Adil Ahmed serves as Chief of Performance of the Maryland Department of Transportation. He previously served as a Senior Advisor at the Department of Transportation and Chief Counsel to the Chair of the Federal Election Commission where he advised and leads on a range of enforcement, litigation, rule-making, diplomatic, and legislative efforts. Before his current post, Adil was Special Counsel in the United States Army’s Office of General Counsel, serving as one of the highest ranking civilian attorneys for the department. Prior to government service, he served as deputy director of voter protection on the Biden-Harris campaign.

Since graduating from law school, Adil worked as a corporate M&A lawyer for two big law firms, and served as director of policy and worker organizing for an immigrant and workers’ rights center, where he developed impact litigation, leadership development programs, and helped lead coalition efforts to pass New Jersey’s first guaranteed severance bill for low-wage workers and a law that granted undocumented persons the right to apply for a driver’s license.

Before law school, he was a union organizer and played a key role in leading thousands of workers into the union and building one of the fastest growing public employee union councils on the East Coast.

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Rashad Hauter serves as a District Court Judge in Wake County, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Campbell University School of Law and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Judge Hauter was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to the bench in 2021 and was elected to a full term in 2022. He is the first Yemeni American judge in the United States and the first Muslim judge in North Carolina.

Judge Hauter was recently appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate to serve on the Judicial Standards Commission. He is a founding member of the North Carolina Muslim Bar Association and serves on the DEI committee of the Wake County Bar Association.

Laila ElGohary is a political strategist and technology leader with over a decade of experience driving unconventional solutions in the advocacy space. She served as USAID’s Executive Secretary in the Office of the Executive Secretariat.

Prior to joining USAID, Laila was the White House Liaison and Director of National Outreach for the U.S. General Services Administration. In this role she was responsible for the appointment process of GSA leadership positions, the agency’s relationship with the White House and external stakeholders, and oversaw the Offices of the Regional Administrator.

Laila served as the Director of Technology and Operations for the the White House Office of Presidential Personnel during the Obama Administration.

Prior to joining the Biden Administration, she was the Chief Technology Officer at the first-ever virtual and Emmy nominated inauguration in history. She also served as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for the Biden-Harris campaign, leading the product and development teams.

Laila has worked on elections and advocacy campaigns on five continents, supported labor unions to advocate for and drive higher wages for janitorial, building services, food, and commercial workers. She is a strong believer in diverse voices driving social change.

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Dr. Hashima Hasan is a Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington DC. Her scientific research topics span the study of nuclear reactions, visibility degradation caused by atmospheric pollutants, optics of the Hubble Space Telescope, and stellar motions in barred galaxies.

Her achievements include the scientific leadership of over a dozen astrophysics space telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, Gravity Probe B, and The James Webb Space Telescope. Awards and fellowships that she has been honored with throughout her outstanding career include NASA Exceptional Performance Award, several NASA Group Achievement Awards, U.S. National Research Council Resident Research Associate, Commonwealth Fellowship.

Dr. Hashima has publications in leading scientific journals in her fields of research, and is a graduate of Lucknow University (India), a gold medalist from the Aligarh Muslim University, India (Physics, 1970) with a doctorate from the University of Oxford (U.K.). She also raised two sons without a break in her career and is a role model to young women today.

Madiha Latif is an innovative thinker with over 20 years of broad-based expertise in leadership, financial management and customer engagement.  She is very passionate about working to improve federal government operations for the greater good of her fellow Americans.

Madiha previously served as the Deputy Assistant Commissioner  within Revenue Collections Management (RCM) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. She has oversight responsibility for providing executive day-to-day leadership for the Compliance and Reporting Group (CRG), in support of the Government’s collection and settlement of over $4.2 trillion in federal revenue each year (e.g., taxes, fees, fines, loan repayments, customs duties, donations) and the processing of 500 million transactions annually.

Madiha has also held leadership positions in RCM as the Agency Relationship Outreach and engagement Director where she transformed the way RCM facilitated adoption of innovative solutions to its 225+ federal agency customer universe implementing a holistic approach of a one voice methodology.  

Prior to joining the Federal government, Madiha held several leadership positions within the private sector supporting U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  She is also a veteran, having served in war zones with the active duty Army.

Madiha has an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from Harvard Kennedy School, an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from the University of Maryland and Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management from University of Phoenix.

Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP, CHEP, is an internationally recognized public health and healthcare leader, biosecurity advisor, epidemiologist, and science communicator specializing in infectious disease preparedness and response. As the Chief Biopreparedness Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal healthcare system in the U.S., she leads efforts to enhance biopreparedness and special pathogen response. She is also the Co-Principal Investigator of the NYC Health + Hospitals Institute for Diseases and Disaster Management, driving innovation in infectious disease preparedness and mitigation.

