Tom Villalón is the co-founder of Rescue Afghan Women Now (RAWN), a group that rescues extremely high-risk Afghan women and children from Taliban capture/execution. Tom’s team liaises with individuals from the United States special forces, veteran, and intelligence communities, and they have coordinated operations that have successfully rescued more than 23 high-risk individuals to date (including individuals personally targeted by Taliban intelligence). His group is keeping alive 100+ high risk Afghan female soldiers and their dependents, all of whom are on Taliban kill lists, and who are in deep hiding throughout the country.
Tom began his career as an international arbitration lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP in New York City, and Bae, Kim & Lee in Seoul, South Korea. While he was working in New York in early 2021, a colleague asked him to represent an Afghan combat interpreter who was seeking a special visa. For several months, the task involved routine paperwork; however, as the U.S. forces pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, everything changed. At once, thousands of Afghan citizens who had worked with the U.S. were unable to escape. While his law firm and others donated their time to help some on a pro bono basis, Tom wanted to do more. He left his position at the firm to establish RAWN and continue his work with the group on a full time basis.
Tom came to Tower Hill in second grade, after spending several years in Chile, where his father was raised. He went on to receive his B.A. with High Honors from Dartmouth College in 2006, and J.D. cum laude from the University of Hawaii (2013) where he was also one of two U.S. scholars awarded the Graduate Degree Fellowship from the East-West Center (2013). He speaks Chinese, Spanish, Korean and English, and is conversational in Arabic, German and Farsi. Tom's brothers, Nick Villalón ’00 and Dan Villalón ’99 also graduated from Tower Hill.
The Forum was established in 1998 by the Rappolt family in honor of their children Gabrielle ‘93, Sarah ‘96 and Bill ‘99, and in recognition of the dedication, scholarship and professionalism of the Tower Hill faculty. The Tower Hill community thanks the Rappolts for the legacy of remarkable speakers over two decades.
Негізгі бет Tower Hill School Forum - Thomas Villalón '02 on 10.16.23
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