Staff

The bios of our staff members.

Farhana Khera - President & Executive Director

Farhana Khera is the first Executive Director of Muslim Advocates and the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML). Prior to joining Muslim Advocates and NAML in 2005, Ms. Khera was Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights. In the Senate, she worked for six years directly for Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI), the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee. Ms. Khera focused substantially on the USA PATRIOT Act, racial and religious profiling, and other civil liberties issues raised by the government's anti-terrorism policies since September 11, 2001. She was the Senator's lead staff member in developing anti-racial profiling legislation and organizing subcommittee hearings on racial profiling.

Prior to her service with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ms. Khera was an associate with Hogan & Hartson, specializing in commercial and administrative litigation. She also worked with Ross, Dixon & Masback, serving as the lead associate on several pro bono employment discrimination cases, which resulted in the firm being honored with the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

Ms. Khera was recently honored by the Auburn Theological Seminary with its Lives of Commitment Award, along with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Barbara Friedman. She has also been recognized by Islamica Magazine as one of "10 Young Muslim Visionaries," for leadership, innovative approaches and "a level of success that bodes well for America." She has been quoted or profiled by The New York Times, Associated Press, Austin American-Statesman, and San Jose Mercury News, as well as various legal, ethnic and religious media.

Ms. Khera received her B.A. with honors in political science and economics from Wellesley College in 1991 and her J.D. from Cornell Law School in 1994. At Wellesley, she served as president of the student body and co-founded the first Muslim students organization, al-Muslimat ("The Muslim Women"). At Cornell, Ms. Khera was a finalist in the law school's annual Cuccia Cup Moot Court Competition and was an editor with the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.

farhana (at) muslimadvocates.org
415-692-1484

Naheed Qureshi - Deputy Director

Naheed Qureshi is our full time deputy director. Ms. Qureshi is a former Neighborhood Empowerment Analyst with the City of Los Angeles, Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Prior to that 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. Ms Qureshi served on our board of directors from 2004-2009 and served as the chair of the fundraising committee.

naheed(at)muslimadvocates.org
415 692 1484

Akil Vohra - Counsel, Muslim Charity Works Campaign

Akil Vohra is a full-time staff attorney leading our Muslim Charity Works Campaign. Mr. Vohra brings practical and personal experience working with nonprofit organizations in the Muslim and South Asian American communities. He also brings legal expertise with federal regulatory agencies, including federal regulations relating to nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Muslim Advocates, Mr. Vohra was an associate with Hume & Associates in Washington, DC, where he specialized in international trade litigation and regulatory work and developed considerable skills and experience interfacing with federal agency officials. He has counseled clients on international trade matters, argued before the Court of International Trade, served as lead negotiator for multi-million dollar transactions, and supervised the litigation team.

Mr. Vohra was recently selected to be an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, which is an Edmond de Rothschild Foundation initiative in partnership with the Columbia Business School and the University of Cambridge. The focus of the program is to facilitate the creation of a community of socially engaged and committed Fellows from the Jewish and Muslim communities from France, the United Kingdom and the United States. This is an innovative program that interweaves social entrepreneurship and dialogue training--including both theory and practical application--to create an enlightened community of learners and leaders with enhanced practical skills and insight into their own identities.

Mr. Vohra earned his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School in 2002, where he received the Michael Dillon Cooley Award for service to the law school community, and his B.A. with honors from the University of California at Irvine in 1998. He has also completed a program in international human rights and immigration law at Oxford University (U.K.).

akil (at) muslimadvocates.org
415-692-1484

Nura Maznavi - Counsel, Program to Combat Racial and Religious Profiling

Nura Maznavi is a full-time staff attorney with Muslim Advocates leading its Program to End Religious & Racial Profiling. Prior to joining Muslim Advocates, Ms. Maznavi was an associate with the law firm Rosen, Bien & Galvan in San Francisco, focusing on civil rights litigation, primarily prisoner rights class actions on behalf of California state inmates. While at the firm, she represented a Muslim woman in an employment discrimination suit and presented the case to a panel of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Ms. Maznavi also worked as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was a Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka, where she worked with local and international non-governmental organizations on issues effecting Sri Lankan migrant workers.

Ms. Maznavi received her BA in Politics from Pomona College in 2000 and her JD, with honors, in 2003 from The George Washington University School of Law, where she received the Lawrence E. Seibel Memorial Award in labor and employment law. She has also studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo and completed an international human rights law program at the University of Oxford.

Ms. Maznavi was recently appointed to an advisory committee to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. She also serves on the board of the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers and is a representative to the Minority Bar Coalition of the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a member of the planning committee for the 2007 National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML) conference.

nura (at) muslimadvocates.org
415-692-1484

Munleen Soni - Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Munleen Soni is an executive assistant/office manager, providing critical administrative support to the professional staff, managing IT/office needs, and assisting with fundraising and development. Previously, she worked at Tikkun magazine and the Network of Spiritual Progressives, led by Rabbi Michael Lerner, as the office manager and assistant to the director of operations. There she was the first intern to ever be hired into a staff position and spearheaded Tikkun's transition from its existing donor and membership data system to a new, more efficient system. Prior to Tikkun, Ms. Soni worked at St. Anthony's Medical Foundation in San Francisco, which specializes in providing care for the homeless.

Ms. Soni is a recent graduate of St. Mary's College of California in Moraga, CA where she earned her B.A. with honors majoring in English with a special focus on post-colonial literature. While at St. Mary's, Ms. Soni wrote for the college's newspaper The Collegian as a political opinion writer. She also worked as a teaching and laboratory assistant helping first and second year chemistry students.

Munleen (at) muslimadvocates.org
415-692-1484

John Showalter - Communications Director

John Showalter is the communications director at Muslim Advocates. He brings over 15 years of public interest and social justice communications experience, including tenure as a communications specialist for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and as an associate for various public relations firms in New York City. He has a range of media related experience, including conducting media training, developing and implementing strategic communications plans, and community and government outreach. John received his B.A. in English from Emory University in 1993 and a Master's in Public Administration from San Francisco State University in 2007.

media (at) muslimadvocates.org