Dr. Madad has played a pivotal role in responses to numerous outbreaks, including Ebola, Zika, Measles, COVID-19, and MPox, while also advising elected officials on critical health security topics. She provides expert guidance to organizations such as the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Microbial Threats, and the World Health Organization. Her leadership has been recognized through numerous awards, including a citation by Nassau County in New York, and she has been highlighted in Fortune’s 40 Under 40.

Beyond her frontline work, Dr. Madad is a Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where she leads initiatives promoting diversity in STEM and supports the Defense, Emerging Technology, and Strategy Program. She serves as Core Faculty at the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) and Affiliate Faculty at Boston University’s Center for Emerging Infectious Disease Policy & Research. As the Public Health Editor-at-Large at the New York Academy of Sciences, she shapes discussions on critical global health issues. A widely published expert, she has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post and frequently appears on major media outlets. Dr. Madad has been featured in multiple documentaries, including the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak and the Discovery documentary The Vaccine: Conquering COVID, bringing global awareness to infectious disease preparedness and response.

In addition, Dr. Madad is the founder of Critical Health Voices, a platform dedicated to amplifying diverse perspectives and advancing critical discussions in global health. To stay connected and receive updates, you can sign up here: https://criticalhealthvoices.substack.com

Follow Dr. Syra Madad on her socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syramadad
Twitter: https://x.com/syramadad
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/syra-madad-5b9495/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/syramadad/

Saeed Mody recently served as Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he advised the Associate Attorney General on a wide range of high-priority policy and legal matters and was appointed DOJ’s Anti-Hate Crimes Resources Coordinator.

Prior to his appointment, Saeed served as Counsel to Senator Richard Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee and advised on issues including civil rights, cybersecurity, and national security. Saeed spent ten years as a manager and trial lawyer in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is an accomplished senior litigator who has investigated and prosecuted cases across the country.

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Ahmed Mousa is a life sciences entrepreneur with a background in molecular biology and an attorney with significant IP and FDA experience. Ahmed currently serves as Chief Executive Officer at Vicore Pharma, an innovative clinical-stage pharmaceutical company unlocking the potential of a new class of drugs with disease-modifying potential, based in Stockholm, Sweden. He formerly served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Operations and General Counsel of Pieris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PIRS), a U.S.-German biotechnology company developing cutting-edge therapies in immuno-oncology and for respiratory disease.

Prior to joining Pieris, Ahmed was an Associate at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and an attorney with the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, where he represented pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in a range of matters, including significant experience in generic and biosimilar drug litigation.

A founding Advisor to MAPS, Ahmed’s experience in public service included a stint with the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and a judicial clerkship at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Ahmed obtained undergraduate degrees in Government and Molecular Biology from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, with research experience prior to his legal career focused on tumor biology and angiogenesis. Ahmed graduated from Georgetown Law with honors, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Journal of International Law.

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Judge Samia Naseem was appointed as an Immigration Judge by Attorney General William Barr in December 2019, and has presided over cases in the Chicago Immigration Court for nearly six years.

Her extensive legal career includes service as a law clerk to the Honorable Judith N. Macaluso in Washington, D.C. from 2004 - 2005, as an attorney at the Law Offices of Khalid Naseem in Massachusetts from 2005 - 2007, and as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, where she represented the federal government before multiple circuit courts from 2007 - 2010. Before her judicial appointment, Judge Naseem served as an Assistant Chief Counsel with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in both New York City and Chicago from 2010 - 2019.

Judge Naseem is a member of the State Bar of New York. She is also a member of the Asian American Judges’ Association of Illinois (AAJAI), the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago (MBA), the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago (SABA), the Asian American Bar Association of Chicago (AABA), and the National Asian Pacific Bar Association (NAPABA). She proudly serves as the treasurer of AAJAI, a mentor for the MBA, an Advisory Council member for MAPS, and a Judicial Council member for NAPABA.

Judge Naseem earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2001 from Simmons College and a Juris Doctor in 2004 from the George Washington University Law School, where she received the distinction of Thurgood Marshall Scholar. As part of her Juris Doctor program, she studied International Human Rights Law and Refugee Law at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Asim Rehman is the Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law Judge at the NYC Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings (OATH).  OATH is the New York City’s central, independent administrative law court.  As the agency’s chief executive, Asim helps further OATH’s mission of adjudicating city matters fairly, resolving conflicts within city agencies, and providing inclusive and equitable access to justice.  OATH is the nation’s largest administrative tribunal, holding approximately 400,000 trials and hearings a year.  Mayor Adams appointed Asim to this role in March 2022.

