The Women’s Mosque of America is proud to provide a platform for brilliant Muslim women to speak in a religious capacity for the benefit of the entire Muslim Ummah. Each of our khateebahs brings her own unique first-hand perspective and insights to topics that have either previously gone unaddressed in mosques or that have rarely been spoken about from the female perspective.

To watch video recordings of our khutbahs, please visit our YouTube page. To listen to all our past khutbah audio recordings, please visit our SoundCloud page, or subscribe to our Women’s Mosque of America podcast on iTunes. 

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Please scroll down to read about all the amazing women imams who have spoken upon our minbar.

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Ashley Wolford bridges the gap between both the Muslim community and the Native American community, informed by her lived first-hand experiences as a Native American-White convert to Islam.

Her recent years have been spent teaching non-Natives through workshops on the history of Indigenous people and building a relationship with the First Nations garden and Chicago’s immigrant population through cultural curation. Ashley holds both her newfound faith as a Muslim and her cultural heritage as a Choctaw to gain a spiritual practice.

Over the pandemic, she organized a night market for Muslim women-owned businesses, and she continues to mobilize in the city of Chicago. Ashley utilizes deep community relationships to organize events to fundraise for our Palestinian relatives as well as workshops on Indigenous People’s Day.

Obtaining a connection to Ashley’s Native heritage wouldn’t be possible without those who have embraced her at the First Nations Garden in Chicago.

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Sabeen Shaiq is a licensed clinical social worker who has been diligently working in her field since 2005. She has worked for several nonprofits serving foster youth, domestic violence survivors, and refugees resettling in the US. She also worked internationally as a humanitarian worker before starting her own private practice.

When she first started out in her field, there were very few other American Muslim therapists in her region, so she founded the Bay Area Muslim Therapists collaborative to foster better community care and increase the Ummah’s access to culturally sensitive mental health resources. The website, along with its inspired sister site SoCal Muslim Therapists, curates a list of 150+ Muslim therapists from diverse backgrounds with a range of specialties, many of whom work with patients remotely. In addition to this landmark achievement, Sabeen has initiated many foundational supports for up and coming mental health professionals in her region. Sabeen incorporates an empathetic understanding of oppression and intergenerational trauma into the way she works with her patients, and she is passionate about issues surrounding belonging, healing attachment trauma, and empowering oneself after trauma.

Sabeen specializes in working with those most impacted by oppression in the US, including folks who are fighting for social justice change. In 2018, she embarked on a personal and professional journey to start one of the only fully remote international virtual private practices while traveling the world. She has traveled to 47 countries, mostly solo. Her biggest joys are her nibblings (nieces & nephews), siblings, and travel. Her lifelong dream recently came to fruition when she became a first time mom in her 40’s, mashAllah.

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Dr. Khadijah Lang, a native of Los Angeles, is the Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer of Lang Family Practice, serving the healthcare needs of south-central Los Angeles and surrounding Southern California communities since 1989, in the full scope Family Medicine with Obstetrics practice she established to encompass cultural competency and respect in health care. She received her BS degree in Chemistry at Fisk University, an MD from Charles R Drew/UCLA School of Medicine and completed residency in UCLA’s Department of Family Medicine, where she concluded her medical training with a fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine. While there she changed her research focus from chemistry to issues of the social impact of healthcare and societal problems, as a part of her studies in the UCLA School of Public Health towards an MPH. As an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine for Ross University School of Medicine, she trained medical students to be the doctors of tomorrow, and has been Principal Investigator in a national, multi-site research study on uterine fibroids.

Now the National Medical Association’s (NMA) Region VI Chair and on their Board of Trustees, Dr. Lang is also an active member of the NMA’s House of Delegates, chairs their Council on International Affairs, and has served in their Council on Concerns of Women Physicians. She is also a member of the NMA COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force. Regionally, she is President of California’s Golden State Medical Association and has been a member of the African American Advisory Committee to Covered California Healthcare Exchange.

Locally, she is a Past President and current Board Member of Charles R. Drew Medical Society (CRDMS), the oldest Black professional medical organization in Los Angeles, and was on the Charles R Drew University President’s Community Advisory Committee. Recognized by her colleagues and hospital administrators for her clinical knowledge and administrative skills, Dr. Lang was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center in 2010-2012. In addition, she stays true to her passion for education, sharing her medical knowledge with colleagues and civic organizations by planning CME and community health programs, through national and international lecturing, and publications in medical journals.

Dr. Lang is Chair of the Global Impact Committee for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.’s Alpha Gamma Omega chapter and has served as their Health Committee Chair, as well as Vice-President, President-Elect, and Scholarship Dinner Chair of the Association of Black Women Physicians, raising thousands of dollars for Black women medical students. The many awards and accolades she’s received include the California Senator Kamlager’s 2021 Sister Circle, NMA 2020 Meritorious Service Award, NMA 2018 Practitioner of the Year, National Coalition of 100 Black Women’s 2015 Who’s Who “Women of Commitment and Achievement Award” in Health and Wellness, and the 2010 Black Women for Wellness’ Leadership Award for service in the field of Women’s Health Care. She is grateful for the constant support and love she receives from her husband of over 35 years, their three daughters, her nonagenarian mother, and sisters by birth, faith, and/or spirit.

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Nadia Shaiq currently serves as CEO of ISANA, a non-profit organization that runs six Transitional Kindergarten-8th grade schools in Los Angeles. As CEO, she advocates for transformative education in traditionally underserved areas, focusing on empowering students to reach academic and social-emotional success by valuing and making space for their backgrounds, cultures, and languages as assets to learning.

She has previously been a Chief Academic Officer, Principal, Teacher, and Teacher/Principal Coach. She earned her Bachelors of Arts in Human Development with a Minor in Cognitive Science, and a Masters in Education from the University of California, San Diego, where she was raised. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Fawad and three kids, Sakina (age 10), Bilal (age 7), and Haroon (age 1), who are the lights of her life. She and her husband are also foster parents and are heavily involved in their community. 

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Maria Khani is a Syrian American who was born in England and lived in France, India, Syria and Holland. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in French Literature from the Damascus University in Syria.

Khani has been a board member at Access California Services since 1998, a nonprofit family resources center in Anaheim, serving Muslims, Arabs and various other ethnic groups.

Maria taught at the Islamic Institute of Orange County for 20 years and served as the chair of the women committee.

Interfaith has always been a key component in Khani’s life. She is a board member of the Orange County Interfaith Network, OCIN–the umbrella of thirteen interfaith councils in Orange County. Maria is also an active member in three interfaith cities’ councils.

In 2008 she joined the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department as a chaplain, and in 2015 Maria serves as the Senior Muslim Chaplain. In 2014, Khani became the Muslim chaplain for the Orange County Sheriff’s jail.

In 2012, Khani and her daughter together founded “A Country Called Syria”, an exhibit dedicated to educating the American public on Syria’s rich history and culture, as well as its valuable contributions to the world. The exhibition has toured across Southern California and in 2016 A Country Called Syria became a (501) (c3) non-profit organization.

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Nurjahan Boulden grew up with dreams of sharing belly dance with the world. When she was shot in the leg in a random attack at age 21, she thought those dreams were destroyed. She suffered in silence physically and emotionally for almost a decade before she met another survivor who inspired her to share her story. She’s now a belly dance teacher, community builder, and storyteller, inviting people around the world to release shame and celebrate their bodies, no matter what they’ve survived.

 

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Aliya Hussaini Yousufi is a life-long social justice advocate. Aliya’s first ever paid job at 16 was getting students to register to vote at her community college in Orange County. Her desire to empower communities and create positive change led her to UCLA for her BA in Political Science and History and then to USC law school. She is an accomplished debater and public speaker, winning multiple awards with her college’s forensics team.

Aliya is an attorney and currently works as the Senior Policy Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greater LA chapter. She works with lawmakers, government officials, and community-based organizations to bring forth policies that serve the needs of the diverse Muslim communities in the LA area and marginalized groups at large.

Aliya also serves as the Outreach Director for the Islamic Center of Yorba Linda where she engages the interfaith community through events like Open Mosque Day, an Annual Interfaith Iftar and community service events throughout the year.

Aliya is a wife and mother to two beautiful girls, ages 9 and 5, and because of them is also a Girl Scout and soccer mom.

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Daisy Khan is an award-winning speaker, author, activist, commentator, and the founder of Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), the largest global network of Muslim women committed to peacebuilding, gender equality, and human dignity.

Formerly, Khan served as Executive Director of American Society for Muslim Advancement for eighteen years, where she was hailed as a bridge builder for promoting cultural and religious harmony through groundbreaking intra faith programs like Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow and inter-faith arts programs like Same Difference, Cordoba Bread Fest. In her grassroots efforts to combat anti-Muslim bias she created the “Today, I am a Muslim Too” Rally with 100 Interfaith organizations. When Khan saw an unprecedented rise in violent extremism causing intense scrutiny and distrust of Muslims, she published WISE Up, Knowledge Ends Extremism in collaboration with 72 authors to develop narratives of peace by creating a counter-momentum to the rise in hateful rhetoric.

Khan believes that women’s leadership is essential to solving societal issues and that we need to remove structural barriers to Muslim women’s leadership, to enable them to use their resolve, passion and humility to bring societies into greatness. She founded the first global Muslim women’s Shura (advisory) Council to amplify Muslim women’s scholarship. 

Khan lectures in the US and internationally on numerous topics; Muslim women, Islam in America, Islamophobia, and extremism. Her audiences are varied: prestigious think tanks like CFR, universities, congregations and women’s and youth groups. Recognized as a global think tank thought leader, Khan has been featured in powerful periodicals such as Time Magazine Guardian, Newsweek, and The New York Times and appears regularly on TV outlets like CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC. As advisor, she has appeared in documentaries like PBS’s Three Faiths, One God, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, and National Geographic’s Inside Mecca.

