Tarek Maassarani
Tarek Maassarani is a mission-driven attorney, program strategist, university professor, and project director with 20+ years leading federally funded initiatives across justice, equity, and climate resilience. He has litigated human rights cases, managed multi-agency partnerships, developed countless programs, published books and articles, and trained civil society and government agencies. As CEO of Sustainable Construction Solutions, he applies his legal and programmatic expertise to sustainable infrastructure, advancing fireproof, non-toxic, and low-carbon materials and methods aligned with resilience and decarbonization goals. Under his leadership, the company has delivered successful pilot projects and expanded public-private partnerships. Maassarani began his career providing civil legal services law at the federally-funded Neighborhood Legal Services Program, where he served as a Covington & Burling Westwood Fellow and later as a senior staff attorney. At NLSP’s Nani Helen Burroughs office, he represented underserved residents across housing, employment, public benefits, consumer protection, and discrimination cases, while also managing law student interns and supporting D.C. Bar legal clinics and Spanish-speaking workers’ rights seminars. He then served for over a decade as a consultant and trainer for the U.S. Institute of Peace and director of the Salam Institute, in which capacities he managed five-to-six figure USAID and State Department-funded civic engagement and peacebuilding programs across Africa, Afghanistan, and domestic military bases. He facilitated training for educators, nonprofits, African peacekeeping forces, U.S. Army units, and foreign service officers, and co-authored curricula on religious peacebuilding, conflict resolution, trauma resilience, and nonviolent action. As co-founder and technical lead of Restorative DC, Maassarani designed and scaled a citywide restorative justice initiative across Washington, D.C., delivering technical assistance to over 40 schools, coordinating a diversion program for the Department of Human Services, and advising the Office of the Attorney General on the creation of a nationally recognized in-house restorative justice unit. He later co-directed Central Virginia Community Justice, where he launched a restorative diversion program in partnership with local prosecutors, expanded referral networks, and formalized regional implementation. More recently, he served as lead trainer for the U.S. State Department–funded #Influencers4Peace initiative, which engaged 150 social media leaders across Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Niger to promote social cohesion and counter violent extremism.