Staff

Rami Nashashibi: Executive Director

Please direct all communication for Rami to Alia Bilal (alia @ imancentral.org), Executive Associate
Rami has served as the Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) since its incorporation as a nonprofit in January 1997. He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago and has been an adjunct professor at various colleges and universities across the Chicagoland area, where he has taught a range of Sociology, Anthropology, and other Social Science courses. He has worked with several leading scholars in the area of globalization, African American studies and urban sociology and has contributed chapters to edited volumes by Manning Marabel and Saskia Sassen.

Rami has lectured across the United States and Europe on a range of topics related to American Muslim identity, community activism and social justice issues and is a recipient of several prestigious community service and organizing honors including the Norman R. Bobins Fellowship presented at the most recent Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards. Rami and his work with IMAN have been featured in many national and international media outlets including the BBC, PBS and a front page story in the Chicago Tribune. In 2007 Islamica Magazine profiled Rami as being among the “10 Young Muslim Visionaries Shaping Islam in America” and most recently Chicago Public Radio has selected Rami Nashashibi as one of the city’s Top Ten Chicago Global Visionaries. Rami was named one of the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in concert with Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He was also invited by the governor of Illinois to serve on the Commission for the Elimination of Poverty.

Rami lives with his wife and two daughters on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Alia J. Bilal: Executive Associate

alia @ imancentral.org
Alia J. Bilal is a native of the South Side of Chicago. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in International Studies and a concentration in Islamic World Studies. She studied Arabic and Islamic history in Cairo, Egypt, and is currently conducting extensive research on the experiences of Blackamerican Muslim youth in America. She has also taught English to international refugees in Cairo, and taught cooking and life skills classes to a group of inner-city youth in Washington, DC, while simultaneously serving as an intern for the Muslim Public Service Network. Alia has volunteered with IMAN for several years in different capacities, including helping to organize publicity for “Takin’ It to the Streets”, serving as a mentor for the Pillars of IMAN program, and hosting and performing at Community Café. Alia is a freelance writer and performer, and is currently working on writing and editing her first manuscript.

Sue Snyder Ross: Director of Development

sue @ imancentral.org
Sue Snyder Ross joined the staff as IMAN’s first Director of Development in April 2010. For nearly sixteen years, Sue was the principal of Strategic Development Consulting (SDC), an independent practice that helped nonprofits think strategically about how to fund their programs. She worked with close to 50 clients, most of which were nonprofits working for social justice or better access to services in diverse communities. Through SDC, Sue worked with IMAN as a strategy consultant for four years.

Before creating SDC, Sue was Associate Dean for External Affairs at the University of Chicago – School of Social Service Administration, Director of Development at DePaul University, Director of Foundation Relations at the American Bar Association, and Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Yale University. Sue has guided, or participated directly in, capital and comprehensive campaigns and as well as feasibility studies, major gifts programs, institutional fundraising, strategic planning, and other organizational development projects.

M. Altaf Kaiseruddin, MD: Medical Director

altaf @ imancentral.org
Dr. Kaiseruddin is a board certified Family Physician. He grew up in the Chicago area, went to medical school at Ross University and completed his residency training at the Wausau Family Practice program at the University of Wisconsin where he also served as chief resident. He has worked in the south side of Chicago for several years and has been a Clinical Instructor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine for several years as well.

Dr. Kaiseruddin’s philosophy is to approach and treat each patient as an individual person, taking into account each person’s background and environment. He enjoys seeing and caring for people from the full spectrum of life and from the healthy to the chronically ill. He specializes in providing quality health care for the entire family. He teaches healthy living and encourages regular health checks for men, women and children with the goal of achieving the best health one can have while living the best life one can live.

Adiba Khan: Health Clinic Administrator

adiba @ imancentral.org
Adiba is a native of Goa, India. She was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Biology and a minor in Spanish. She spent a year in Belize doing HIV research, and assisting the Peace Corps, focusing on tropical medicine and infectious disease. She then got her MD in England, and came to work at IMAN in 2009. Adiba is committed to community health both in the US and abroad, and envisions the health clinic at IMAN to be a place of education for patients and volunteers, while promoting health access as a basic human right within the underprivileged urban community.