Her memoir, Born with Wings (2018) depicts her spiritual journey as a modern Muslim woman and her circuitous path to leadership. She is a recipient of two dozen awards and honors including the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, Edinburgh Peace Award, Interfaith Center’s Award for Promoting Peace. Women’s E-News named her “21 Women of the 21st Century” and listed among Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, she was ranked among the “Top Ten Women Faith leaders” by The Huffington Post.

Born in Kashmir, Daisy spent twenty-five years as an interior architect for various Fortune 500 companies. In 2005, she dedicated herself to full-time community service and building movements for positive change, both in the United States and around the globe.

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Chaplain Asma Inge-Hanif is a mother, social justice warrior, and community health activist. She is a graduate of Howard University as a Registered Nurse and of the Medical University of South Carolina as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife. Using her background, Chaplain Asma established a Health and Social Services Center to care for underserved and uninsured women and children; originally motivated in response to her maternal grandmother who was a domestic worker for a physician, and who died from a preventable condition because she lacked healthcare.

In 2005, Chaplain Asma Inge-Hanif was elected as the first female Chairperson of the Council of Muslim Organizations, (CMO) of DC/MD/VA, and in 2012, she became the first female graduate of Hartford Seminary’s Imam Certification program. Through scholarships, in 2014, she also graduated from Hartford International University Seminary with a Master’s Degree in Muslim-Christian Relations. In 2017, after completing two years of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, she obtained her Chaplaincy certification and has completed two years toward her doctorate degree.

Involved in humanitarian service for over 45 years, through her health center practice, Chaplain Asma has discovered and uncovered a large number of women experiencing homelessness, violence, and myriad other issues in their lives. Her health and social services center became a safe place for those in need.

Witnessing the stigmas associated with violence and rape, in 2007, she opened her home to shelter homeless Muslim women who were victims of Domestic Violence, not as a discriminatory effort, but to fulfill an unmet need to assist them as they struggled to achieve their self-esteem, their self-worth and their self-sufficiency. She and the late Dr. Maryam Funches co-founded the Muslimat al-Nisaa Shelter in Baltimore, Maryland.

In order to further facilitate their emotional, spiritual and mental well-being, Chaplain Asma established a Refugee & Domestic Violence Ministry to provide counseling and spiritual revitalization to ALL those who cross her path seeking faith-based revitalization and a safe haven from the traumas imposed on them by society. Her holistic services have become a safe and empowering space for those in need.

Chaplain Asma received Disaster Chaplain training as well as certification in Disaster Relief/Preparedness through FEMA and as an honored member of their listserv, she is contacted for deployment to assist in disaster areas. Chaplain Hanif responds to requests from not just organizations but also individuals who personally contact her by those that are displaced by homelessness, domestic violence, war, and natural disasters.

At the Invitation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Nursing and Midwifery Council, Chaplain Asma Inge-Hanif was chosen by the American College of Nurse-Midwives to serve as a delegate to visit the UAE for a high level, in-depth international exchange with the goal to foster one-on-one dialogue with our UAE Midwife counterparts.

Chaplain Asma currently receives no government money for her work, and she is grateful to be financially sponsored solely by the kindness of a few Muslim donors.

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Saadia Kibriya has always been design oriented, ever since she was a little kid. Starting with a natural disposition for the arts and designs, and inspired by asymmetry and the beauty of the unknown, Saadia’s life serendipitously weaved itself into the colorful carpet that laid the groundwork for founding Kismet Events, a premier luxury event and floral design studio that provides full design services, including artisanal floral arrangements, signature stage designs, custom fabrications, production build outs, graphic design assistance, and more. Designing her sister’s wedding was the catalyst in getting Saadia into event design, but it is her deep passion for beauty that continues to fuel what she does to this day.

Saadia prides herself on carefully observing every client she meets with so that she can intuitively pick up on their personalities and idiosyncrasies and reflect these individual qualities authentically into the aesthetic of each of her events. Because of this carefully crafted technique, no two events she designs are ever the same, and she is able to continuously raise the bar for each event she creates. Saadia most enjoys brainstorming ideas with her clients because it leads to a literal physical manifestation of their dreams. This, she believes, is her job and duty — to make people’s dreams come to life.

As a second-generation Pakistani-American, Saadia admires and respects her cultural heritage, and she fuses it together with the modern and contemporary aesthetic that is true to her taste as an American. Her resulting design palette is very bold, and she likes to make a statement with every element that goes into each of her events. She also enjoys creating subtle designs whenever the occasion calls for a softer aesthetic.

Saadia chose to name her company Kismet Events because Kismet means Destiny. Like the story of The Alchemist, Saadia believes the Creator of the Universe conspired with her to get her into the event industry and produce beautifully executed events that often reflect the love of a couple. Since it is destiny that brings each couple together, and it is destiny that brings each couple in front of Saadia, she knows she didn’t choose Kismet — Kismet chose her.

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Chaplain Dr. Wynona Majied-Muhammad has been passionate about service, attaining knowledge, and sharing Islamic religion, Islamic thought, and Islamic values since she was a young college student. This passion has taken her to a wide range of academic and professional environments. Her spiritual journey began with the Nation of Islam, and involved conversion to a mainstream Islamic practice through the community of Imam Warith Deen Muhammad. 

Dr. Wynona earned her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, with her A.A. and B.A. degrees in Journalism from Pasadena City College and California State University, Northridge, respectively. She taught Journalism, Communications, World Religions, and Islam as an adjunct instructor at the community college and university levels in California and Nevada.

Dr. Wynona went on to work as a newspaper professional for more than 30 years. She was trained at the Pasadena Star-News and the Los Angeles Times, and she worked for various other newspaper outlets, including the L.A. Daily News. She later became an Editorial section editor and writer at the Reno Gazette-Journal in Reno, Nevada.

As newspapers continued their transformation to digital platforms, Dr. Wynona found herself transitioning to work in public service, and she became a staffer for a Nevada State Senator and a U.S. Senator. She became a program developer, manager, and grant writer for a statewide health care program in Nevada. After returning to California, she spent time as a board member of a local Muslim charter school – the Center for Advanced Learning at Masjid Bilal Islamic Center – as well as becoming the school’s Interim Executive Director.  

Dr. Majied-Muhammad also served on the Board of Directors at Masjid Al-Taqwa in Altadena, California. She is now on the Leadership Team of The Hajjah Project, a group of local women who aid and support women in their intention to perform Hajj.

Dr. Wynona started her journey into chaplaincy work as a volunteer on the chaplain’s staff at the California Institution for women. She worked as secretary on the Board of the Muslim American Chaplain’s Association and the Muslim American Endorsement Agency, and currently, the Associated Chaplains in California State Service – the statewide professional organization. She has now been chaplain at California Institution for Women for several years. 

Dr. Wynona is a proud mother of a daughter, three sons, and three granddaughters…two of whom are twins.

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Dr. Sophia Pandya is currently a full professor and department chair at California State University at Long Beach, in the Department of Religious Studies. She received her BA from UC Berkeley in Near Eastern Studies/Arabic, and her MA and PhD from UC Santa Barbara in Religious Studies.

A Fulbright scholar, she specializes in women and Islam, and more broadly in contemporary movements within Islam. Dr. Pandya has authored a book (2012), Muslim Women and Islamic Resurgence: Religion, Education, and Identity Politics in Bahrain, on Bahraini women and the ways in which globalization and modern education impacted their religious activities. Having carried out research in Turkey on several occasions, she is also the co-editor of a second published volume (2012), The Gülen Hizmet Movement and its Transnational Activities: Case Studies on Charitable Activism.

Dr. Pandya is now finishing a manuscript on the Hizmet movement, alterity, and the challenges of altruism. Her interests have also included religious change in Yemen among both the younger and older generations of women, and the ways in which they negotiate conflicting religious discourses. One of her publications, “Religious Change among Yemeni Women: The New Popularity of ‘Amr Khaled,” looks at younger, educated Yemeni women and their preference of an Egyptian televangelist over their mothers’ religious practices. Another, titled “Religious Flexibilities of Older Yemeni Women in Sana’a,” examines older women and their navigation of religious change. Dr. Pandya is frequently invited to speak at the local, national, and international level.

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Dr. Celene Ibrahim is the author of Women and Gender in the Qur’an from Oxford University Press (2020), Islam and Monotheism from Cambridge University Press (forthcoming 2022), and dozens of academic articles. She is the editor of One Nation, Indivisible: Seeking Liberty and Justice from the Pulpit to the Streets from Wipf & Stock Publishers (2019).

Dr. Ibrahim holds a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic Civilizations and a Master’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, a Masters of Divinity from Harvard University, and a Bachelor’s degree with the highest honors from Princeton University.

She offers lectures, workshops, and seminars around the world as a trusted voice on issues of religion and civic engagement, spiritual care and chaplaincy, Islamic intellectual history, and women’s studies.

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Dr. Sofia Ghani started her career as a clinical pharmacist managing patients’ drug therapy in a hospital setting. Being around very sick people on a laundry list of medications was an everyday norm for her. It never failed to surprise her how many medications one human could be on at the same time. In 2010, something shifted. It started with an idea of her doing a healthy weight challenge with a couple of friends. By the time her friends spread the word to their friends, 35 women joined this challenge! 12 weeks later, 35 lives were changed for the better, and this was the start of Sofia’s journey in health and wellness. Her passion was and still is helping women get healthier, stronger, and more confident in their bodies. Since then, Sofia has worked with hundreds of women individually and in group settings. She now practices as a Health & Wellness Coach, is a NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) personal trainer, and is on her way to becoming a certified Jay Shetty Life Coach. Sofia is passionate about helping women get healthy and strong at any age.

