TISA’s Dean of Academic Affairs

Yasir Qadhi

Yasir Qadhi is the Resident Scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center. He is also the Dean of The Islamic Seminary of America. He is one of the few people who has combined a traditional Eastern Islamic seminary education with a Western academic training of the study of Islam. Yasir graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston, after which he was accepted as a student at the Islamic University of Madinah. After completing a diploma in Arabic, he graduated with a B.A. from the College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences, and then completed a M.A. in Islamic Theology from the College of Dawah. He then returned to America, and completed a PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University. He has authored several books, published academic articles, and appeared on numerous satellite and TV stations around the globe. His online videos are of the most popular and highly-watched Islamic videos in English.

Founder and President, Yaqeen Institute; Adjunct Professor, SMU

Omar Suleiman

Imam Omar Suleiman is the President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and a professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University. He’s also the resident scholar of the Valley Ranch Islamic Center, and Co-Chair of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanks-Giving Square, a multi-faith alliance for peace and justice.

Originally from New Orleans, LA, he began his journey of traditional Islamic learning in the year 2000 and has spent years studying in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Malaysia, etc. Upon becoming certified in various traditional sciences, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Islamic law, a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, a Master’s degree in Islamic Finance, a Master’s Degree in Political History, and is in the process of completing his PhD from the International Islamic University of Malaysia in Islamic Thought and Civilization.

His career started in his hometown of New Orleans where he served as the Imam of the Jefferson Muslim Association in New Orleans for 6 years and directed the ICNA Relief “Muslims for Humanity” Hurricane Katrina Relief effort. It was in this time that he was noted on a national level as being a strong advocate of community service, interfaith dialogue, and social justice. He co-founded the East Jefferson Interfaith Clergy Association and was awarded for his outstanding civic achievement by the Mayor and City Council of New Orleans in 2010.

He then moved to Dallas and became the Resident Scholar of the Valley Ranch Islamic Center in 2013 and more recently, Co-Chair of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanks-Giving Square. In Dallas, he has been a noted leader and voice for peace, and has partaken as a representative of the Muslim Community in many city functions. He has since been a guest at various national functions to share his experiences in community building.

Shaykh Omar most recently founded the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research which is a think tank that focuses on instilling conviction based on Islamic texts, and producing contribution. He also founded M.U.H.S.E.N (Muslims Understanding and Helping Special Education Needs), a nonprofit umbrella organization serving the community to establish a more inclusive “Special Friendly” environment for our Brothers & Sisters of all Disabilities.

Shaykh Omar has taught Islamic Studies at the university level since 2008. As a valued AlMaghrib instructor, Shaykh Omar developed one of the most successful seminars “Behind the Scenes: An In-Depth Study of the Spiritual Practices of the Best Generations.” He also is one of the main features at our annual conferences and retreats: IlmFest and IlmSummit.

In media, he’s one of the creators of the internationally acclaimed “Inspiration Series,” which has reached millions of Muslims and Non Muslims through YouTube and Islamic Television stations worldwide. He’s also known for his series on Quran weekly, as well as his contributions to Hadith of the Day.

Director of Research, ISPU; MBA, U of Pittsburgh

Dalia Mogahed

Dalia Mogahed is the Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, where she leads the organization’s pioneering research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims. Mogahed is former Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where she led the analysis of surveys of Muslim communities worldwide. With John L. Esposito, she co-authored the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. President Barack Obama appointed Mogahed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009. She was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about U.S. engagement with Muslim communities. Her 2016 TED talk was named one of the top TED talks that year. She is a frequent expert commentator in global media outlets and international forums. She is also the CEO of Mogahed Consulting.

