Bio
Jaleh Daie
Dr. Jaleh Daie has extensive executive experience in private and public institutions and academia. She is managing partner at Aurora Equity, a Palo Alto-based investment company financing technology start ups.
She is also Treasurer of the U.S. Space Foundation and a member of the Band of Angels. Most recently, she was director of science and senior advisor to the president at the Packard Foundation where she provided executive and technical direction for a $120 million annual budget and managed a diversified portfolio of science and technology.
Daie has been both faculty and administrator at two major universities. While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Daie took on special assignments in Washington D.C. and served as science liaison to the President.
Firoozeh Dumas
Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran and moved with her family to Whittier, California at the age of seven. After a two-year stay, she and her family moved back to Iran and lived in Ahvaz and Tehran. Two years later, they moved back to Whittier, then to Newport Beach. Firoozeh then attended UC Berkeley where she met and married a Frenchman.
Dumas grew up listening to her father, a former Fulbright Scholar, recount the many colorful stories of his life. In 2001, with no prior writing experience, Dumas decided to write her stories as a gift for her two children. Random House published these stories in 2003.
Funny in Farsi was on the SF Chronicle and LA Times bestseller lists and was a finalist for the PEN/USA award in 2004 and a finalist in 2005 for an Audie Award for best audio book (she lost to Bob Dylan). She is currently a finalist for the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor. She is the first Middle Eastern woman ever to receive this honor.
Critics and readers of all ages have loved her stories. Jimmy Carter called Funny in Farsi, "A humorous and introspective chronicle of a life filled with love of family, country and heritage."
ZOOM IN: Learn more with related books and additional materials.
For related Britannica content, please search on Britannica's Web site, at www.britannica.com.