“The best part of my job is seeing women start believing in themselves, radiating confidence, loving themselves, and knowing that they CAN get healthy and lead a well-balanced life.” –Dr. Sofia Ghani

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Meymuna Hussein-Cattan is Afro-Indigenous to East Africa and was born in a refugee camp. Meymuna is an executive, entrepreneur, and world traveler. For the last decade, Meymuna has been the CEO of The Tiyya Foundation, an award-winning grassroots organization that supports families of immigrants, refugees, and displaced Americans. In her work, she has been helping to transform sentiments and narratives around refugees in Southern California. A creative visionary with a solutions-oriented mindset, Meymuna led the way on record-breaking initiatives including the creation of innovative programs and services that impact nearly 1,000 people a year. This includes increases in job creation, entrepreneurship opportunities, and recreational sports inclusion for children from low-income immigrant households.

Meymuna has also spearheaded fruitful partnerships with global organizations. Locally, she has been recognized by the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, was a PBS/ KTLA Local Hero nominee, and was selected Woman of the Year by Congressman Adam Schiff. Notably, she established Flavors from Afar, a social enterprise that employs former-refugee chefs in Orange County and Los Angeles. Today, the restaurant is located in Little Ethiopia on Fairfax in Los Angeles.

Meymuna was awarded Outstanding Nonprofit Founder on National Philanthropy Day 2021.

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Representative Madinah Wilson-Anton grew up in the Muslim community of Newark, Delaware, where she lives with her husband, mother, and sisters. She is an alumna of the University of Delaware and holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Asian Studies. She has formally studied Arabic, Chinese, French, and Spanish. While in college, Rep. Wilson-Anton was actively involved in several campus organizations where she held leadership positions, including the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Rep. Madinah worked for three years as a legislative staffer in the Delaware General Assembly where she did policy research, staffed committee meetings, communicated with residents, and helped them with a variety of issues. This experience gave her first-hand exposure to the issues and concerns of her fellow community members. 

As a state representative, Rep. Wilson-Anton is fighting for social, economic, and racial justice for all Delawareans.

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Dr. Abla Hasan is an Associate Professor of Practice of Arabic Language & Culture at Nebraska University. She earned her PhD in Philosophy of Language from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2013 and her MA in Philosophy as a Fulbright grantee from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2009. Dr. Hasan obtained her BA in Philosophy from Damascus University/Syria in 2000, followed by a Diploma of High Studies from Damascus University in 2001. She is a native speaker of Arabic. Dr. Abla teaches Arabic language and culture at UNL and she is the Program’s Coordinator. Her teaching and research focuses on Qur’anic Studies, Qur’anic Hermeneutics, Islamic feminism, and Arabic studies. She has published with Brill, Analize, Ar-Raniry, JIL, Disputatio, Al-Manarah, E-logos and other peer-reviewed international journals. She is the author of the recently published book Decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur’an: Retrieving Lost Voices on Gender (Lexington: 2019) and author of the forthcoming book On Pain and Suffering: a Qur’anic Perspective (Lexington: October, 2021).

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Hala Mohammad is a Pakistani-American who was born in Saudi Arabia and who has lived, worked, and studied in the U.S., Pakistan, France, Ireland, and the UAE. Growing up as a third culture kid, she is deeply empathetic to causes/spaces where multiple personal identities/perspectives intersect to challenge and evolve into a more vibrant and engaged community that colors the diverse social fabric of our society.

As a child, Hala keenly observed her mother & father’s creative streaks in reciting poetry, singing praise songs in the form of ‘qaseda,’ as well as going deep into Sufi meditation retreat after personal losses, and she was always inspired by their community engagement, love for poetry, and volunteering. When she was a newly minted “American Teenager,” she grappled with fortifying her Muslim identity in the aftermath of 9/11. This period led her to go deeper spiritually and see her religious identity beyond the daily ritual/monolith and put her on a path of interfaith and intra-community conflict resolution research and mediation training.

Hala Mohammad is a Social/Cognitive Psychologist in training, and the founder of Taskeen Community Initiative — an organization that empowers individuals/families through facilitation, mindfulness training, personality strength awareness, & mentoring to tackle challenges during different seasons of life transitions.

Hala did her bachelors in Sociology and Peace & Conflict Studies, and her M.Sc in Human Behavior from USC, with a social psychology research background and work experience in facilitating community wellness/holistic wellbeing programs, family-community mediations/peer counseling, university/k-12 teaching, and academic advising. Her award winning research looked at Muslim Women’s representation in the American media post 9/11 and how it follows a similar theme of exclusion and “othering” as other minoritized women in American history from African American/Native/Latina/Asian women experiences. Her current research focuses on self empowerment vis-a-vis intersectional solidarity of communities and individuals. Hala is passionate about social emotional learning and how it impacts mental health, personal healing, growth, and education

Before becoming a mother to two high-energy kids, Hala worked for Asian Pacific American Dispute resolution center as a community mediator, and managed district programs and taught at the Culver City Unified School District. She devotes her free time to volunteering with Asian American Advancing Justice, LAFLA, teaching at Islamic Sunday School, leading yoga classes, and sisters’ meditation circles. Her work has revolved around doing legal advocacy, community empowerment through soft skill training. She is also a certified Yoga/meditation facilitator and gives mindfulness/meditation workshops for burned-out moms/couples/families. She is a traditional Irish Music fan, and loves singing in a choir as an alto–and sometimes soprano while she can escape the spotlight.

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Ustadha Maryam Sharrieff is an educator, filmmaker, lecturer, linguist, researcher, and student of the development of Islam in America. Her recent research projects have examined the African-American Shi’i Muslim Community, Latino Converts to Islam in America, the Legacy of Female Scholarship in Islam, and Gender & its Linguistic Implications in the Qur’an and Torah. Ustadha Maryam’s research interests also include the Muslim Contribution to Sicilian Society, the Representation of Faith In (& On) Film, Homosexuality in Canonical Texts, American Muslim Women’s Leadership, Fundamentalism Across Faiths, and America’s Founding Fathers’ Interactions with the Muslim World.

Maryam has studied and has conducted research in Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Italy, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. Most recently, she presented on Muslim women’s leadership at the World Parliament of Religion’s conference in Sydney, Australia, Salt Lake City, and at the annual international Shaykafest. From 2012-2014, she was a Muslim fellow for Hebrew College’s and Andover Newton Theological School’s CIRCLE (Center for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education) program. Recently, she presented on Muslim Women’s Comic Book Heroes at the United Kingdom’s University of Derby’s Muslim Women’s Activism conference. Ustadha Maryam teaches for Rabata.org and serves as an adjunct professor.

She is dedicated to building and contributing to institutions conducive to the pursuit of human excellence. Sharrieff received her Bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies/Italian/TV & Film from Rutgers University and obtained her Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. She currently resides in the Boston area and serves as a University Muslim Chaplain.

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Sahar Pirzada is a Pakistani-American Muslim woman from the Bay Area. She is the Advocacy and West Coast Programs Manager for HEART where she explores the intersections of islamophobia and gender-based violence and supports survivors of sexual violence in the Muslim community. She has a masters of social work from USC and is also the Co-Director of Vigilant Love where she actively challenges islamophobia through arts, healing and organizing. Sahar’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, NPR, KPCC, Fusion’s Sex Right Now and #GoodMuslimBadMuslim.

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Dr. Debbie Almontaser is an internationally recognized, award-winning educator, entrepreneur, speaker, authority on cross cultural understanding and author of Leading While Muslim. She is an influential community leader and the Founder and CEO of Bridging Cultures Group Inc., a for-profit business that provides professional development and coaching for companies, universities, firms, and K–12 education personnel.
Dr. Almontaser was the founding and former principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, NY. A twenty-five-year veteran of the NYC Public School System, she taught special education, inclusion, trained teachers in literacy, and served as a multicultural specialist and diversity advisor. Currently, she is the Board President of the Muslim Community Network and sits on the boards of Therapy and Learning Center Preschool, 21in21, EMGAGE National, and ADC National.
She frequently lectures, serves on panels, facilitates teacher and public workshops on cultural diversity, conflict resolution, Arab Culture, Islam, Muslims in America, interfaith coalition building and youth leadership at schools, universities, libraries, museums, faith-based organizations, churches, synagogues, as well as national and international conferences. Dr. Almontaser is also known for her leadership role in organizing the historic Yemeni Bodega Strike Rally and I Am a Muslim Too Rally.

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Dr. Omaima Abou-Bakr is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University; a founding member of “The Women and Memory Forum” in Egypt; a researcher/member of the “Musawah” Knowledge Building Team. She specialized in medieval Sufi poetry and comparative topics in medieval English and Arabic literature. Her scholarly interests also include women’s mysticism and female spirituality in Christianity and Islam, feminist theology, Muslim women’s history, and gender issues in Islamic discourses.

She has published numerous articles in both English and Arabic on poetry and medieval literary texts, on historical representations of women in pre-modern Muslim societies, women and gender in religious discourses, and Islamic feminist issues. One book publication is an edited Reader that contains translations into Arabic of foundational articles in Christian feminist theology and Islamic feminist research: Al-Niswiyyah Wa-Al-Dirasat Al-Diniyah: Feminism and Religious Studies (2012). Other book publications are two edited volumes of collected articles; in English: Feminist and Islamic Perspectives: New Horizons of Knowledge and Reform, in Arabic: Al-Niswiyyah Wa-Al-Manzur Al-Islami (2013).

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Dr. Showkot Ara Rahman, mother of four, daughter, sister, friend, and pediatrician, was born and raised in the city of Magura in Bangladesh with her six siblings. She grew up in a household devoted to family, the community, and Islam. Spending early mornings reading and reciting Surahs of the Qur’an, she completed her first full reading of the Qur’an by the age of six. Islam has been a mainstay in her life, a curiosity she has spent her life cultivating through constant and conscious application.

After graduating from Rajshahi Medical College in Bangladesh, she gave birth to two boys, immigrated to the United States, parting ways from her childhood friends and family, had two daughters, and attained the U.S. Medical License and Board Certification in Pediatrics, accomplishing her dreams through patience and perseverance. Dr. Rahman has been a dedicated medical and public servant to underserved communities since her beginnings at The Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, followed by Kaiser Permanente with simultaneous volunteer work at Umma Community Clinic and raising four children.