Imam, ADAMS Center

Mohamed Magid

Imam Magid is the Imam of All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center in Sterling, Virginia. He is the chairman of International Interfaith Peace Corps (IIPC). Imam Magid served as the President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Under his direction, the ADAMS Center has grown to be one of the largest Muslim community organizations in the Washington Metropolitan Area. He also occupies the Chairmanship of the Fairfax County Faith Communities in Action, and a Chaplin of George Mason University Campus Ministry. He is also the Vice Chairman of Muflehun, a think tank, which focuses on confronting violent extremist thought through research-driven preventative programs within a religious paradigm. Imam Magid has a long history of commitment to public service through organizations, such as The Peaceful Families Project. Imam Magid has co-authored three books “Before You Tie the Knot: A Guide for Couples” “Reflections on the Qur’an,” and “Change from within.” He has helped with training and workshops for Imams and religious leaders, domestically and internationally, on the issue of violence against women. Imam Magid is leading an initiative to protect religious minorities in Muslim majority countries, through a series of conferences. He has written for the Washington Post and Huffington Post, and has been profiled in Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. He is the recipient of the Washingtonian of the Year 2009 and the Human Rights Award 2005 from Fairfax County.

Professor, Howard School of Divinity; PhD, International Islamic U Malaysia

Zainab Alwani

Dr. Zainab Alwani is the Founding Director of the Islamic Studies program at Howard University School of Divinity (HUSD). She is the Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the chair of the Religious Studies Master of Arts program at HUSD. She is an Islamic scholar, researcher and community activist. Dr. Alwani is also the first female jurist to serve on the board of the Fiqh Council of North America and currently serves as the Council’s Vice-Chair. She is a member and a board member of various national organizations including Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights KARAMAH and the American Academy of Religion. Dr. Alwani is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Islamic Faith and Practice. Her research focuses on Quranic studies, Islamic jurisprudence, the relationship between civil and religious law in the area of family, women and gender, and inter-religious relations.

Currently, Dr. Alwani is working on a groundbreaking project regarding orphan care, the Orphan Care Project. The goal is to provide knowledge and scholarship from an Islamic perspective as well as alert the community to this pressing issue. As the Program Director of the Fiqh Forum on Orphan Care, she is calling for orphan care to become a priority of the Muslim community.

Prior to joining the School of Divinity, Dr. Alwani was the Program Director and Adjunct Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Northern Virginia Community College. She was also an Adjunct Professor of Arabic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She developed courses in Arabic Studies that focused on the link between Islamic philosophy, language and culture. She also taught Islamic history, inter-religious dialogue and comparative religion at Wesley Theological Seminary and the Washington National Cathedral.

She has authored and co-authored a wide variety of publications ranging from textbooks and book chapters to scholarly articles. She co-edited a special issue of The Muslim World journal published by Hartford Seminary, Judaism and Islam in America, (October 2014 Volume 104, Issue 4). Some of her latest publications include: “Maqāṣid Qur᾽āniyya: A Methodology on Evaluating Modern Challenges and Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt (p 465–487),” The Quranic Model for Harmony in family relations, Critical Reading in al-Ghazālī’s Usul al Fiqh/Legal theory Books,  “Muslim Women as Religious Scholars: A Historical Survey,” in Muslima Theology: “New Voices of Muslim Women Theologians,” “What Islam Says about Domestic Violence” and “Religion, Gender, And Family Law: Critical Perspectives On Integration for Western-Muslims” in “Applying sharia in the West,” Leiden University Press.

Dr. Alwani received her PhD in Islamic Sciences (Usul Al-Fiqh) and Islamic Jurisprudence from the International Islamic University in Malaysia. Her PhD dissertation examined Maqāṣid/objectives of al Sahriah in the area of family, the book “The Family and Maqasid Al Shariah: Marriage and Divorce in American Muslim Family.”

Dr. Alwani is a mother of four, and a grandmother of four. Her hobbies include spending time with her family, reading, writing and traveling.

