Shalma Akhter joined CONNECT in 2015 as a community educator specializing in domestic and family violence prevention for South Asian immigrants. She facilitates women’s empowerment circles and workshops in Bengali, Hindi and Urdu, and leads elder abuse prevention workshops at senior centers in all five boroughs. Shalma began her career in 2009 as a bilingual preventive services case manager working with immigrant families and children in New York City. Prior to CONNECT, Shalma spent seven years as a program manager at the Center for the Integration of New Americans (CIANA). Shalma emigrated from Bangladesh with her family as a young teenager, and is passionate about advocating on behalf of immigrant families who face language, cultural and legal barriers in a new country.