Board of Directors

The following biographies are for the Board of Directors of Muslim Advocates.

Awais Sufi is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Muslim Advocates and NAML. Mr. Sufi serves as Vice President of Employability Programs, at the International Youth Foundation, and previously worked as Managing Director and General Counsel of the Education For Employment Foundation (EFE). Mr. Sufi was previously a corporate and securities attorney with the law firm of Arnold & Porter, leading pro bono efforts to develop regulatory protections for the operation of international Islamic aid organizations. He also served as a law clerk to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Aakif Kazi Ahmad is a Managing Director of The Corporate Executive Board Company (CEB), providing best practices research, decision support tools, and executive education to a membership of the world's leading corporations and not-for-profit institutions. With CEB for the last ten years, Mr. Ahmad was elected in 2002 to the firm's Policy Committee, which recognizes the top 40 leaders across the firm for their contribution and leadership. From 2002-2005 he led CEB's European sales strategy, tripling the size of the sales department. Currently he is responsible for North American sales for CEB's largest division and oversees more than 100 US-based staff. Mr. Ahmad graduated from Yale University in 1996, earning his B.A. in an interdisciplinary program combining the study of philosophy, political science and economics.

Farah Brelvi was a litigation associate for five years with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where she handled cases involving significant challenges to civil rights protections. Ms. Brelvi has been a member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA, serving as the Board's Vice-Chair, and for three years as a member of its Executive Committee. She has also worked for the Carter Center, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and as a desk officer for the U.N. human rights mission to Haiti.

Mohammad Fadel is the President Emeritus of NAML. He joined the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in January 2006 as an assistant professor teaching business law and Islamic law. Professor Fadel previously was an Associate in the corporate and securities practice in the New York office of the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. He has clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. In addition to his J.D., Professor Fadel holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.

LaDale K. George is a partner in the Chicago office of Foley & Lardner, where he represents a variety of healthcare providers in the areas of clinical research, corporate transaction, regulatory compliance, and tax-exempt operations. Mr. George serves as legal counsel to the Islamic Society of North America, the African-American Health Care Council, and numerous other not-for-profit organizations. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, and is a former president of the Muslim Bar Association of Chicago.

Amber Khan provides strategic communications advice to Muslim Advocates and NAML. She just completed her tenure as the Executive Director of The Communications Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes the effective use of strategic communications in strengthening philanthropy and the public interest sector. Ms. Khan directs the South Asian/Muslim Strategic Communications Collaboration, a civil rights awareness project supported by the Ford Foundation. She also serves on the Communications Committee of the Forum of Regional Association of Grantmakers, the Media and Public Affairs Committee of the Council on Foundations, and the National Program Advisory Board of the Council for America's First Freedom.

Shahzad A. Malik is a partner with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Based in the firm's Los Angeles office, Mr. Malik's practice focuses on tax matters.

He is past chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Corporate Tax Committee and has written articles and given lectures on income tax matters. Mr. Malik currently serves as co-chair of the Judicial Endorsements Committee of the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California. He was recently named a "Southern California Super Lawyer" by Los Angeles Lawyer magazine.

Mohamed Yusuf M. Mohamed is an Associate Counsel with Wayne Farms LLC in Oakwood, GA and practices in nearly all areas of business law. From 1998 to 2005, he served as a trial attorney with the Office of the Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, DC. Mr. Mohamed is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law where he was Executive Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law. He received his Bachelors of Science in Management with honors at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Asifa Quraishi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she teaches courses on U.S. constitutional law and Islamic law. She is currently completing her S.J.D. at Harvard Law School, with a thesis in comparative Islamic and American legal theory. Professor Quraishi is a founder of MuslimJD, NAML's predecessor organization.

Naheed Qureshi is a Neighborhood Empowerment Analyst with the City of Los Angeles, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Prior to her current position, Ms. Qureshi served as a National Field Organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, DC, focusing on the USA PATRIOT Act and other post-September 11th civil rights and civil liberties issues. Ms. Qureshi previously held positions with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security where she worked to build bridges between the federal government and ethnic and immigrant communities throughout the nation. At the Justice Department, Ms. Qureshi also focused on obtaining discrimination complaints, organizing national civil rights forums, and outreach to the Muslim, Arab and South Asian American communities. She joined the Department as part of the Attorney General's Honors Program, working as an attorney advisor for Immigration Judge Ellen K. Thomas. Ms. Qureshi is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Georgetown University Law Center

Ahmed Taha is an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, where he teaches courses on civil procedure, business associations, and law and economics. Professor Taha previously served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice and as a litigation associate with the firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati in Palo Alto, CA. He holds both a J.D. and Ph.D. in Economics.

Rashid Alvi is a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York City. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Alvi was a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Lehman Brothers and an associate at the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1999, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Mirza Baig is Chief Executive Officer of Legal Advantage, LLC and a skilled finance professional with over fourteen years of experience in media, retail, technology, legal and marketing services and investments in US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He has worked on all stages of operating companies from multi-billion dollar technology mergers to venture funding of start-up businesses in a variety of sectors and countries. Mr. Baig graduated with a BS (Economics) from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.