Director, Rahmah Foundation; Clinical Instructor, Stanford

Rania Awaad

Raised in the U.S., Ustadha Rania Awaad began her formal study of the traditional Islamic sciences when her parents permitted her to travel to Damascus, Syria at the age of 14. Her desire to continue studying the Deen resulted in multiple trips back to Damascus, interspersed between her high school, college and medical studies. She was honored to receive Ijaazah (authorization to teach) several branches of the Shari’ah sciences at the hands of many renowned scholars, including many female scholars. She has received Ijaazah to teach Tajwid in both the Hafs and Warsh recitations from the late eminent Syrian scholar, Shaykh Abu Hassan al-Kurdi. In addition to completing several advanced texts of the Shafi’i madhhab, she is licensed to teach texts of Maliki fiqh, Adab and Ihsan. Currently, Ustadha Rania teaches online and local classes for The Rahmah Foundation, Rabata, and is on faculty of Zaytuna College where she teaches courses in Shafi’i fiqh, women’s issues in fiqh, and has helped develop and co-direct the Tajweed and Hifz progam.

Ustadha Rania also a medical doctor with a specialty in Psychiatry. She completed her Psychiatric residency and fellowship training at Stanford University where she is currently on the faculty as a Clinical Instructor in the Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department. Her medical interests include addressing mental health care concerns in the Muslim community- particularly that of Muslim women and girls. She has been awarded grants from the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) to conduct research on this topic and has presented her findings at several medical conferences. Other on-going endeavors include the compilation of manuscripts addressing female-related mental health and medical issues from a fiqh-oriented perspective. She currently serves as the Director of the Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching Muslim women and girls traditional Islamic knowledge. In this capacity she also heads the Murbbiyah Mentoring Program which trains young women how to teach and mentor Muslim girls and teens. Ustadha Rania is both a wife and a mother; she has been counseling and teaching women classes on Tajwid, Shafi’i Fiqh, Ihsan, marriage and raising children since 1999.

Professor, Georgetown University

Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown is the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and he is the Director of the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding. He received his BA in History from Georgetown University in 2000 and his doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2006. Dr. Brown has studied and conducted research in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Iran.

His book publications include “The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon” (Brill, 2007), “Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World” (Oneworld, 2009) and “Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction” (Oxford University Press, 2011), which was selected for the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Bridging Cultures Muslim Journeys Bookshelf.

His most recent book, “Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy” (Oneworld, 2014), was named one of the top books on religion in 2014 by the Independent. He has published articles in the fields of Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Sufism, Arabic lexical theory and Pre-Islamic poetry and is the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law. Dr. Brown’s current research interests include Islamic legal reform and a translation of Sahih al-Bukhari.

Executive Director, Rabata; PhD, U of St. Thomas

Tamara Gray

Scholar-in-Residence, ALIM Program; BA, Azhar University

Ubaydallah Evans

Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans is ALIM’s first Scholar-in-Residence.  He converted to Islam while in high school. Upon conversion, Ustadh Ubaydullah began studying some of the foundational books of Islam under the private tutelage of local scholars while simultaneously pursuing a degree in journalism from Columbia.

Since then he has studied at Chicagoland’s Institute of Islamic Education (IIE), in Tarim, Yemen, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he is the first African-American to graduate from its Shari’a program.

Ustadh Ubaydullah also instructs with the Ta’leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) at times.

Board Chair, CAIR; JD, U of Kentucky

Roula Allouch

Roula Allouch is an attorney with experience in employment law, civil rights, insurance defense and general civil litigation. Ms. Allouch earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky in 2003 and her juris doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2006.  She is licensed to practice in state and federal courts in Kentucky and Ohio.

Ms. Allouch currently serves as Chair of the National Board of Directors of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest civil rights and advocacy group for the American Muslim community. She is an advisor to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and serves on the Board of Directors of the Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. Ms. Allouch was named a Rising Star by Cincinnati YWCA in 2015 and featured in Cincinnati Magazine’s “The Future of Cincinnati: Ones to Watch” 2015 issue.