Her relentless values of faith, hard work, and optimism were not only unhindered, but spread through any means possible. She is a devoted pediatrician, a role she does not take lightly and recognizes as her way of expounding her genuine care and dedication to the wellbeing of children and their future in the most underserved area of Los Angeles.
When she is not doting on her children or filling out patient charts, Dr. Rahman enjoys spending time with her children, cooking, knitting, visiting museums, attending musicals, watching Jeopardy, traveling, catching the sunrise and sunset, and dancing on grassy hills.

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Hajjah Krishna Nunnally Najieb accepted Islam later in life, never imagining that she would embrace a religion she once perceived as restrictive and limiting to women, in particular. As an aspiring theater artist and child of the 70’s, Krishna’s early aspirations were to be a director, producing art for people’s sake. Little did she know that God had other plans as she embarked on a journey which led her to live and work her way across the country, while experiencing various roles and religions.

Living, learning, and raising her children, Krishna considered herself somewhat “knowledgeable” of Islam, having known a few members of “the Nation” and being a patron of Muslim bakeries, fish shops, and newspapers. She didn’t start learning about true Islam until after age 50 when she began attending masjids and events with her now husband, Jamal Najieb. When she and Jamal married in 2009, Krishna planned on remaining “spiritual.” She’d learned to sleep in on Sunday and felt visiting churches and masjids on occasion would be sufficient. But six days after the wedding, she was moved to make shahada at Masjid Al-Taqwa, Altadena, CA. Krishna thought it was out of curiosity, but her friends told her it was Allah.

From that moment, there was no looking back and in August 2015, Krishna and Jamal made Hajj. Hajj was transformative. Krishna now truly felt like a Muslimah and prayed for a way to return Allah’s blessing. The answer became another gift from Allah – to found with seven other sisters the non-profit organization, The Hajjah Project. The Hajjah Project launched in 2018 with the mission to educate and inspire Muslim women to make achieving the 5th Pillar of Islam a reality. The Hajjah Project gives cash gifts and backpacks to sisters making a first time trip to Hajj. With the tagline “a vision, a mission, a sisterhood,” The Hajjah Project aspires to one day be a foundation, providing funds to transformative projects that use Islamic principles to benefit all women.

Besides being a wife, mother, and grandmother, Krishna is a human resources professional and trainer, experienced in conflict resolution, community mediation and restorative justice. She is working on a spiritual memoir and still considers herself an artist, now for the benefit of Allah. 

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Sameerah Siddiqui is a Senior Advocacy Advisor at Oxfam America, a global humanitarian and advocacy organization. She has held a variety of roles in her time at Oxfam, from campaigning on the political drivers of poverty, such as a lack of corporate accountability in our global food system to building external relationships with American faith communities. She currently leads the organization’s campaign response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Sameerah grew up in the Inland Empire and after finishing her degree at UC Davis, she moved to Los Angeles to learn faith-rooted and community organizing with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

Sameerah is currently based in Washington, D.C. but her husband is convinced that they’ll make SoCal home again.

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Maheen Abbasi is an activist, mentor and dreamer. She immigrated to American from Pakistan when she was 3 years old. She grew up in the Bay Area with her 3 siblings and millions of cousins. She went to college at the University of California, San Diego, where she studied cognitive science and business. For the past 5 years she’s worked at Twitter and Google in Product Management. She is currently working on starting her own women’s empowerment business to help motivate young Muslim girls.

Maheen was born into Islam and grew up struggling with her connection to her religion. She had a hard time balancing her Pakistani and American identities. At one point she felt so lost, she didn’t even know if she still identified as a Muslim. After years of personal development, self realizations and countless motivational books she’s come to have the most intimate relationship with God that she’s had so far and a complete certainty in her faith.

Maheen is passionate about women’s rights and girls education. She wants to empower all women to be able to live as their truest selves and to help them foster a real relationship with their maker. Maheen aspires to dedicate her entire life and career to God’s love and message.

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Dr. Irum Shiekh’s work combines oral history with visual arts to advance social justice at local and transnational levels. Her documentary, Matrilineal Muslim Women of Minang, provides narratives of Muslim women of Minangkabau—the largest living matrilineal society in the world, which happened to be Muslim. By presenting interviews of strong Muslim women who are wearing headscarves, this film disassociates the widely mistaken image of women’s oppression with Islam.

Dr. Shiekh was a Fulbright scholar in Palestine where she developed courses about Palestinian Cinema and its significance in writing a counter-narrative through artistic expressions that articulates multiple histories and the day-to-day perspectives of Palestinians. Her photo exhibit, Palestinians Envision Life Without Occupation, examines the power of imagination as a resistance strategy for Palestinians living under occupation.

Her current book research project, Women’s Mosque Movement of the 21st Century, promotes the development and dissemination of Islamic knowledge for gender and social justice.

Dr. Shiekh enjoys learning from people, experiences, and the world around her. In her life journey, she is constantly juggling a balance between creating a sense of belonging and staying detached. She has completed fieldwork in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, South Africa, and Trinidad. Currently, she teaches in the departments of Ethnic Studies and the Honors College at the University of Oregon.

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Ayhan Hatunan Aslam is a New York City based spoken word artist, writer and inner-city youth educator. Her parents split apart when she was seven. At that time she, along with her older brother, was sent to live with their aunt, uncle and three cousins in a small town in Massachusetts while her single mother worked to get back on her feet. Due to her mother’s inner turmoil and struggles, Ayhan spent much of her life moving around from city to city, country to country. This molded her into a culturally aware and sensitive individual who understands the nuances of the human condition, despite cultural barriers that may exist amongst differing communities.

Ayhan has devoted much of her professional career to serving underprivileged and marginalized youth in the New York City area including The South Bronx. She enjoys studying English literature and using hip hop education framework theories to build authentic relationships with her students and herself. She also has spent many years on the front lines organizing in the community for different social justice issues and events. Aside from her professional career aspirations, Ayhan has a deep passion for health and wellness, in particular, holistic healing modalities that include aromatherapy, skincare and building a healthier relationship to food and body.

She loves taking nature walks, listening to music, painting, writing poems and playing sports. She is currently attaining her yoga teacher certification and hopes to heal others through yoga and breathing practices.
In the upcoming fall of 2019, Ayhan will return back to her hometown of NYC and begin her master’s program in school counseling, where she hopes to go back to her roots of working with inner-city youth, in the new role of a school counselor.

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Desiree F. Magsombol, JD, is a Resilience Toolkit Facilitator with Lumos Transforms and a Training and Technical Assistance Provider for the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center with Impact Justice. Her personal experience with violence early on drove her to seek spiritual refuge. She converted to Islam her sophomore year of high school, finding community amongst her Muslim classmates and those at her local mosque in Long Beach – Masjid Al-Shareef. She is deeply grateful for the first Muslims she met, who taught her a loving, kind, and expansive Islam that was inherently American in its connection to the Black/African-American community.

Through observing the character and practice of her dear late Imam Omar Amin, she saw how work could be elevated to an expression of faith, and what it meant to truly serve the community. This, along with her personal experiences, led her to advocacy work with foster youth in residential care, LGBTQ survivors of domestic violence, and survivors of sexual violence in prisons and jails throughout the country. Her work with prisons and jails made her particularly fascinated in how individuals experiencing stress and trauma impact whole organizations and their cultures. With Lumos Transforms, Desiree facilitates community workshops and provides consultation, subject matter expertise, training, program design, and delivery for organizational clients about growing resilience, stress and burnout management, and trauma-informed approaches.

Desiree enjoys discovering how the never-ending well of Islam continues to be related to all things she cares about, from anti-violence to feminism, from community healing to the neurobiology of stress, and everything in-between. She loves watching babies push their own strollers, walks in the local nature center, and spending time with family and friends.

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Dr. Altaf Saadi is a neurologist, Clinical Instructor of Medicine, and fellow at the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, a fellowship program focused on training physician-leaders to address health inequities through scholarship and action. She completed her neurology training at the Harvard Partners Neurology Program at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals in Boston, where she also served as chief resident.

During her residency, Dr. Saadi’s interest in health equity led her to work in resource-limited settings in Zambia, Tanzania, the Navajo Nation, with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, and the Doctors Without Borders telemedicine program. She is also an expert volunteer and asylum evaluator for the Physicians for Humans Asylum network, having conducted medical and psychological evaluations for individuals seeking asylum, both in the community and in immigration detention centers. She has also assessed the medical conditions of confinement in immigration detention at facilities in Texas and California, including with Human Rights First and Disability Rights California. Her research and advocacy focus on health inequities among racial/ethnic minority and immigrant communities, identifying policy and community-based solutions to address these inequities, and enhancing diversity within the medical workforce.

Most recently, Dr. Saadi’s work has focused on understanding how health care facilities can ensure that all patients feel safe when accessing health care regardless of their immigration status, exploring the concept of “sanctuary” and “safe spaces” in the clinical setting. To date, her academic work and commentary have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, The British Medical Journal, the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, Neurology, among others. She is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School, where she graduated cum laude and received the Dean’s Community Service Award. She has also received her MS in Health Policy and Management from UCLA.

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Nurjahan Boulden was 21 years old when she was shot with an assault rifle in an attack that killed the man next to her. That one night changed the trajectory of her life. Even as she moved on to become a teacher and mother of three, she continued to suffer in silence with depression, anxiety, and physical complications from the bullet wound. It wasn’t until ten years later that she shared her story publicly for the first time. It was there that she found the community and support she needed in order to finally recover. Having worked in education and in the non-profit sector for most of her career, she is now the world’s leading coach and healer for shooting survivors who are ready to feel safe again. In addition to individual and group coaching, she is a public speaker, hosts support groups and community resilience workshops, and has been featured in a number of publications, including Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health Magazines. Her most recent project is a collaboration of mental health professionals bringing gun violence prevention and recovery programs to schools and organizations across the country.