Asim began his legal career as a Federal Law Clerk in the Southern District of New York and thereafter practiced law with two firms where he handled complex litigation, white-collar criminal defense, internal and government investigations, anti-corruption matters, and a broad range of pro bono cases.  Following the passage of the 2013 Community Safety Act, Asim joined NYC’s new DOI Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD as General Counsel and was later promoted to First Deputy Inspector General.  At OIG-NYPD, Asim helped build this independent oversight office from the ground up, managed legal operations, supervised investigations, and oversaw the release of critical reports aimed at reforming the NYPD. After five years in police oversight, Asim joined the the NYC Law Department as Chief of Staff.  As a member of the Law Department’s executive team, Rehman supported the Law Department’s efforts to provide legal guidance to the city throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Asim joined the NYC Department of Correction as Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters & General Counsel.  As the Department’s Chief Legal Officer, he oversaw the agency’s Legal Division and provided legal advice and counsel to the Commissioner, agency officials, and staff.  He remained in this role until his appointment at OATH.

In 2006, Asim and a group of lawyers founded the Muslim Bar Association of New York (MuBANY).  As President, he helped build MuBANY into one of the country’s largest and most active regional bar associations for Muslim lawyers and law students.  While with MuBANY, Asim wrote and spoke on issues concerning civil liberties and the Muslim American community and has consulted with New York community organizations on law enforcement matters. He has served on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Working Group, has testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and was sent by the U.S. State Department to India to talk to audiences about civil rights, civic engagement, and the U.S. legal profession.

Asim is also an Adjunct Professor or Law at New York Law School where he teaches “Law, Public Policy & Social Change.”  Asim received his J.D. from The University of Michigan Law School and his B.A. from Haverford College.  He is Staten Island native and lives with his family in Brooklyn.

Leveraging her expertise in international development, foreign policy, diplomacy, & advocacy, Fatema Z. Sumar leads efforts to fight poverty by transforming global systems in reaching vulnerable populations. She is the author of the book, The Development Diplomat: Working Across Borders, Boardrooms, and Bureaucracies to End Poverty.

Fatema most recently served as the Vice President of Compact Operations at the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a role appointed by President Biden. She oversaw all the agency’s compacts – MCC’s signature grant investment vehicle to reduce poverty. She previously served as MCC’s Deputy Vice President for Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America.

Fatema has a distinguished career in the U.S. government in both executive & legislative branches. She previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the US Department of State where she led efforts to expand regional economic and energy connectivity & as a Presidential Management Fellow. In Congress, she was a Senior Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, & the broader region.

In civil society, Fatema was the Vice President of Global Programs at Oxfam America where she oversaw regional development & humanitarian response to fight the injustice of poverty. Early in her career, she also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Fatema sits on Advisory Boards for Princeton, Cornell, & Indiana universities & on the Advisory Council for Muslim Americans in Public Service. She has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The New Republic, The Hill, & other outlets. She is a frequent guest speaker & has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives & U.S. Senate.

Fatema has a MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a BA in Government from Cornell University. She studied abroad at the American University in Cairo and received an honorary doctorate from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey.

Yusufi Vali is Chief of Staff of Boston Public Schools and previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Michelle Wu. As Deputy Chief of Staff, Yusufi supported the Mayor and her Chief of Staff in leading the Mayor’s Cabinet and implementing Mayor Wu’s transformative vision of a Boston that works for all residents. Yusufi plays a key role in advancing Mayor Wu’s priorities, strengthening City government to be responsive to residents’ needs and voices, and ensuring strong collaboration among City departments, local organizations outside City Hall, and other levels of government to effectively deliver programs and services.

Before this role, Yusufi served as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement, where he supported the Mayor’s legislative agenda on immigration and strengthened pathways for civic, economic, and cultural integration for Boston’s foreign-born residents.

Prior to joining the City in July 2019, Yusufi served as Executive Director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. He was a Fulbright Scholar, a Marshall Scholar, and a Barr Fellow. He is an immigrant from Nagpur, India, and a proud resident of Roslindale.

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Judge Asad Ba-Yunus currently serves as a United States Administrative Law Judge for the past 8 years, handling social security disability cases. He also serves as a judicial instructor, teaching judges and staff on legal process matters. Judge Ba-Yunus began his 25-year career as a criminal prosecutor in the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office.

In private practice for 12 years, he served the Muslim community as a member of the Majlis as-Shura of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and spoke on numerous panels at ICNA and ISNA conventions on legal and political topics. He also served on the board of directors of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), including its Ethics Committee, and was a founding member of the Florida Muslim Bar Association.