Licensed Professional Counselor

Salma Alkadi Abugideiri

Salma Elkadi Abugideiri is a licensed professional counselor in private practice in McLean, VA. She received her master’s degree in counseling from George Mason University, and completed a post-master’s certification program in marriage and family therapy at Virginia Tech. She provides counseling to individual adults, couples, and families. Counseling services treat many problems, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, spiritual issues, trauma, abuse, and cultural adjustment issues. She also provides premarital and marriage therapy. Therapy can be provided in Arabic.

Salma Abugideiri is also a founding board member and the primary trainer for the Peaceful Families Project, an organization dedicated to educating Muslim community leaders and members about domestic violence. She has written and produced educational materials addressing the Islamic perspective on domestic violence.

Board Vice-Chair, TISA

James Jones

Professor of World Religions and Chair of the Dept of World Religions and the African Studies Program at Manhattanville College (Purchase, NY). Dr. Jones’s research focuses on the intersectionality of between Islamophobia and racism. DMin from Hartford Seminary and a MA in Religion from Yale Divinity School. He is President of the Malik Human Services, a marriage counselor for more than two decades, and a member of the Association of Professional Chaplains. He sits on the National Board of Directors of CAIR. Dr. Jones is also a certified Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Trainer. MHFA’s goal is to train people to be able to identify, understand and respond to people with mental health or substance abuse issues.

Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Kentucky

Ihsan Bagby

Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Bagby’s research focuses on the study of the American Muslim community in general and masjids in particular. PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan. Director of ISNA’s Masjid Development Initiative. Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding. Board member of Muslim Alliance of North America, Masjid Bilal (Lexington, KY) and CAIR-KY.

Executive Director, ARNOVA; PhD, Philanthropic Studies, IU; JD, IU

Shariq Siddiqi

Dr. Shariq Siddiqui serves as the visiting director and assistant professor of the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Shariq has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Philanthropic Studies from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He also has a JD from the McKinney School of Law at Indiana University and holds a B.A. in History from the University of Indianapolis.

Shariq authors research on Muslim philanthropy and the Muslim nonprofit sector. Most recently, he conducted a national survey of full-time Islamic schools in the United States. This project resulted in the book (that he co-authored), Islamic Education in the United States and the Evolution of Muslim Nonprofit Institutions, that was published in November 2017. Shariq also serves as the co-editor of the new Journal on Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society and as the Series Editor of the Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society Book Series published by Indiana University Press. He has served as a nonprofit practitioner for over 20 years for international, national, regional, and local nonprofit organizations.

Shariq is also the Executive Director of Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). ARNOVA is a leading international association that connects scholars, teachers, and practice leaders in research on nonprofit organizations, voluntary action, philanthropy and civil society.

President/CEO, UMR

Abed Ayoub

President and CEO of United Muslim Relief. PhD International Development. In 2010, he was appointed by the US Agency for International Development to serve on its Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid. He also is serving a second term on the US State Department’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group.

Director

Omer Bajwa

Omer Bajwa is the Director of Muslim Life in the Chaplain’s Office at Yale. He earned his Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary, and he has been engaged in religious service, social activism, and educational outreach since 2000. He received his MA in Near Eastern Studies, with a specialization in Islamic Studies, from Cornell University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies. He also earned an MS in Communication from Cornell, and a BA in English Literature and Rhetoric from Binghamton University. His interests include Islam in the United States, inter-religious engagement, and Islam and the global media. He regularly lectures about these topics and others at campuses, congregations, and in communities across the country. When not working, he and his family can often be found sampling local desserts.

Professor

Dr. Julie Lowe

Dr. Julie Lowe has ijaza in the 10 variant recitations of the Quran (ashara sughra and kubra) from Shaykh Uthman Khan, under whom she studied the Jazariyya, Shatibiyya, and other recognized classical tajweed texts. She has memorized the entire Quran in the recitations of Hafs and Shu’ba. Dr. Lowe has been teaching tajweed at the Islamic Institute of Toronto since 2012. Dr. Julie Lowe completed her PhD at the University of Toronto in the area of Islamic Law. Her previous studies include a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of London (UK) as well as a law degree (JD) from Queen’s University. She has studied Arabic and the traditional Islamic sciences in Amman, Jordan, as well as locally.