Nurjahan was born and raised in rural Massachusetts before moving to the West Coast in 2003 to attend Pitzer College in Claremont. With a Tanzanian mother and a White American father, her family was one of only two Muslim families where she grew up. She now enjoys living in a diverse area of Rancho Cucamonga, CA with her husband and three young children.

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Zariah Horton was raised on the importance of being of service to others, community activism, and social justice. She has been volunteering in the community since infancy, literally. She was born in an election year and her mother had her in a stroller encouraging people to vote. This foundation has led to over 20 years in public health and non-profit work.

Zariah started her career case managing persons living with HIV/AIDS and then expanding to providing sexual health prevention, education, counselling and testing. She has presented her work nationally on providing sexual health services in non-traditional settings. While managing one of the largest sexual health clinics in Los Angeles, she observed the intersection between sexual and mental health firsthand and returned to school to become a psychotherapist to better assist her clients and community.

Since completing graduate school, Zariah has become a psychotherapist and a life coach. She has concentrated her work in destigmatizing mental health, sexual health, and domestic violence in faith communities and communities of color. For several years, she managed group homes providing therapy and case management to adolescent girls on probation and in foster care. This led her to further her education and receive specialized training in counseling trauma survivors and commercial sexually exploited children.

Zariah taught courses at the graduate level regarding sexual health and psychology, human development, couples counseling, and family therapy. She has conducted workshops on the cycle of violence, identity development, sexual dysfunction, sexual addiction, substance abuse, and trauma and sexuality. She has written grants, received funding, and lead workshops on prevention and education of domestic violence in the Muslim community. She was on the board of Muslim Women’s League and currently is on the board of the Hajjah Project. She co-facilitated a process group at her local mosque regarding the Me Too Movement. She currently is a Mental Health First Aid instructor.

Recently Zariah has turned her energies towards expanding her knowledge and providing support to individuals and families experiencing fertility challenges. Lastly, she is a servant of God and tries to live everyday being compassionate and merciful to others as well as herself.

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Kifah Shah is the Digital Campaign Manager for MPower Change, the largest Muslim-led social and racial justice organization in the United States. She is also a cofounder of SuKi Se, an ethical fashion brand produced by artisans in Pakistan that strives to offer access to technologies that ensure high production standards and inclusive supply chains.

Kifah grew up in Southern California and has been organizing since she was 15. She has worked for the Asian Law Caucus, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Unite HERE! Local 11, and UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Community Center. Kifah also worked abroad in Europe at the Migration Policy Group on issues related in migration, as well as in Pakistan at the Aman Foundation/USAID on issues of health, education, and economic empowerment. She is currently a TED Resident and on the Board of Trustees for MSA West. Kifah holds a Masters in Public Administration (Economic Policy) from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley.

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Jessika Kenney is a vocalist, composer/improviser, and teacher. Jessika’s singing can be heard on Ideologic Organ, Black Truffle, Weyrd Son, SIGE, Present Sounds, and other labels. She performs regularly with writers/scholars Red Pine (Bill Porter), Fatemeh Keshavarz, and Anne Carson. At international festivals, Jessika has performed her own compositions as well as music of Annea Lockwood, Hossein Omoumi, Morton Feldman, Giacinto Scelsi, and others. In 2015, her LP “ATRIA” (based on writings attributed to Sunan Kalijaga, who brought Islam to Java in the 15th century CE) was released alongside a sound, calligraphic score, sculpture, and video installation filling five rooms at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle.

Jessika taught from 2007-2015 at her alma mater, Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She has studied sindhenan with many great musicians of Javanese gamelan in and outside Indonesia, particularly the late, great pesindhen Nyi Supadmi (d. 2015). She has studied Persian radifs with Ostad Hossein Omoumi (UC Irvine) since 2004. Kenney received the 2014 James Ray Distinguished Artist Award, and for collaborations with her husband Eyvind Kang, the 2015 Stranger Genius Award. She is VoiceArts faculty at California Institute of the Arts and lives in Pasadena, CA.

In 1997, Jessika had her first masjid experience in the Kauman neighborhood of Surakarta, Central Java, and she has been involved in Islamic and Sufi culture ever since.

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Zan Christ is the Coordinator for Religious and Spiritual Life Program at Hamline University’s Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service and Social Justice. She organizes the logistics, promotion, and communication of the Religious and Spiritual Life programs with the intention of nurturing the religious and spiritual lives of students, faculty and staff. She supervises student workers of the RSL groups, including Multifaith Alliance, Jewish Student Life, Mindfulness Meditation, Interfaith Youth Core’s Better Together and Muslim Student Association. Also, she serves as an educational resource on religious diversity, interfaith literacy and cooperation on campus and in the community.

She is an experienced interfaith leader, accomplishing an Undergraduate Degree in World Religions from Hamline University and a Graduate Degree in College Student Affairs (Counseling and Student Personnel) from Minnesota State University, Mankato. While at MSU, Zan gained a broad perspective while interning in the Career Development Center, Academic Advising, and Enrollment Management.

Over the last five years, Zan has been an interfaith resource for Midwestern collegiate panels and programs regarding topics such as Social Justice Within Islam, American Converts’ Journey to Islam, Interrupting Islamophobia, Counseling American Muslims, and Women’s Faith Experiences in Diverse Communities.

Most recently she worked for three years as the Advancement Operations Coordinator at the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she was also active in developing diversity and interfaith trainings for the staff of the museum. There she built a designated Quiet Space, where anyone from any religion or no religion could use it to pray, meditate or just take a silent break.

For many years, Zan provided leadership and strategy at Building Blocks of Islam on several projects including Qur’an and Islamic studies teacher, Convert and New Muslims Mentorship Coordinator, and Camp Counselor at Young Sister’s Al Isra Retreat, in which she won the highest award of the camp – The Best Camp Counselor Award.

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Amira Al-Sarraf is the Head of School at New Horizon School, an Islamic school in Pasadena awarded the National Blue Ribbon by the U.S. Department of Education. She has a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley and an M.S. Ed. in Educational Leadership from Walden University. With over 25 years of experience in the field of education, she is passionate about serving the academic, social, emotional, spiritual, and creative needs of students as well as building a culture of collaboration and coherent pedagogy among faculty.

Believing in the critical need for interfaith work, she has been actively involved in interfaith projects with the Skirball Cultural Center, Weizmann Jewish Day School, the Interfaith Peace Academy, and the Alice and Nahum Lainer School. Currently, she is a member of the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health Interfaith Clergy Roundtable Project in Arcadia, and she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Western Justice Center as well as the Council on Spiritual and Ethical Education. She also served on the Board of Trustees of Alverno Heights Academy, an all-girls’ Catholic school.

In the area of curriculum development, she is a co-author of Transitions, a health and human development program that teaches young Muslims about the important physiological and emotional changes they face during adolescence within the context of Islamic values. She has also been actively involved in the development of the Islamic Studies program at New Horizon and recently designed a new Islamic Studies curriculum for the Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Education that takes a dynamic approach to teaching Islam, incorporates comparative religion, integrates California social studies and science standards, and emphasizes the application of universal moral values and critical thinking skills.

With a love for nature and the outdoors, she sought to give students at New Horizon a sense of the importance of environmental stewardship through a recent project at the school: the building of the New Horizon Peace Garden. She initiated this project in 2011 and worked with the NHS Garden Committee to fulfill the vision for the garden as a place of community-building and garden-based learning. She has attended conferences and workshops including American Horticultural Society and Living Schoolyards and seeks ways for this extraordinary outdoor classroom to touch all the learning at the school.
Born and raised Los Angeles, she grew up in an interfaith household with a Palestinian-American father and a European-American mother. Amira is the mother of four adult children who are working or studying in the fields of law or elementary education.

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Priscilla Al-Uqdah is a retiree and most proud of her years of service in the United States Armed Forces, being a graduate of the famed Navy Photography School and her participation in NATO Operations. Priscilla is a member of the University of Islam and Clara Muhammad School National Alumni Association, a public 501(c)(3) organization, that she founded over twenty-six years ago. She is a college graduate, trained photographer, and a certified paralegal.
Priscilla comes from a pioneering family. Her father Jesse Al-Uqdah, also known as “Superman” and “The Marathon Man”, was a local food entrepreneur and employer who invented “Chili Fritos” and the “California-style fish taco”. Her mother Hafeezah Al-Uqdah is a retired health care professional, a graduate of the famed Charles R. Drew Medical School and a founding member of the Charles R. Drew Physician Assistant Alumni Association. Priscilla’s parents are strong supporters of the communities they live and worked in; this is a trait that they passed along to their children.

Priscilla had the pleasure of being the Vice President and Secretary for American Federation Group, Union Local 2297 and the only officer to hold a 100% union position. With her love for law, Priscilla worked in labor and management contract negotiation, arbitration, and as an employee representative. During her tenure as Vice President of the Local, she worked full-time for the Union. Years later, she is still the only officer to have held a union position full-time.

Since the early 1990s, Priscilla has been the Community Liason and Western Regional Captain of Women Security at the Bilal Islamic Center, as well as personal Security Detail for religious leader Imam Warith Deen Mohammed (RIP) and his family in the United States.

Priscilla chaired the Recognized Community Organization (RCO) under the leadership of past mayor Richard Riordan. During her leadership, she is most proud of the Central Avenue Entry represented by the art work of a saxophone and guitar on Central Avenue and Vernon Avenue.

