The team that is the backbone of the farm
We are committed to serve the communities and goats
Daud Eftin
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Born in a small village in Somalia and raised in a deserted refugee camp in Kenya, Daud spent his childhood herding goats while attending primary education school. Daud has faced many uncertainties in life. Lessons learned from those uncertainties in the refugee camp and those learned from integrating and adapting to a new life in the United States all shaped the culture and practices he puts forth as the Director of Operations at the Utah Refugee Goats Farm.
Daud graduated from a local Utah high school, went on to study criminal justice at Eagle Gate College, and graduated with Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice in 2012. Daud furthered his studies with a master’s degree at Southern New Hampshire in legal studies in 2014, then a second graduate degree at Southern Utah University in Public Administration.
As the Director of Operations, Daud oversees all operations at the farm with a primary focus on the Poultry Island, where URG produces poultry for both meat and eggs year-round. In his role Daud is in charge of facilities maintenance and the acquisition of supplies for all poultry and goat needs at the farm.
Daud is a lifelong farmer reared by parents who themselves were both agricultural and livestock farmers for over decades in East Africa. Daud works on founding and directing projects with a long-term goal of self-sustainability.
Lexie Hanks
VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
Lexie Hanks was born & raised in SLC, UT and graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in elementary education. She taught as a co-teacher at a Montessori school in Arizona. Lexie first began volunteering with refugee communities in 2014 for Carry the Future, a non-profit organization geared at providing critical aid to refugee families.
She returned to Utah in 2020 and began mentoring refugee families and providing childcare for sewing & English classes at the refugee center.
Lexie first became involved at Utah Refugee Goats as a feeding volunteer in 2021, later filled the role as volunteer coordinator & joined the board in 2022. Her favorite part about the farm is working alongside remarkable people & contributing to the mission of goat husbandry being accessible to refugees in Utah. She appreciates the peaceful feeling the farm holds.
Lexie teaches beginner Spanish to companies hoping to bridge language barriers in the workforce, fosters cats & kittens through Best Friends Animal Society, is a classically trained violinist, mother of four, film photographer & gardener. She enjoys reading, camping & yoga in her spare time.
Halima
BOARD MEMBER
Hi. My name is Halima. I am Somali Bajuni and joined the URG board to revive our culture.
I lived in two different refugee camps in Kenya for 17 years. There we did not get a chance to work in the farm, in our childhood. From 1992 to 2010 in camps, then came to New York, after 5years got married, moved to Utah now am mother of four boys.
Joined the URG to revive our culture as well to connect my community to this culture.
Jeilani Athman
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Jeilani Athman’s family was forced to flee from Somalia by the civil war and sought refuge in Kenya long before the arrival of large number of refugees from Somalia. Because his dad had been trained as a ship captain back in Somalia, he landed a job in one of the cities of the coastal region of Kenya and was charged with the responsibility of taking care of some fishing boats. In a new country things were tough but still, he and his siblings got an opportunity of getting formal education.
Jeilani came to Utah in 2013 on a spouse Visa. His first job was in a warehouse where he worked for a year while he got acquainted with the new system and environment. He received a masters degree in Educational Leadership and Policy and currently works at the University of Utah as a Student Success coach and as an Education Manager with One Refugee.
Jeilani’s involvement with the Goat farm started in 2014 when he was selected as one of the representatives for Somali Bajuni community. Jeilani is a husband of a proud refugee social worker, and a father of two daughters and two sons all below the age of 10 years. If he is not at work, he is spending time with family or engaging and supporting refugee communities, and the Utahns at large.
Abdikadir Hussein
PRESIDENT
Abdikadir was born in Somalia in 1983. His parents were farmers; they grew crops and had 13 goats and 5 chickens. Abdikadir’s love for goats began when he was 8 years old, when he started giving grain to the goats when they were brought back from grazing. He remembers that the goats were loud before giving them grain but keep quiet when they get grain. Because of Somalia’s civil war they had to flee Somalia to a Kenyan Refugee Camp in 1992. He grew up in the refugee camps until his family was relocated to the United States in 2004.
Abdikadir earned a diploma in IT Specialist at Everest College in 2010 and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Communications Technology in 2016 at ITT Technical Institute. He served as board member of the Somali Bantu Association of Utah from 2009 to 2019 and as an interim president in 2019. Abdikadir’s first exposure to the goats was serving as a board member for the East African Goat Project (which later became URG) in 2012. He currently serves as the URG President.
