OUR TEAM
Campaign Manager
Kifah is an applied econometrician and social entrepreneur. Kifah has been a community organizer with the Asian Law Caucus, the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley, CLUE LA, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and elsewhere. Kifah has worked internationally on migration, health, and education policies/interventions at organizations such as the Migration Policy Group in Brussels, Belgium, and the Aman Foundation in Karachi, Pakistan. Kifah was selected for a 2017 TED Residency as founder of sustainable fashion label, SuKi Se, which aims to formalize informal sectors of Pakistan’s textile economy as well as reimagine what Pakistani/Pakistani-American means and looks like.
Executive Director
Linda is an award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, community organizer, every Islamophobe's worst nightmare and mother of three. She is a Palestinian-Muslim-American born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is the former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and the co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPower Change. Linda was one of the national co-chairs of the largest single day protest in US history, the Women’s March on Washington. She has been named amongst 500 of the most influential Muslims in the world. She has won numerous awards including Champion of Change from the Obama Administration. She was recognized as one of Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders and featured as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. Linda is a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow and just released her highly anticipated book, “We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love & Resistance. She is a frequent media commentator on issues impacting Muslim communities, Middle East affairs and criminal justice reform and most recognized for her transformative intersectional organizing work and movement building
Digital Organizing Fellow
Nahid is a 2019-2020 Kairos fellow based in Durham NC. Before arriving at digital organizing, they have been a teacher, an online facilitator, an educational consultant, a babysitter, a caregiver, and a poet. The obsession with stories and narratives as powerful forces for dismantling oppressive systems has stubbornly stayed with them through all of this and fuels their passion for digital organizing, cultural campaigning, and healing justice.
Campaign Director
Sijal is a multimedia artist, grassroots organizer, and former Kairos fellow based in Durham, NC. A lifelong southerner, he has spent the past 10 years building political and cultural organization in NC. From co-leading the protest band “Cakalak Thunder” to supporting electoral efforts for progressive power building with the Campaign to Elect Jillian Johnson and Durham for All, he is now practicing how to run meaningful and relational campaigns online. His approach to organizing has been informed by his Palestinian upbringing, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the collective struggle for immigrant justice globally.
Field Organizing Director
Ishraq has worked in faith-based and online organizing and environmental activism on both coasts of the United States. Prior to MPower Change, Ishraq was the Membership Manager at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, where his love for urban cycling and advocacy for equitable mobility came together. He got his start in grassroots work through MAS Boston (the Muslim American Society of Boston), then organized with the Industrial Areas Foundation in Illinois, came back to New York and organized with New York Communities for Change on GOTV campaigns, tenant organizing, foreclosures, and school reform issues. A 2016 Fellow with the Los Angeles Leaders Council, Ishraq previously served as a fellow and later a facilitator for Bend the Arc’s Community Organizing Residency program in 2011, a fellowship that trained and guided grassroots organizers at nonprofits nationwide. He was also a fellow in the National American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute in 2013, a program that trained Muslim leaders on effective leadership development and civic growth.
Campaign Manager
Lau is a Campaign Manager at MPower Change, where she harnesses digital campaigning tools to win campaigns that move forward justice and liberation for all. At MPower, Lau focuses on the intersections of technology, surveillance, and state violence, working on campaigns demanding tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon to divest from and end partnerships with ICE, police, and prisons locally in New York City, nationally in the U.S. and abroad in Palestine. She's been a community organizer, writer, & graphic designer since college, particularly focused on migrant liberation, PIC abolition, and transformative justice.
#MyMuslimVote Fellow
Mahreen is a creative youth organizer and passionate civil liberties advocate. She recently served as youth organizer at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) where she organized over a hundred youth on local campaigns such as, the Invest in Youth campaign to create a youth dedicated department in the city of Los Angeles for the cities most disadvantaged youth, and organize around government surveillance programs specifically on college campuses throughout California. In addition, she developed curriculum to foster social justice and advocacy training for Muslim youth to become civic leaders in their communities. She strongly believes in empowerment through education, and also serves as a community health educator for HEART Women & girls, an organization that provides education that fosters sexual health education and confronts sexual violence and abuse. In the Fall, Mahreen plans to start her Masters in Public Policy at UCLA where she hopes to focus her skills on providing resources to the homeless youth population in Los Angeles.
#MyMuslimVote Fellow
Ameer is a grassroots community organizer who began his work in advocacy combating human sex trafficking while also fighting to de-stigmatize issues surrounding mental health and gender equality. Ameer also stands as National Policy Coordinator for PERIOD.org, where he served as Campaign Director for National Period Day, hosting over 60 rallies, in 50 states and 5 countries, fighting to exempt menstrual products from luxury taxation. Passionate about inspiring civic engagement, Ameer has worked diligently over the years to mobilize young activist across the country to voice their concerns and vote on a range of issues from gun control and climate change to abortion rights and healthcare.
#MyMuslimVote Fellow
Abdullah is a young community organizer that spends much of his time working with people who have great compassion and dedication to bring about change around the world. A great opportunity opened up for him in October of 2019 and allowed him to travel with UNICEF to Germany for the Child Friendly Cities Initiative Conference. Abdullah attended this conference taking on the role of UNICEF youth Ambassador for the United States. After returning from his trip, he has made one of his top goals to make Brooklyn the first child friendly city. Aside from his work with UNICEF, Abdullah works with the Muslim American Society’s (MAS) Youth Department. With the youth department he helps train young leaders and acts as a mentor for many. Finally, throughout his years in highschool Abdullah has interned for many of his local representatives to get to know his government better.
Programs Manager
Sadaf is an aspiring organizer who spent her undergraduate career interning for nonprofits on and off campus. Passionate about public service and community development, she served as a Project Leader of the Hunger Prevention and Homeless Outreach Campaign for the on-campus chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) where she empowered the student body to take action on the city’s growing poverty crisis. Sadaf has also worked for elected officials on the local and national levels. A former CLDP fellow and ISF grant recipient, she served her Member of Congress in DC through a highly competitive national fellowship aiming to introduce young Muslim professionals to careers in government and public policy. Sadaf currently serves as the Board Secretary for the Muslim Democratic Club of New York (MDCNY).