Priscilla is a founding member of the Central Avenue Jazz Festival. She is the host of “On the Avenue”, a cultural event honoring the Los Angeles Renaissance, music history, and local legions at the historical Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue. She is also a founding member of the South Central Neighborhood Council, and a founding member and board member of the Historic Central Avenue Business Improvement District.
Priscilla has fond memories of her time as a teacher at the Clara Muhammad School in Los Angeles, especially of her first- and second-graders’ hit showcase of their reading and spelling skills. She received the Award of Achievement for her work with the Clara Muhammad Schools National Alumni Association from the Universal Islamic College, founded by Dr. Zakiyyah Muhammad.

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Rayesa Gheewala is an American Muslim woman, born and raised in NY. She is a Certified High Performance Coach, Speaker, Trainer, Lover of Life, Mother of three, Pharmacist, and nature lover with a sweet tooth. As Rayesa has evolved, so has her purpose: Starting from being the best mother she can be to raise God-conscious, independent free-thinking people who contribute to society with their gifts — and now to inspire others to live out their purpose by becoming the most authentic, vibrant and highest version of themselves.

Having her identity tied to one person most of her life — and relying on someone else to define her and give her permission to be — was devastating, especially when going through an unexpected divorce after 17 years of marriage. It was also what transformed Rayesa by giving her the impetus for her spiritual and emotional rebirth, and what led to Rayesa creating her own identity based on self-discovery, self-love, acceptance, kindness, and compassion. This transformed her into an enlightened, independent free thinker with fearless confidence to live a peaceful, purposeful, and fulfilled life with excellence.

Rayesa’s dream was always to be a teacher. After practicing pharmacy for 20 years and raising three children, she now gets to live out her dream through coaching, offering workshops, and speaking. Rayesa believes that each person is here for a purpose and has the ability to reach their full potential through optimizing their mind, heart, soul, and body. Her mission is to help support high achieving professional working moms who are overworked, overcommitted, and overwhelmed — and guide them to having serenity, balance, and a life of abundance.

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Laila Alawa started her career at the White House and Congress and is the CEO and Founder of The Tempest, the leading tech and media company changing the global narrative of diverse millennial women. She was named to the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In 2017, she gave a TED Talk on her work with The Tempest. Since founding The Tempest, Laila has been quoted in nationwide outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, and CNN Money as a disruptive force in media. She’s also the host of The Expose, a weekly podcast tackling tough topics with snark and wit. In 2016, she got her own Snopes page and was a Nominated Changemaker for the United State of Women White House Summit.

Prior to founding The Tempest, Laila was a research specialist at Princeton University, studying socio-cognitive processing under the framework of community identity and belonging. During her time in college, she spent time dissecting stereotype threat for women in the sciences, consumer behaviorism, minority stereotyping and judgment. She is currently working on her first book.

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Hafidha Soheyla Aryan was born in Iran, spent most of her childhood in Europe, and attended the latter half of her schooling in the United States.  She received her Master’s in Midwifery from both the USC School of Medicine and UCLA.  Brought up in a family that was not particularly religious, the only connection Sister Aryan had with God was through daily salat. 

It was not until much later in her life, when she was a firsthand witness to one of God’s signs, that her heart and eyes were opened to God’s undeniable presence in her life.  It was thus with a joyful heart that she set out to learn about this new love of her life, gleaning every morsel of God’s beauty and guidance.  Imam Ali’s Nahjul Balagha was the first book God brought into her life, and from there, she graduated into studying the Holy Qur’an.  Seeking God through God’s word has been her life ever since.  Sister Soheyla now teaches Nahjul Balagha classes at Al-Zahra Mosque and Qur’an classes to students of all ages in the greater Los Angeles area.

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Heba Khan is Staff Editor at the Journal of Feminist Economics, Rice University. She holds an MA in Religious Studies from Rice University. Her research interests focus on the Islamic tradition and include comparative religion, mysticism, poetry, and gender. She has presented widely among communities and organizations in the greater Houston area on the topics of Islam, gender, and religious tolerance.

 

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Sister Dalal Hassoun was born and raised in Syria where she lived with her parents and four siblings. Her brother provided her with a solid foundation in Islam and always encouraged her to read, learn, and question everything in order to have a better understanding. The book became her friend and she tried to read as many books as she could to increase her knowledge. She took part in leading the first women-led Islamic halaqas (spiritual study circles) in Syria when she moved to Damascus in 1967, and she continued to attend women’s halaqas to increase her Islamic knowledge. She got married when she was 17 years old and had six children whom she raised to have the same passion for knowledge and to pursue higher education. Even though circumstances prevented her from higher education, she continued to pursue knowledge and educated herself in Islamic studies and continued to be a leader in her community. In addition to education, Sister Dalal is also very passionate about helping those in need, and she has led efforts to do so in her community for more than 35 years. She is a student of the nonviolent activist Jawdat Said, and she always spreads his message. Sister Dalal moved to America in 2011 after she participated in one of the first silent women’s protests in Syria and had to leave the country for her safety. Since then, she has continued to spread her knowledge and ideas on Facebook. She has posted many opinion pieces such as book summaries and reflections on different topics to help educate others. Sister Dalal continues to advise and help the younger generation through her social media, and her dream is to see peace all over the world.

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Monica McNeal Boddie is the founder at Magnify Your Message, where she helps experts and entrepreneurs strategize and create their signature product launch content so they can grow their business and impact, with soul. Monica is also co-founder at Her Abundance Sanctuary, San Diego’s first sisters’ health, wealth, and spiritual wellness community space, Muslimah-focused, not Muslimah-exclusive. She is a writer and a speaker, has contributed to the anthology, “A Far Off Place,” and is currently working on her first book. She is a Walkaholic Happy Life Mentor, bringing joy to life, founder of Decide Your Life LLC and creator of “Your Full and Happy Life Rocks!”. Monica is also a US Marine Corps spouse of 17+ years, and a mother of four.

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Hajjah Abrafi S. Sanyika is a proud native of Chicago, which was founded on the shore of Lake Michigan by an African fur trader, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and listened as a young child to the life-affirming teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Even then she knew that there is only One God, because that is what her parents taught at home. She remembers being “thrown out” of Sunday school at age eleven, because she announced that Jesus (pbuh) was not the “son of God”, but a great prophet like all the other great prophets. She was exposed to many religious/spiritual traditions growing up and continues to honor the beauty in all of them.

Abrafi euphemistically describes her professional career as “eclectic”. She reflects that she is from that generation of women who chose either nursing, teaching, or secretarial work, because other professions were generally foreclosed to women. Originally an anthropology major, she redirected when she got a divorce and had to consider raising two small boys as a single parent. Instead, she obtained a B.A. and M.A. in education. Her M.A. thesis was a study of the cocoa industry of Ghana, West Africa. She first taught at the University of Chicago Lab School, then directed Ujima Family Center, an alternative school in Chicago. Moving to California, she attended UCLA Law School, worked for several attorneys, became a realtor, and eventually returned to professional education.

She is now retired and has published several position papers, including “An Open Letter to the Immigrant Muslim Community.” She co-wrote The Eternal Genetic Presence, an anthology of visual artist Nathaniel Bustion’s incredible talent; and is the author of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, a children’s book written in honor of her daughter, Makeda. She is the founder and director of The Egyptian Repertoire Company, a nonprofit educational foundation that researches, writes, and presents seminars and rituals based on African history and culture, and is currently writing two other books for publication.

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Tuscany Bernier is from Indiana where she lives with her husband and two cats. She was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and raised in the rural town of Ladoga, Indiana. She converted/reverted to Islam in June of 2012 CE/1433 AH.

Tuscany is finishing up her associates degree in Islamic Studies from Mishkah University and is passionate about cultural diversity and women’s studies. In 2014, she published, “It’s That Time Again: An Islamic Guide to Menstruation.” She’s posted several articles all over the web; most of them were published anonymously, but a few were published under her real name on The Tempest.

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Farrah N. Khan has worked extensively with many community organizations to host events, collaborate on efforts and provide support.  She founded a children’s interfaith group, First Drops, in 2011.  The organization provides children (ages 5-13) and their families opportunities to go on site visits to churches, synagogues, mosques and temples throughout Orange County to get a better understanding of one another.  The group partners with a local Church every 4th Sunday of the month to feed the homeless population in Santa Ana.

Farrah has always enjoyed working with the community.  She started by volunteering at her children’s school and several non-profits.  She committed to being an active PTA member and has since served on the PTA Board at the Elementary and Middle School level.  She served as PTA President for 3 terms at her sons’ elementary school, served on the PTA Board at the Middle School and is currently serving on the School Site Council at the High School.  She and her husband are also Legacy Partners with the Irvine Public School Foundation.

One of Farrah’s joys has been serving on the Steering Committee for the Irvine Global Village Festival for the past 6 years.  She is also a proud CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) volunteer with the Irvine Police Department, a program she highly recommends for every resident and business of Irvine.

Farrah currently serves as the Executive Director of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council.  Farrah finds great pride in working with the faith communities not only for dialogue, but also to discuss social and economic issues affecting Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. 

Farrah was appointed as a Community Services Commissioner in 2014.  During her time as Commissioner, she was the only Commissioner who took the time to get to know the city parks, open spaces, land development, amenities and employees.  She was an advocate for sufficient park space. Farrah just ran for Irvine City Council in the 2016 election as a first time candidate and is proud to have placed 4th out of 11 candidates in a hard-fought race.

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Dr. Hadia Al Abdullah was born and raised in Syria where she lived with her parents and five siblings. Her parents provided her with a solid foundation in Islam and always encouraged her to read, learn, and question everything in order to have a better understanding of it. Her mother led Islamic circles, which Hadia always attended, increasing her Islamic knowledge. Hadia holds a Doctoral Degree in Medicine (M.D.) from Aleppo University in Syria and practiced medicine in Damascus from 1992 to 2000. She moved to America in 2000 and continued in the medical field for a year before stopping to raise her three children. She has volunteered in different organizations such as the Islamic Center of Southern California for many years. In the most recent years, Hadia has taught Arabic in both the public and private sector to native speakers and non-native speakers. She is also a volunteer chaplain for hospitals, visiting patients and providing them with spiritual relief. In 2012 she became a part of Bayan Claremont Faculty, and she serves as the program coordinator at Occidental College for the Southern California Arabic Language Teacher Council (SCALTC), a pilot project whose goal is to support the teaching of Arabic in Southern California and to provide resources to Arabic language educators from a variety of institutions.