Mohammed Iftakhar Hussain: Clinic Lab Technician

mohammed @ imancentral.org
Mohammed Iftakhar Hussain lived his early life in India, where he acquired a Master’s degree in the field of Science in 1975 from Osmaina University. He lived for over 25 years in Saudi Arabia working as a scientist, researcher and faculty member at King Saud University. Hussain authored several research papers in the field of Phycology/water chemistry and Microbiological Sciences, and published his work in renowned journals in the United States, Europe and Australia. His scientific contributions are a valuable reference for current and future researchers and contribute towards the advancement of science.
After migrating to the United States in the year 2000, Hussain worked at Loyola University as a researcher and faculty member, and also worked at Our Lady of Resurrection Hospital as a medical technologist. Hussain is passionate about teaching, research, charitable work and sports.

Asad Jafri: Director of Arts and Culture

asad @ imancentral.org
Asad Jafri is the Director of Arts and Culture at the Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN), a Chicago-based community organization that works for social justice, provides direct services, and cultivates the arts in urban communities. In working with IMAN since 2003, Asad has been able to create spaces that bring together thousands of leaders, artists, and community members to collectively celebrate and engage in diverse and creative artistic expression. Asad presents artists mainly through IMAN’s Community Café and Takin’ It to the Streets festival and cultivates IMAN’s artist network through an annual Artist Retreat. These spaces also allow IMAN to utilize the arts as a tool for cross-cultural communication, spiritual expression, civic engagement and social change.

As a multidisciplinary artist, Asad has created, curated, and presented original productions across many genres of music, theater, visual art, and dance. Asad also DJs under the moniker Man-o-Wax and has played at venues across the country, blending music from all over the world. One of Asad’s DJ projects is Turntable Dhikr, a fusion of traditional and contemporary music dedicated to the praise of the Most High using turntables as the vehicle.

Asad’s fusion of art and social change through innovative mediums has been recognized throughout the country and around the globe. As a result, Asad is engaged in several US State Department activities. In 2010, Asad travelled to North Africa as a Cultural Envoy to perform, work with youth, and network with established artists. He is a member of the State Department’s Generation Change, a cohort of young Muslim leaders. Asad is also an advisor for Center Stage – an international exchange program that will bring performing artists from Pakistan, Indonesia, and Haiti to tour throughout the U.S. in 2012.

Angela E. Rosario: Facilities & Operations Manager

angela @ imancentral.org
Angela was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and came to the U.S. at the age of six. She lives on the Southside of Chicago and was a student in IMAN’s Career Development Initiative before joining IMAN’s staff.

Angela graduated from Wilbur Wright College and for five years served as Security Manager at Sofitel Water Tower Hotel. Angela is certified in CPR and Basic First Aid, is a Certified Nursing Assistant, Designated Fire Deputy certified by the Chicago Fire Department and is certified in emergency preparedness.

Madeehah Muhammad: Office Coordinator

madeehah @ imancentral.org
Madeehah has served as volunteer with IMAN since 2003. She attended Barry University for Pre-K Primary Montessori Education. She also worked at Clara Mohammed School in Miami as a Pre-K instructor for four years.

Shamar Hemphill: Youth Coordinator & Organizer

shamar @ imancentral.org
Shamar, IMAN’s first Public Allies Intern, was born and raised on Chicago’s Southside and has been volunteering with IMAN since 2000. Shamar has an Associates Degree in Science and Technology from Langston University in Oklahoma.

After returning to Chicago in 2003, Shamar served as the Youth Coordinator for The Mosque Foundation and also studied Arabic under the tutelage of Sheik Bedridden. Shamar was a long time volunteer at Masjid at Al-Ihsan and also has hopes to one day develop a non-profit institution that does community based work.

Ndidi Amatullah Okakpu: Executive Fellow

ndidi @ imancentral.org
Ndidi Amatullah Okakpu is a community advocate dedicated to promoting socio-economic welfare. She is Assistant to the Editor of the Muslim Journal newspaper, and founding Director of NAIM Community Mentoring, a program evolving from a need for community involvement and encouragement in the lives of youth. Ndidi holds a Bachelor’s in Finance and Business Administration from DePaul University, and served directly for the late Imam W. Deen Mohammed in community organizing and as the Coordinator of his Youth Da’wah training program. She joined the first delegation he sent to study at Abu Nour Institute in Damascus, Syria under the late Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro. Ms. Okakpu works closely in interfaith efforts with the Midwestern region of the Catholic organization, Focolare Movement, and served as a young Muslim American delegate for their world conference in Castelgandolfo, Italy. Ndidi is also proud to be a recent graduate of the inaugural cohort of the American Muslim Civic Leaders Institute. She is honored and excited to be selected for IMAN’s Executive fellowship position, and looks forward to a wonderful synergy.

Bilaal Evans: Security Officer

bilaal @ imancentral.org

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