Chair of the ISF Advisory Board

Bonita McGee

Former board member of the Islamic Social Services Association-USA (ISSA-USA). She also is a former board member and co-founder of the Muslim Family Services of Ohio. Ms. McGee is the Tobacco Control Program Director with the District of Columbia Department of Health working in policy, systems and environmental change to address the harmful effects of tobacco and nicotine use and exposure. Ms. McGee is a Certified Public Manager. She has a MA in Islamic Studies from the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences where she studied under Dr. Taha al-Alwani. She also has a BA in Business Administration from Ohio State. Ms. McGee is one of the founding members of the Islamic Seminary Foundation.

Imam and founder of Midtown Mosque-Memphis

Hamzah Abdul-Malik

Imam Hamzah Abdul-Malik studied Islam for 15 years in Morocco, Syria, Yemen and finally Egypt. Shaikh Hamzah was born and raised in a Muslim household in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in the Masjid al-Islam community. As a young man he went to Tangiers, Morocco, where he completed his memorization of Qur’ān (ḥifẓ). After Morocco, Imam Hamzah moved to Damascus, Syria, and attended the Abu Noor Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies for five years to focus on mastering classical Arabic (fuṣḥa), Islamic law (sharī’a) and theology (‘aqīda), and honing his Quranic phonetics (tajwīd). Later, he undertook private studies in jurisprudence (fiqh) and spirituality (taṣawwuf) at Dar al-Mustafa Institute in Tarim, Yemen, and then spent four years at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Sharī’a, alongside classmates Ubaydullah Evans, Jamaal Diwan, Muslema Purmul, Arsalan Haque and Yasir Fahmy. Currently, he is imam of the Midtown Mosque in Memphis, Tennessee. Shaikh Hamzah famously recited Qur’an at the Muhammad Ali Janazah.

Assistant Imam, Islamic Association of Greater Hartford; Attorney

Refai Arefin

Imam Refai Arefin serves as the Assistant Imam of the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford.  He pursued study of Arabic and Islamic sciences abroad for over ten years at Al-Azhar University and Qortoba Institute in Cairo, Egypt, at Balqa’a University in Amman, Jordan and under traditional tutelage in Fez, Morocco and Damascus, Syria.  He has spoken at countless mosques, churches, schools and universities throughout the State of Connecticut on Islam, its spiritual underpinnings and social manifestations.

Professor

Dr. Bahiyyah Muhammad

Dr. Bahiyyah Muhammad is an Assistant Professor and Celebrity Instructor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Howard University in Washington, DC. Dr. Muhammad is an innovative educator that utilizes a radical pedagogy to engage students in an intellectual journey that is described as, “empowering”, “transformative”, “critical” and “freeing”. Her classes have been dubbed the “Dr. Muhammad Experience” and have won her the title of Professor of the Year 2014, 2015 and 2016. Dr. Muhammad is the first teacher anywhere in the world to have students sleep in prison as a required part of their course curriculum. In addition, Dr. Muhammad voluntarily lived in a cell for a weekend (January 15-17, 2016) to gain a more holistic understanding of life behind prison walls. Dr. Muhammad is a unique educator working strategically to change the landscape of higher education, as it is known today.

Professor

Ermin Sinanović

Sinanović studied for an Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Political Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. He obtained two bachelor’s degrees (one in the Qur’an and Sunnah studies, the other in political science) from the International Islamic University Malaysia, and a master’s degree (Islamic civilization) from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sinanović’s research interests include transnational Islamic revival, revival and reform in Islam, contemporary Islamic thought, Islamic political thought, Southeast Asian politics, Islam and politics, and leadership in higher education. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and in edited volumes, including Politics, Religion and Ideology, Muslim-Christian Relations, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, and Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World.