Prior to his involvement with URG, Abdikadir’s hobby was fishing. Now he spends most of his free time at the goat farm.
Lew Miller
DIRECTOR
Lew grew up in St. Louis, MO, and earned his undergraduate degree in Biology Education at the University of Missouri in 1984. Lew then attended law school at the University of Utah, earning his JD in 1988 and started his legal career working for O’Melveny & Myers, an international law firm, in their Newport Beach, CA office. Eventually, Lew returned to Utah, from where he worked for a brief stint as an attorney in Saudi Arabia and later created a wrap restaurant concept from the ground up, building and operating two locations.
After selling out his interest in the restaurant business, Lew returned to the practice of law as an in-house attorney in the real estate department of American Stores until its acquisition by Albertsons in 1999. Following the acquisition, Lew and his close friend from law school started their own law firm, primarily representing Albertsons and other large retailers in the development of stores located in California and other western states. After the death of his law partner from pancreatic cancer in 2009, Lew shifted his practice from representing tenants to representing developers of shopping centers and has continued that practice to the present.
Lew first became involved with refugees in 2004, with his family volunteering as mentors for Somali Bantu refugee families. In 2009, Lew co-founded Utah Refugee Coalition, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with Missy Larsen and has remained on the board of URC as it has evolved into Utah Refugee Connection. Along the way, Lew became involved with the efforts of The International Rescue Committee (IRC) to establish a goat farm for refugees starting in 2011 and remained engaged as a volunteer during the establishment of the goat farm and its operations. In 2021, Lew was approached to help a group of refugees establish a nonprofit, Utah Refugee Goats (URG) to take over management and control of the farm to help reach the original goal of the farm being owned and operated by refugees, for refugees. Lew served as the first president of URG for two years and was proud to pass the baton of leadership to Abdikadir Hussein at the end of 2022. Lew remains on the board of URG, providing advice and support to URG’s refugee leadership.
Josh
SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR
Josh has had the privilege of working with refugee communities to help build Utah Refugee Goats since 2013 when it had 45 breeding does. Through his work at the International Rescue Committee, he has seen the great strength, skills and diverse perspectives that refugees bring to benefit our community.
Joy Prince
PROGRAMS COORDINATOR
Joy grew up in a rural area of Northeastern Colorado. She started her secondary education at BYU-Hawaii in 1995 as a Biology Major, spent a year and a half at the University of Colorado, served and LDS mission in the Utah Ogden Mission, and ultimately received a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Utah in Communication/Public Relations in 2004. Much of Joy’s youth was spent in sports and extracurricular activities like 4-H. She’s always had a love for animals and showed dogs and horses at the fair. She also participated in barrel racing and pole bending. Her family was known as gentleman farmers with a little acreage, but she enjoyed the farming lifestyle of her community. After closing shop being self-employed in 2013, Joy had more time on her hands. Never to slow down
for too long, she looked for places to serve. She found the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and they were mutually a good match. She volunteered as a front desk receptionist for several years and assisted on several other events, such as their annual gala, Light One Candle events, bike deliveries, and the Warm Winter Clothing Drives. In 2020, when offices closed down around the world, the IRC asked her if she would be interested in feeding at the goat farm. She jumped at the chance to be outside and be with animals. She also stayed involved with the IRC working with the Housing/Logistics Team that prepared homes for incoming refugees. She did these two simultaneously for a few years and eventually the farm won out. When the farm changed hands from the IRC to fully refugee run, Joy “just came with the farm.” She attends the auction, feeds the animals, fixes the trucks (with extensive help from her dad), talks to goats and generally has a better life because of her association with the people and animals at the Utah Refugee Goat farm. She holds the farm and the people she’s met there in high regard as it’s brought more happiness and goodness to her life than she ever imagined. She is a wife to Dan, a mom of two adult sons and a spoiled German Shepherd. When she isn’t thinking about, or talking about goats, she enjoys traveling,
boating, church, beautiful shoes and fast cars.
URG is a non profit organization EIN 86-2542522
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Contact Us
Mon-Fri: 9AM-dusk
Sat & Sun: by appointment only.
Visiting the farm is by appointment only on all hours.
6664 West 1400 North Salt Lake City, UT 84116
801-613-7647
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