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 Marable 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 three children 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.

Sheelah Muhammad: Deputy Director

sheelah @ imancentral.org
Sheelah Muhammad is known for her high energy, proactive leadership style and her wide-range of expertise developed over nearly twenty years of professional history. Before coming to IMAN, she provided strategic services to philanthropic, Fortune 500, government and not-for-profit organizations in domestic and international markets. She is a nationally-recognized alternative food systems advocate and co-founder of the Fresh Moves Mobile Produce Market, a nonprofit social enterprise originally created to use innovative community-driven solutions to increase access to fresh, healthy, high-quality food options in low-resource and historically excluded communities.

Prior to launching Fresh Moves, Sheelah was program officer at Oprah’s Angel Network and The Oprah Winfrey Foundation where she developed and advanced the charity’s research agenda on social determinants of health and health inequities. She led the Healthy Communities program area focusing on key initiatives linking education, youth development, economic opportunity, housing and community health. As a social entrepreneur, a naprapath and the daughter of a grocer, Sheelah is ardent about positively shifting the health trajectory of children and families in low-resource communities. Her years of experience in community development and social justice have shaped her belief that where you live determines how you live.

Sheelah is a member of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Cook County Place Matters team, board treasurer for Healthy Schools Campaign, and a guest lecturer at Northwestern University School of Education & Social Policy. She holds a Doctorate in Naprapathic Medicine from the National College of Naprapathic Medicine, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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.

Omari Kamal: Finance Director

omari @ imancentral.org
Prior to working with IMAN, Omari was an Advisor in the Wealth Management Division of the Private Bank of JP Morgan. In addition to having been an accountant in private practice, Omari has held a variety of other managerial and executive financial management positions with companies like Bank One, TD Waterhouse, and American Express.  He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Roosevelt University and an MBA in Finance from DePaul. He is currently working towards earning the CPA designation in early 2013

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, M.D.: 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.

Francisco J. Lozornio, Licensed Clinical Social Worker

francisco @ imancentral.org
Francisco is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and received his Masters degree at the University of Southern California (USC). He is currently an adjunct professor at Northeastern Illinois University, Social Work Program. Before moving to Chicago a little over two years ago, he was the director of the Behavioral Health Service program at the Valley Community Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center, in the Los Angeles area in California. His previous work experience also includes the following: developing and implementing male involvement programs (rights-of-passage, teen fathers, and fatherhood programs), working within the juvenile justice system as an advocate/educator to prevent the incarceration of youth, providing direct behavioral health services to youth, families and adults. Francisco has also previously worked in the areas of hospice counseling, HIV/AIDS counseling, family and children counseling, and crisis and trauma intervention counseling. Before joining IMAN, Francisco worked at Marquette Elementary School as a Behavioral Health Consultant and provided direct behavioral health services to students and family members in the Marquette Park community.

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 Director

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.

Bilaal Evans: Security Officer

bilaal @ imancentral.org

Fellows

Zeinab Bakhiet: Executive Fellow

zeinab @ imancentral.org
Zeinab graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Public Health and a minor in Global Environmental Change & Sustainability. While in Baltimore, she volunteered with a variety of inner-city assistance programs, ranging from food justice to healthcare to education. She has been a certified Emergency Medical Technician for the past three years and spent some time serving on her university’s emergency response unit and volunteering with inner city medic units. As an undergrad, Zeinab was also an intern at the Johns Hopkins Interfaith Center, and spent a summer living in rural India, where she researched barriers to HIV care.  Born in California but a resident of cities and countries far and wide over the years, Zeinab looks forward to exploring Chicago’s many diverse communities through her work with IMAN.

Adil Haider: Finance Fellow

adil @ imancentral.org
Adil received a Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. In his time at UIUC, he served as the Treasurer and subsequently President of the Muslim Students Association. He also spent a year working in different capacities at Avicenna Community Health Center, a free health clinic based in Champaign, Illinois.  He has also served as Assistant High School Basketball Coach and Summer School Math Teacher at Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park, Illinois.

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