Arab Americans were an quintessential part of American society from its founding years. They have served in Congress and inside the Cabinet, founded and led Fortune 500 U.S. -primarily based companies, fought in all primary U.S. Wars, and made contributions to the humanities, media, and technological know-how- amongst all other areas of American society. At nearly 3.7 million sturdy and growing at one of the fastest quotes inside the U.S., Arab Americans will without query preserve to positively form the future of the country.
Sadly the contributions of immigrants seem to recently be below assault and as an immigrant myself, I understand that reminding the sector that immigration is a factor to be celebrated is fundamental. In that spirit, I desired to focus on a set of younger leaders from the Arab-American network whose instance in constructing a higher America – a country of immigrants – will inspire us all in 2017.
10 Inspiring Arab-American Leaders
Deena Shakir (Iraqi-American)
Shakir is a completely unique hybrid of a techie, philanthropist, and public servant. She has worked within the State Department, leading its diaspora entrepreneurship applications; at Google.Org, building out the philanthropy’s civic innovation crew; and, most recently, at Google, main product partnerships for brand spanking new ventures and special initiatives. She co-based her first employer even as an undergrad at Harvard. Outside of her day task, Shakir serves on a number of nonprofit boards, inclusive of TechWadi, an business enterprise devoted to building bridges among Silicon Valley and the Middle East through helping, incubating and making an investment in tech marketers.
Ibrahim AlHusseini (Palestinian-American)
Known for his paintings as a humanitarian, environmentalist, and investor, AlHusseini is the founder and dealing with accomplice of FullCycle Energy Fund, which price range tasks that convert high priced worldwide waste into easy, treasured gas. AlHusseini also helps severa NGOs advancing cultural and social change in societies that adversely effect girls and women. He serves on the boards of The Culture Project, The Global Partnership for Women and Girls, Synova Power, and is an advisor to The Biomimicry Institute.
Jehane Noujaim (Egyptian-American)
Award-prevailing filmmaker Noujaim directs and produces films in the United States and the Middle East. The Harvard University grad turned into the first and youngest girl to win the TED prize for her work at the movie Control Room, a documentary film that looks at the relationship among the Pentagon and news groups at some stage in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was also the director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary movie, The Square, which depicts the Egyptian disaster from 2011 to 2013, further to several other critically acclaimed films consisting of Startup.Com, Pangea Day, and Rafea: Solar Mama.
Mehdi Alhassani (Iraqi-American)
Alhassani is Chief of Staff to the COO of Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley software program organization that seeks to transform the manner companies use their statistics. Prior to Palantir, Alhassani served on the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. He is also co-founding father of Palo Alto Forward, a non-income that seeks to increase housing and transportation options via civic engagement. He became unanimously appointed via the Palo Alto town council to function a Human Relations Commissioner for the metropolis, wherein his awareness has been on Veteran homelessness troubles.
Luma Mufleh (Jordanian-American)
Mufleh serves as Co-Founder and Director of Fugees Family, Inc., a nonprofit employer dedicated to assisting toddler survivors of struggle who’re now refugees in the U.S. The Fugees Family offers masses of youngsters after-college tutoring and sports, an academic-pushed summer camp, and year-spherical athletic possibilities, in addition to the Fugees Academy, the best U.S.-based totally faculty devoted to the schooling of refugees. Mufleh changed into the Recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award and the Smith College Medal.
Aron Kader
Stand-up comedian and a member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, in addition to The Sultans of Satire, a live stand-up comedy show that highlights Arab lifestyle and challenges non secular and cultural stereotypes. Kader changed into featured inside the 2013 documentary The Muslims are Coming!, which featured Muslim-American comedians visiting the United States so that you can counter Islamophobia. Kader has prepared numerous comedy workshops within the Middle East.
Wa’el Alzayat (Syrian-American)
Serves as CEO of EmergeUSA, the leading Muslim American civic and political engagement organization. Before this, Alzayat labored in public provider for a decade, most lately as Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. He previously served in a variety of policy positions in authorities, working on Syria, Iraq, and Egypt troubles.
Al Zayat additionally served as a Provincial Affairs Officer for Anbar, Iraq on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2007 to 2008 in the course of the Surge. Alzayat is an adjunct professor on the Georgetown School of Foreign Service where he teaches a graduate path on Iraq and Syria from the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq to the upward push of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
Shihab Kuran (Jordanian-American)
Investor, serial entrepreneur, and founder of Power Edison, a employer innovating grid battery strength storage answers. Power Edison lets in utility systems healthy transferring demand, defer pricey improvements to the grid, and send batteries to areas most in need of energy. Kuran has been a pacesetter in strength garage and microgrid generation for the duration of his profession, and formerly based Petra Solar, which pioneered a “smart sun” system combining sun generation with smart grid strength. He has been indexed in Greentech Media’s “100 people you must know in Smart Grid” and as Ernst
Alia Mahmoud (Tunisian-American)
Alia is a co-founding father of Aminta Ventures, a coalition of girls operating to domesticate the subsequent era of female angel traders, and “Le 15,” a brand new seed fund and accelerator software for revolutionary startups in Tunisia. She previously served because the Regional Corporate Citizenship Manager in the Middle East and North African area for Microsoft.
Alia has introduced a couple of TedxTalks on entrepreneurship and innovation, is a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Tunis Hub, and changed into named one of the “99 maximum influential foreign policy leaders below 33” by means of the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy and the Diplomatic Courier in 2012. Alia is wrapping up her time at Kairos and searching out new horizons to hold to guide from in 2017.
Dalia Rahman (Sudanese immigrant)
Born in Sudan, raised in Italy, and educated in America, Dalia is a pacesetter in the tech and finance groups. After incomes her undergraduate diploma from Vassar College, Dalia joined the United Nations in New York, operating as a finance analyst for the newly created Iraq Trust Fund in 2004. She obtained a Master’s in Public Administration and Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Curious approximately the personal zone and the world of banking, and then joined Goldman Sachs- advising customers within the Technology, Media and Telecom sectors first in London and now in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Conclusion
The stories of Arab-American OT leaders are a testomony to willpower, cultural identification, and professional excellence. They not handiest contributed drastically to occupational therapy but also opened doors for generations of Arab-Americans to achieve healthcare. Their stories encourage us that leadership isn’t simply about achievement—it’s about developing opportunities, constructing inclusivity, and empowering others to gain their highest ability.
