For over seven years Tanzilya Oren, LMSW, was a community organizer and program manager in Uzbekistan in the areas of civil society’s rights, community development, domestic violence and self-immolation. She used methods of Community Participatory Action Planning to facilitate community project development in her native region.

Ms. Oren is a member of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a Civil Society Watch Officer at CIVICUS Ms. Oren initiated a Eurasia network of civil society activists from five countries, and wrote two CIVICUS country reports for the UN Human Rights Council.

Currently, Ms. Oren participates in the pilot Immigrant Workforce Project at the NYS Department of Labor (DOL). She provides employment counseling to new immigrant and Limited-English proficient job seekers, develops new services, and outreaches to immigrant-serving CBOs and immigrant communities to survey the needs and educate about available services.

Ms. Oren received her combined Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in teaching and English from Samarkand University (Uzbekistan) in 1997, and holds her second Master’s in International Social Welfare and Policy from CUSSW.

Last updated July 29, 2011.