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Sister Nayawiyyah Muhammad, mother of six, has spent her lifetime immersed in various aspects of Islamic knowledge and traditions. Having been raised in the Nation of Islam in the Los Angeles area, she was educated and is a graduate of its school system, the University of Islam, from its inception until its transformation into Sister Clara Muhammad School. As an educator, she was a constant participant in the Clara Muhammad School system as a teacher, administrator and director.  
 
Sister Nayawiyyah holds a B.A. and M.A. in Religious Studies, with an emphasis on Ancient and Medieval Judaism, Christianity and Islam. She regularly speaks on college and university campuses on topics concerning Women in Islam, Muslims in America, her experience of growing up in the Nation of Islam (1960-1974), and her subsequent growth as a woman in traditional Islam. Currently, Sister.Nayawiyyah is a professor in the department of Religious Studies at California State University, Long Beach and a Ph. D. student in the Women’s Studies in Religion program at Claremont Graduate University. Her primary fields of research engages the intersection of core Islamic rituals and sacred space with gender and sexuality, focused upon her research topics in Islam and the Body; Feminism and Islam; Muslims in America; and Eco-feminist Theology. Sis. Nayawiyyah is part of an on-going team of scholars involved in a Digital Humanities project whose goal is the establishment of a virtual archive of hadith transmissions of the wives of Prophet Muhammad (S). This endeavor seeks to offer commentary, historical timelines, insight into kinship networks and Islamic rituals, thus providing significant applicability for anyone researching women in Islam in general, and the ‘Mothers of the Believers’ in particular.

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Tasneem Farah Noor is a speaker, facilitator, Life coach, and the author of the book “The Faith Connection: Your Journey Starts with Knowing Yourself.” She has her Masters in Education from UCLA; and her coaching certification from the Life Mastery Institute. She has worked on university campuses like UCLA and Cal State LA. After a rewarding career in higher education for seven years, Tasneem transitioned to Life coaching and facilitating interfaith dialogue as her full-time career. She is the lead Muslim facilitator for NewGround: A Muslim Jewish Partnership for change, and sits on five different interfaith boards including the Interfaith Council at the Islamic Center of Southern California. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, CA in 2000, she lived in India, Pakistan, and Dubai.

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Anse Susan Mouallem was born in Syria. Her father is from Damascus and her mother is from England. Susan grew up in the vibrant, diverse city of Damascus and studied pharmacy at the University of Damascus. Her passion however was for the scholarly learning of Islam. Since she was in high school, she took an interest in learning more about Islam. She studied Quaran, Tafseer, Hadeeth, Tajweed, and Fiqh, among other subjects, with a number of Damascus’s leading women scholars. She received a certificate of Tajweed (Ijazah) in reading the Qur’an from Al-Sheikh Muhedeen Kurdi. For 30 years, Susan has been studying and teaching Islamic studies in Damascus, England, and Saudi Arabia to young children, women, and converts. Susan’s main other passion is working with young children. She taught for 10 years at Damascus’s Dar Al-Farah (Home of Joy) School. She currently lives in Damascus, Syria, and visits her children and her grandchildren living in the UK and the US. 

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Sabina Khan-Ibarra is the founder of Muslimah Montage, a platform for Muslim women to tell their own stories. Sabina and her website, Muslimah Montage, have been featured on Buzzfeed, The National, The Chicago Monitor, and NBC News. Sabina is also an assistant editor at AltMuslimah and GiveLight Foundation. She is the Member Development Chair at MuslimARC, an organization that addresses and combats intra-Muslim racism. In 2011, to commemorate the loss of her young son, Sabina created Ibrahim’s Tree, an internet website devoted to stories on dealing with grief. She also writes and speaks about grief in Muslim communities. Her work has been published on BlogHer, Huffington Post, ISNA Horizons, InCulture Magazine, AltMuslimah, Love InshAllah, Patheos (AltMuslim), Brown Girl Magazines, and many other outlets.

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Born and raised in London where she practiced law, Sarah Nadeem moved to California with her daughter in 2012. Soon after, Sarah’s maternal aunt passed away, which instigated a deep shift in her attitude towards Islam and ultimately brought her deeper in her faith. She now occasionally composes and sings songs in praise of Allah, as well as recites and studies the Qur’an. She also supports and attends the New Muslims Group in Southern California. From 2012 to 2014, she worked with United Central Bank. In 2015, she worked at Helping Hand, a subsidiary of ICNA, where she raised funds for orphans and cleaning water. She recently passed the California Bar Exam and now practices as an Attorney in Wills & Trust, Immigration, Employment, and Real Estate.

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Sister Noor-Malika Chishti has been involved in interfaith work for over 40 years. Her training—beginning in 1972—in the Inayati Order introduced her to the diverse ways in which people approach spiritual practice. In 1999, she began exploring the Islamic roots of Sufism and, on the Night of Laylat al-Qadr, accepted Islam. Today, she serves as Vice President of reGeneration, an American interfaith non-profit organization that advances quality early childhood development and education in the Middle East, building bridges locally to effect sustainable change for future generations. Sister Noor-Malika is also a founding member of the Southern California Muslim-Jewish Forum, an umbrella body focused on strengthening Muslim-Jewish ties in Greater Los Angeles, and she is a founding member and Vice Chair Emeritus of the Southern California Committee for the Parliament of World Religions (SCCPW). She has been a member of the West Los Angeles Cousins group, where Jewish and Muslim women meet to engage in dialogue and service, for 13 years. Sister Noor-Malika’s professional background was in the non-profit sector before she retired to become an administrator for the Crossroads School for the Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, CA. She is a recipient of the “Golden Heart Award” of the Inayati Order “in recognition of [her] vital efforts in the service of the Message of Love, Harmony and Beauty.” In 2008, she founded Musallah Tauhid, where Sufi Muslims from different orders share a sacred space with a Jewish and Christian congregation in which they work to come to know one another and protect the environment. She is also a grandmother and a poet.

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Amani Al-Khatahtbeh is the founder and editor-in-chief of MuslimGirl.net, the leading online magazine for American Muslim women. Reclaiming the Muslim women’s narrative in Western media with its own unprecedented columns in outlets like Teen Vogue, Fortune, and Huffington Post, MuslimGirl is currently forging a new path by becoming the forefront of Muslim women’s issues in mainstream coverage. Amani made the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2016, making her the first Muslim woman to be honored in the media category and MuslimGirl the first Muslim company to ever receive the recognition.

Amani is a rising voice in social, religious, and political issues, regularly appearing in such media outlets as CNN, BBC, and more. She currently writes a column for Forbes, in which she chronicles the startup journey of MuslimGirl from the perspective of a millennial woman of color entrepreneur. Amani was the first Palestinian-American to be elected as the opinions editor of The Daily Targum, which resulted in a nationwide controversy over her censorship. She is a human and civil rights activist and was one of the student organizers to force out former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from her commencement invitation at Rutgers University in 2014. Amani has been profiled in The New York Times, CNN Money, VICE’s Broadly, and beyond.

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Sister Marta Felicitas Khadija Galedary was born in Mexico and embraced Islam in 1985. She earned her Baccalaureate in Humanities, Mexico City, and is a former Nursing Director at the UMMA Clinic in Los Angeles. She is the founder of LALMA (Latino Muslims Association) where she started the first dialogue among Latino Muslims and Catholic youth and is their current Advisor. Sister Marta also works with LA Voice, a faith-based group to preserve human dignity and social justice. She spoke at the First International Conference of Ibero-Latino Muslims in Seville, Spain, the International Citizens Muslim dialogue sponsored by the USA State Department in Spain and Australia, and MuslimARC (Anti-Racism Collaborative) training.

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Sister Shabnam Dewji is a Senior Operations Consultant providing strategic and tactical assessments to large and medium size businesses. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Operations for the West Region at Time Warner Cable Media, overseeing the technical and master control operations for ad insertion; IT and software development for all media tools and applications; traffic and inventory management supporting sales; and regional engineering support for product implementation.

Sr. Shabnam has a business management background with a degree from the London School of Accounting and in 2010 completed an Exectuve Leadership Development Program at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. She was the recipient of the 2011 LEA (Leadership, Education and Advocacy) Awards where she was honored as Woman of the Year by Women in Cable Telecommunication (WICT). Shabnam was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania and grew up in Dubai. She lives in Orange County, CA with her husband and three children and has been an active member of her Muslim community for the past 28 years, having served as Treasurer and Vice President of SIIJLA, a local Islamic Center in Pico Rivera.

Sr. Shabnam Dewji is currently in her 12th year as the principal of the Huseini Sunday School and has been a teacher for 25 years. In June 2015, she received her certification in Neuropsychology of Learning to ensure that the teaching methods at the schools shift to student centered learning. She is also active in the Social Interfaith group to promote interfaith and intrafaith understanding in the Orange County area and works closely with Chapman University’s Fish Interfaith Center under the leadership of the Dean, Dr. Gail Stearns.

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Dr. Najeeba Syeed is a professor at the Claremont School of Theology and director of the Center for Global Peacebuilding. She is recognized as a leader in peacebuilding and twice received the Jon Anson Ford Award for reducing violence in schools in the area of interracial gang conflicts. Dr. Syeed was named Southern California Mediation Association’s “Peacemaker of the Year” in 2007. She has chaired national conferences on Muslim and Interfaith Peacebuilding, has served as a mediator in many cases, and has started mediation programs in several institutions including the University of Southern California and several middle and high schools. Schools have reported a significant drop in disciplinary referrals and violence after her involvement. Dr. Najeeba Syeed’s track record as a peacemaker has made her a sought out advisor for state, federal, and White House initiatives, and in international conflicts in Guam, Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, India, and France.

