The BCNH Staff
Richard Minard, executive director & board secretary
Rick has lived in New England most of his life. He has served as BCNH’s executive director since December 2018. He has 45 years of experience managing nonprofit organizations and working in public policy. Rick started his career as a reporter in Keene, NH, and worked on the staff of U.S. Senator John Durkin and Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin. He was associate director of the Center for the Environment and the Economy at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, DC, and co-director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies. He has served as executive director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, vice president for policy at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, and deputy director of the NH Office of Energy and Planning. He lives with his wife, Susanna Iritani Minard, in Bow.
Vijay Bhujel, Deputy Director
Vijay Bhujel became the deputy director of Building Community in New Hampshire on May 16, 2023.
Bhujel is originally from Bhutan. He spent 22 years in Jhapa Refugee Camp, Nepal, awaiting resettlement before coming to the United States in 2012. He was trained in Nepal and India as a math and physics teacher. Upon arrival in New Hampshire, he worked at Wal-Mart and as a substitute teacher in the Concord School District. He also joined the board of directors of BCNH, when it was still known as the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire, and served two terms from 2012 through 2016. He joined the staff at Ascentria Care Alliance, a refugee resettlement agency in Concord, in 2013, and has served there as a community health worker, case manager, and team manager.
Bhujel earned a Bachelor in Science in Physics from University of North Bengal in India. He speaks English, Nepali, Hindi, and Dzongkha.
Bhujel lives in Concord with his wife and two adult children.
Eric Irakiza, case manager
Eric joined the BCNH staff in 2020 as a case manager working with the Congolese community and other African refugees in Manchester and Nashua. His work at BCNH has included outreach for the Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester. Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eric came to New Hampshire as a refugee in 2014. While a refugee in Rwanda, he earned an associates degree in computer science. He learned English as a student in the criminal justice program at NHTI. Eric speaks Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, and French. He lives in Manchester with his wife and three young children.
Hussain Amiri, case Manager
Hussain Amiri joined the staff at the end of December 2021 to assist with the rapid resettlement of Afghan evacuees in New Hampshire. Hussain is originally from Afghanistan. He lived with his mother and three brothers in a refugee camp in Pakistan before arriving in Concord in March 2016 as a refugee. He graduated from Concord High School in 2019 and has been enrolled at Plymouth State University where he has been studying computer science and business. He will continue his education while working full time at BCNH.
Hussain speaks Dari, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu, and English. He can read and write in Pashto and Arabic as well.
Liliya Mayevsky, Case Manager
Liliya Mayevsky joined the BCNH case-management team on June 5, 2023, to deliver a wide range of services to her fellow Ukrainians. She came to Manchester in 1996 as a refugee from Ukraine with her parents, two siblings, and two grandmothers. Liliya married another refugee from Ukraine and they have raised three children in Derry.
She graduated from Notre Dame College in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management.
Liliya was a case manager at the International Institute of New England (Manchester) from 2005 through 2008, helping resettle refugees from many nations. She went on to serve as a legal, medical, and business translator and interpreter and has worked at Fidelity Investments as a 401k specialist. Liliya is returning to case management “because it is my passion,” she said.
Liliya speaks Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, and English.
Arlette Muyuka, Case Manager
Arlette joined the BCNH staff in November 2023 to serve the Lingala-speaking members of the state’s Congolese Community and others.
Arlette came to Manchester as an asylee from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001. She graduated from Manchester Central High School in 2005 and attended Liberty University in Lynchburg VA, where she studied health sciences. Arlette has worked as a medical assembler and as a home health aide. She lives in Haverhill, Massachusetts, with her husband and four children. Arlette speaks Lingala, French, and English.
Kateryna Nazarova, case Manager
Kate is one of the hundreds of Ukrainians who sought safety in New Hampshire in 2022. She has lived in Exeter since August and immediately began using her strong English skills and business experience to help other Ukrainians get established here. She joined the BCNH staff on January 3, 2023.
Kate delivers a wide range of services to many of the 700+ Ukrainians in New Hampshire. She started at BCNH with a focus on supporting families enrolling their children in schools. That part-time assignment became full-time work on May 31, 2023, when the State of New Hampshire contracted with BCNH to provide comprehensive resettlement services to Ukrainians.
Kate is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, and English.
Kenly Jacques, Case Manager
Kenly Jacques (pronounced like Jack’s) joined the BCNH staff as a case manager in February 2024. A native of Haiti, he came to Manchester as a “humanitarian parolee” the previous November.
Jacques was just completing high school in 2010 when the Western Hemisphere’s deadliest earthquake hit Haiti. Instead of going on to college, he worked two years as an interpreter for the Canadian Red Cross in Haiti, then two more years as a stock supervisor for Oxfam, a British organization supplying food aid throughout the country. After three years as a tour guide and chauffeur for Auberge du Quebec outside Port-au-Prince, he started working as a customer service manager for a firm selling hair-care products.
Jacques serves New Hampshire’s growing Haitian community as well as Spanish speakers from Cuba, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
In addition to speaking Haitian Creole, Jacques speaks French, Spanish, and excellent English.
Ghana Sharma, Case Manager
Ghana Sharma has been a part of the BCNH community since its founding. Originally from Bhutan, Ghana has held a variety of staff positions at BCNH and has served on our board of directors. Employed by the Concord School District, Ghana works on a part-time basis as a BCNH case manager supporting a small number of Bhutanese households in Concord. Ghana also serves on the board of directors of Overcomers Refugee Services in Concord.
Kathy Higgins-Consoli, ESOL Instructor
Kathy Higgins-Consoli has been teaching English to Speakers of Other Languges for more than 16 years in Manchester’s English for New Americans program at Southern New Hampshire Services. She joined the BCNH staff in October 2022 to restart our on-site English program with a group of adults just starting to learn the language. Kathy graudated summa cum laude from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont, with a degree in Spanish. She lives in Manchester.