Professor

Dr.Tahir Khwaja

Dr. Tahir Khwaja, MD ABPN, ABPN-CAP, ABIHM is a practicing psychiatrist with board certification in General and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, along with Integrative and Holistic Medicine. He is currently affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Waco, Texas and was also affiliated with the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine and James Madison University in Virginia before he relocated to Dallas. He subsequently completed an intensive year-long course in Arabic and then went on to begin his studies in Islamic Sciences at Qalam Institute as part of the Seminary Program. He is planning on furthering his Islamic education.

Professor

Dr. Khabirah Yahya

Dr. Khabirah Yahya is an enthusiastic international educational leader with almost two decades of experience teaching and leading in the field of education. She is passionate and committed to safeguarding and advocating for the education and well-being of students at all levels. She has a track record of excellent teaching and curriculum and professional development deliverance. Dr. Yahya takes pride in sharing her knowledge and experiences to help shape future generations of first-rate leaders.

Dr. Yahya has experience teaching in several countries such as the United States, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. She has several teaching interests including curriculum development, urban education, cultural sensitivity, educational leadership, and science education. In addition to teaching, Dr. Yahya has a keen interest in research that focuses on the connection between religious and cultural beliefs and a woman’s decision to become an educational leader.

Dr. Yahya earned her doctoral degree at the American International College in Educational Leadership and Supervision in August 2019. She completed her master’s degree in education with a science education focus in 2007. Furthermore, she completed her bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston College and holds a Massachusetts Educator’s license in general science.

Professor

Maliha Malik

Maliha Malik, LMFT, is a warm, proactive, and compassionate therapist who has worked in mental health for ten years. Her specialties include anxiety, ADHD, depression, anger, and bipolar disorder, parenting issues, sexual trauma, Adult Children of Alcoholics, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Clients appreciate her extensive skills base as well as her ability to easily connect with them. Born in Pakistan, Maliha grew up in Connecticut and recently relocated to Maryland. Her hobbies include traveling, experiencing new cultures, spending time in good company, learning from new experiences and meeting new people.

Professor

Dr. Mona Islam

Dr. Mona Islam is an educator, published author, a youth worker and community builder who holds a Doctorate in Curriculum and Institution. She is a transformational curriculum developer with extensive knowledge of the classical Islamic disciplines. She has studied under numerous scholars in various subjects of Islamic Sciences. She has written curriculum, engaged in youthwork, and facilitated community education through administering and teaching both academic and Islamic classes. She has organized various community programs and events and partaken in various humanitarian aid efforts.

Professor

Dr. Omar Imady

Dr. Imady is a scholar, poet, and novelist. Born in Damascus to an American mother and Syrian father, Dr. Imady grew up in a world of constant and vibrant contrasts. He has lived in America, the Middle East, and the UK. He received his BA from Macalester College and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Center for Syrian Studies at the University of St Andrews in 2012. He was the Deputy Director of the Center, Managing Editor of the Center’s journal, Syria Studies, and a Senior Fellow. He is the Former Dean of Academic Programs at the New York Institute of Technology and a Former National Programme Officer at the United Nations.

Director of Operations

Dr. Bashir Ansari

Dr. Bashir Ansari is the Director of Operations for The Islamic Seminary of America (TISA). He has taught at Southern Methodist University and worked as Director of the Dialogue and Outreach Department at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He earned his Bachelor in Sharia and Law, his first Master in Teaching Arabic as a Second Language, his second Master in Political Science, and his Ph.D. in the field of Islamic Political Thought. Dr. Ansari’s area of research is Islam and its relationship to culture, identity, and politics.

He brings with him a wealth of domestic and international experience running organizations, conferences, and workshops. He has authored 10 books and over 100 articles and academic research papers in English, Arabic, and Persian.