Following Armenia’s independence, she moved to Yerevan to serve as the Country Director for the Armenian Assembly of America. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., she worked as Special Assistant to Ambassador Ruben Shugarian at the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia, and later served as Executive Director of Democrats 2000, a progressive PAC chaired by Vice President Al Gore. At the invitation of the Armenian administration, she subsequently returned to Armenia with her family to serve as an advisor to the second President of the Republic of Armenia.

Following the 1999 parliamentary assassinations in Armenia, Judge Apkarian returned to California to dedicate herself to the legal profession. She served as a Deputy Public Defender for eight years before founding her private defense firm, Apkarian Defense, APC, in 2008.

In 2022, the California Judges Association and the California Judges Foundation honored Judge Apkarian with the prestigious Alba Witkin Humanitarian Award.

Hon. Mena Guirguis (Director at Large)

Judge Mena Guirguis was appointed to serve as a Judge in the Orange County Superior Court in 2023. He is currently assigned to the Family Law Panel.  Prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Guirguis served as Senior Deputy District Attorney at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, where he was assigned to the homicide, sexual assault, and gang units.  Judge Guirguis graduated from UCLA in 2002 with a degree in physiological sciences. He graduated from Loyola Law School in 2006. Judge Mena Guirguis was born in Cairo, Egypt. He moved to California as a child in 1984.   

Hon. Afsaneh Ashley Tabaddor (Director at Large)

Judge Tabaddor serves on the Los Angeles County Superior Court, appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2025. She was the first judicial applicant endorsed by MENA JOC. An Iranian-American who came to the United States following the Iranian Revolution, she earned her B.A., cum laude, from UCLA and her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings).

Before her appointment to the bench, Judge Tabaddor served as Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, leading a legal in-house team of more than 500 attorneys and staff. She previously served for more than 15 years as a United States Immigration Judge in Los Angeles, where she helped develop the court's unaccompanied juvenile docket and initiatives to expand access to legal representation for children in removal proceedings. Earlier in her career, she was an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles, a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division, and an attorney advisor with the immigration courts.

Judge Tabaddor is a national voice for judicial independence. As President of the National Association of Immigration Judges, she testified before Congress on the integrity and the need for an independent immigration court system. In 2013, she successfully challenged a Department of Justice order barring her from cases involving Iranian nationals, a resolution affirming that a judge's heritage and lawful civic participation do not, without more, call her impartiality into question.

A longtime educator and mentor, Judge Tabaddor has taught at UCLA, USC, George Washington University, and Southwestern Law School, where she most recently served as a Distinguished Visiting Jurist. She has been recognized with the Federal Bar Association's Government Lawyer of the Year Award and has received numerous judicial excellence awards from affinity bar associations. 

Hon. Michael Pulos (Immediate Past President)

Judge Pulos serves on the San Diego Superior Court.  He received his bachelor's degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and his law degree from UCLA School of Law.  

Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Pulos was a Supervising Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General; a Legal Adviser at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague; an associate at an international law firm; and a law clerk to Syrian-American judge, the Honorable Rosemary Barkett, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  

Judge Pulos serves on the Judicial Council of California's Court Interpreter's Advisory Panel, on the judicial vetting committee of the California Judges Association's LGBT Judicial Officers of California section, and on the Executive Committee of the San Diego Appellate Inn of Court.  He is a member of the Hellenic Law Society of California and the Armenian Bar Association, and he is active in the Greek and Armenian communities.