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Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 16 years in the mental health field. Kameelah currently works in Quality Management with a large non-profit child welfare organization ensuring quality of care and services to youth and their families. Kameelah has served on the board of Directors at Masjid Al-Taqwa for the past 10 years, and she utilizes her position on the board to address issues of importance to the community. Kameelah works within the Muslim community toward the goal of promoting wholeness and integration of the spiritual, emotional and social self.

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For nearly 20 years, Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi has been actively involved in the Muslim community in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California, working and volunteering for several organizations including Peace Terrace Academy, Islamic Networks Group, Zaytuna Institute, Deen Intensive, Northstar School, (RIS) Reviving the Islamic Spirit, One Legacy Radio, Pillars Academy, Islamic Speakers Bureau of Southern California, Grand Mawlid, Sacred Caravan, Rahmah Foundation, GiveLight Foundation, Celebrate Mercy, and Happy Hearts Learning Co-op. With the various positions she’s held, and as a Qur’an teacher and lecturer over the years, Ustadha Hosai has been blessed to meet thousands of Muslims from different backgrounds and, in the process, develop many deep and lasting relationships both personally and professionally. She has also been able to gauge the mental health issues of the larger community firsthand by serving as a private mediator, advisor and mentor to many.
 
Ustadha Hosai is currently the co-founder of MH4M, co-founded by Dr. Nafisa Sekandari. Together, they develop content about mental health that is unique and tailored for the Muslim community, combining sound Islamic teachings with well documented clinical science. She lives in Southern California with her husband and two young sons.

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Gail Kennard was raised in Los Angeles and learned about Islam as a high school student when she read the autobiography of Malcolm X. She accepted Islam while in graduate school at UC Berkeley, and she has been active in the Muslim communities of San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.  

For the past 20 years, Gail has been president of the architectural business founded by her late father, Robert Kennard, in Los Angeles. The firm designs public buildings, transit and utility infrastructure projects. The company, Kennard Design Group, is the oldest African-American-owned architectural practice in the western United States.

Gail earned her undergraduate degree in Communications from Stanford University, a master’s degree in Journalism from UC Berkeley — and for the past 60+ years, she has been struggling to earn her post-graduate degree in this life under the guidance of Allah, subhanna wa ta’allah.

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As the Executive Director of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) San Francisco Bay Area, Zahra Billoo strives to promote justice and mutual understanding. Zahra joined CAIR-SFBA in 2009, and immediately embraced her roles as community organizer and civil rights advocate. She frequently provides trainings at mosques and universities as part of CAIR’s efforts to empower the community, while building bridges with allies on civil rights issues. Zahra also represents victims of discrimination and advocates for policy changes that uphold civil rights for all.

A 2014 recipient of the National Lawyers Guild SF Bay Area Chapter’s Unsung Hero Award and a 2013 recipient of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California’s Trailblazer Award, Zahra came to CAIR with a background in employment and labor rights advocacy.

In college, she worked with the California Faculty Association on issues including faculty salaries and the defunding of public higher education. In law school, she was awarded the Peggy Browning Fund Fellowship to work on the National Employment Law Project. Zahra graduated Cum Laude from CSU Long Beach with degrees in Human Resources Management and Political Science. She earned her J.D. from UC Hastings College of Law, and was admitted to the California Bar in 2009.

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Dr. Laila Al-Marayati has been an activist in the American Muslim community for many years, having co-founded the Muslim Women’s League (MWL), an organization dedicated to strengthening the role of Muslim women in society. She spearheaded the MWL’s efforts on behalf of rape survivors from the war in Bosnia and was a member of the official US Delegation to the UN Conference on Women in Beijing.  She also served as a Presidential Appointee to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Her activism is centered around women’s rights in Islam, reproductive health and sexuality, and violence against women. As the chairperson of KinderUSA, Dr. Al-Marayati helps provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian children in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. Currently, she is the Medical Director of Women’s Health at a community clinic in Los Angeles and is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

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Aziza Hasan has extensive experience in program management and coalition building. She has worked with diverse groups to deliver quality programming that developed the skills of its participants in the areas of civic engagement, advocacy, service learning, leadership, conflict transformation and diversity training. Aziza is a founding director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change. An experienced mediator and conflict resolution practitioner she has co-facilitated multiple fellowship cohorts. A successful model of genuine engagement, NewGround has been featured on Public Radio’s “Speaking of Faith” with Krista Tippett, the Unites States Institute for Peace, Arabic Radio and Television, the LA Times, the Jewish Journal and InFocus.

Aziza is experienced in Small Claims Court mediation, coaching individuals and leading groups in conflict resolution. Her two years of AmeriCorps service gave her hands-on experience in community organizing and group problem-solving. She has appeared on CNN, ABCnews, Fox 11, LA City View 35, National Public Radio, and KCRW. Print media coverage of her work may be found in The Mennonite, AltMuslimah, The Wichita Eagle, The Newton-Kansan, The Halstead Independent, Hutchinson News and The Bethel College Collegian.

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Eman Hassaballa Aly works for the Health Media Collaboratory (HMC) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She is a digital strategist and a research specialist. In her role at HMC, she devises and executes social media and digital media strategies. In addition to program evaluation, Eman also conducts social data research and has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She is an expert in all things social media and has consulted for several projects and campaigns at the local and national level in the American Muslim community. She is a serial tweeter and texter, and she is fascinated by the way social media has changed the way people interact with each other.

Eman also holds a master’s degree in social work from UIC. She works part-time for the Heartspeak Institute, a private practice that serves the Chicago Muslim community. She has conducted trainings on marriage and developed a workshop called “Parenting in the Age of Social Media.” Currently, she is pursuing her master’s degree in Islamic Studies at the American Islamic College and hopes to serve as a chaplain in the university setting, and in a perfect world, she would love to continue her work in research. Eman loves to explore the way butter and salt transform food and loves to talk about her belief that mangoes are proof of God’s existence.

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Sumaya Abubaker serves as project manager for the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. For over eight years, she has managed many of the Center’s civic engagement leadership institutes for minority faith communities including the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute.

Prior to joining CRCC, she worked for Wells Fargo Bank, the Council for Islamic Education and The Minaret magazine. She spent many years on the board of ELEV8, a nonprofit designed to empower youth with the tools to engage in activism through the arts. Sumaya is a fellow of NewGround, a program that engages diverse groups of Muslim and Jewish Angelenos in an innovative community-building process of intra- and inter-faith education and reflection, leadership training and civic engagement.

Sumaya is also co-founder of the Rahma Network, an organization established to assist American Muslim communities in addressing sexual violence and abuse. She is a survivor herself and through her involvement in the Rahma Network, she works with survivors, builds resources and conducts speaking engagements on how to prevent and address sexual violence and abuse.

She received her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied international development with a specialization in the Middle East/North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

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Sarah Jawaid is a community organizer with LA Voice, a non-profit affiliate of the PICO National Network, where she does faith-based social justice organizing and leadership development in Los Angeles. She has worked on policy change for affordable housing issues, economic opportunity, and criminal justice reform—the most recent win being the passage of Proposition 47, a state-wide ballot initiative to redirect money from prisons to schools. Sarah worked on national transportation policy at the Brookings Institution and the Urban Land Institute and affordable housing advocacy at the National Housing Conference. During this time, she was the Director of Green Muslims, a group started to raise awareness of environmental issues within a Muslim context. Jawaid is also an artist who has exhibited work in several shows and galleries. Her work can be seen at sarahjawaid.com. She has a B.S. from the University of Southern California in Public Policy and a Master’s degree from UC Irvine in Urban Planning. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband.

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A recent transplant to Southern California, Dr. Rose Aslan is an Assistant Professor of Religion at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. She teaches courses on Islam, Global Religions, and the Abrahamic Traditions in Comparative Focus. Her research focuses on the construction of sacred space, ritual, and pilgrimage in medieval Iraq and other medieval and contemporary Islamic contexts, including America. She is also active in inter-religious engagement in various communities.

Dr. Aslan received her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with her dissertation on the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf and Sunni-Shi’i debates and Shi’i pilgrimage rituals at Ali’s shrine. She received her MA in Arab Studies from the American University in Cairo, and her BA in Near Eastern Studies from the University of British Columbia.

After listening to an inspiring first khutbah by Edina Lekovic, who challenged the congregation to step up and into more leadership roles, Dr. Aslan was the congregant sitting in the audience who rose to the challenge and decided to volunteer to give the next khutbah, as she had written khutbahs for men before but had never once delivered her own.

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Edina Lekovic is MPAC’s Director of Policy and Programming, where she oversees strategic initiatives in government and policy, media and communications, and leadership development. From 2004-2010, Edina served as MPAC’s Communications Director, and has appeared regularly in major media outlets, including CNN. MSNBC, Fox News, CBS Television, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times.

A recent appointee to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Service Cabinet, Edina has been committed to promoting relationships between diverse Angelenos for nearly 15 years. As a co-founder and the current chair of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, Edina is proud to have been part of an impactful program whose high school dialogue program was named Gov. Jerry Brown’s top interfaith group in 2013.

Edina joined the faculty of Bayan Claremont, part of the Claremont Lincoln University, as an Adjunct Professor in Fall 2013, where she teaches “Religious and Spiritual Leadership in a Muslim Context.” Edina has spoken in hundreds of national and international conferences, community events and interfaith dialogues on a variety of issues related to American Muslims. She has also had the opportunity to participate in a United Nations program on “Confronting Islamophobia” and the International Conference of Muslim Young Leaders, which served as a precursor to the annual conference of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

She is co-founder and graduate of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and also co-founded Elev8, an arts-based youth leadership development program. She has an M.A. in Communication from Pepperdine University and a B.A. in American Literature & Culture from UCLA, where she also served as the Editor in Chief of the Daily Bruin.

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