Board of Directors

Marc Russell, Chair

Marc came to the CIC board in 2018, seeking to apply his career in corporate and non-profit finance in a volunteer role for an organization that directly serves its community.

He served for two years as Treasurer, helping CIC and SIEAM navigate significant transitions, before being elected Board Chair. Having benefited personally from Traditional Chinese Medicine as taught at SIEAM, and seeing the potential for CIC's clinic model to provide effective, low-cost health care to under-served communities and unmatched instruction to SIEAM's students, Marc believes firmly in the mission of the organization. Outside of his professional and volunteer activities, Marc is a lover of the outdoors, and can be found out and about with his family biking, hiking, backpacking, or camping.

Omar Hassan, Treasurer

Omar is the Chief Software Architect at Dignitas Technologies, LLC, where he develops systems used by the military for simulation, training, testing, and analysis.  He currently serves as the software architect on two cyberspace-related research efforts: the Cyber Battlespace Operations Simulation Service (CyberBOSS) and the Intelligent Cyber Actors Tool Suite (ICATS), both of which provide cyberspace operations training to Army warfighters.  He is also currently supporting software development activities for the National Cyber Range (NCR).

Omar has 20 years of experience in software development, focusing on the modeling and simulation (M&S) areas of simulator interoperability, distributed simulation, and simulation architecture and infrastructure.  He has extensive experience in object-oriented software analysis and design, open source technologies and methodologies, and collaborative software development.  Omar holds a B.S. and M.S. in engineering from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in engineering from Rutgers University.

Previously, Omar served as the Chair of the Community Advisory Board for WMFE-FM, the National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Orlando, FL.  There, he focused on improving community interaction with the radio station as well as promoting diversity of station offerings to the area.  Originally from New Jersey, Omar has lived in Orlando for 20 years and enjoys the Florida weather with his husband, Steve, and their two dogs, Rocco and Gino.

Steve Farrell, Secretary

Steve is a New York transplant who came to Seattle to work in the creative and technology industries. He is a design and marketing leader with a background in writing and a passion for emerging technologies and trends. He has also been involved in Chinese martial arts for over 25 years, studying and teaching Xing Yi Quan and Ba Gua Zhang and has been fortunate to have been part of several research trips to China to study Shanxi Xing Yi.

Charlie Cunniff

Charlie has a BA from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. From 1992-2005, he was the ED of a non-profit organization called ECOSS, the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle. While at ECOSS, he attended graduate school at Seattle University and received a Masters Degree in Non-Profit leadership.

After ECOSS, Charlie has worked in city government and in other non-profit organizations.

Since 2016 he has been retired from the workaday world, spending his time as a property manager, home remodeler, gardener, traveler, non-profit consultant and Board Member.

Amanda Anuraga

Amanda is an EAMP and a SIEAM alumni class of 2018, practicing in Tacoma, WA. She founded Tacoma East Asian Medicine in 2019 and the Connect Community Clinic in 2020. In 2022 she was awarded one of South Sound Magazine's 40 under 40 as a recognized change-maker in her community. She has been participating on the board in some capacity since 2015 and is passionate about increasing accessibility of alternative health modalities to folks that are under-resourced. The Connect Community Clinic currently offers weekly, donation-based services such as acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, reflexology, physical therapy, pelvic health physical therapy, and personal training. 100% of proceeds from the services support local organizations and individuals in need of mutual aid. 

Vicky White

Hi I’m Vicky White, born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. I moved to Seattle after I started working at Boeing. I’ve been a life-long volunteer and have continued volunteering after I retired from Boeing.

Traveling is my happy space and I became a travel agent because of my love of travel. I like trying new foods from various countries, visiting world heritage sites, and trying new things like a hot air balloon ride in Turkey or Zip-lining in Jamaica, and visiting places in West Africa, like Ghana to learn about the colonial forced slave trade to the Americas.

I became a reflexologist because I was in search of relief for my inflamed ankle. In my search for answers, I started taking reflexology classes in Seattle and 2 years later I had completed the program and was licensed by the State of Washington in 2006. 

Recently, I started gardening during the COVID lock-down and now I’m a garden addict.