Alumni Board Page - Islamic Scholarship Fund

previous board members

Alumni Board of Directors

We want to honor and appreciate our volunteer board members who have spent countless hours and resources to support young American Muslim future leaders, since 2009.

Thank you!

Mazen Asbahai, Esq.

Board Member from 2021 to 2024

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Mazen Asbahi is a Partner at Edwards, Maxon, Mago, & Macauley (Em3), LLP. He has over 20 years of experience working with clients in healthcare and corporate law. In healthcare, Mazen represents physicians, dentists and other providers, as well as start-up and growth stage companies in the healthcare and technology sectors on their respective transactional, regulatory and operational matters.

Mazen’s corporate law background encompasses serving as outside general counsel to fast-growing companies and representing entrepreneurs, investors, and executives in the areas of start-up, venture capital and private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and general commercial matters.

With a strong commitment to serving the community, Mazen has served on a number of boards of directors and regularly counsels nonprofit boards and executives on governance, best practices, and day-to-day operational matters. Mazen is a Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago, a premiere civic leadership development organization.

Mazen earned his J.D., with cum laude honors, from Northwestern University School of Law in 2000 and received a B.A. with high honors in political science and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan in 1996. He is currently attending Loyola University Law School to earn a LL.M. in Health Law.

Salman Ravala, esq.

Board Member from 2020 to 2021

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Mr. Salman Ravala is an attorney, arbitrator, and mediator in New York City. He is the Founder of the Dollar-A-Day Scholarship Fund and a member of the Board of Trustees at Scholarship America. He leads a variety of Access to Justice and Access to Higher Education initiatives around the United States and globally. He is a Life Fellow at the New York Bar Foundation and teaches at Columbia University and New York Law School. A former Visiting Legal Scholar at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Mr. Ravala most recently served as the Ariane de Rothschild Fellow for Dialogue and Social Entrepreneurship, a program held in partnership with Columbia Business School and Cambridge University. Ravala's civic engagement and community service have been recognized with the American Red Cross Distinguished Service Award, the President's Call to Service Award, and an invitation to speak at the White House. His long-term vision is to decrease the illiteracy rate in Muslim majority countries and throughout America, as he believes education leads to change, hope, progress, and opportunity.

Michael wolfe

Board Member from 2015 to 2017

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Mr. Michael Wolfe is co-founder of Unity Productions Foundation and Co-Executive Producer for UPF Films, which has produced ten feature documentary films, mostly broadcast nationally on PBS. As an author, Wolfe’s first books on Islam were “The Hadj, a First-Person Travel Account” and “One Thousand Roads to Mecca: An Anthology of 10 Centuries of Pilgrim Travel-Writing.” After September 11th, he edited “Taking Back Islam: American Muslims Reclaim Their Faith,” which won a 2003 Wilbur Award. In 1997, Wolfe hosted a televised account of the Hajj from Mecca broadcast nationally on ABC Nightline. The program was nominated for Peabody, Emmy, George Polk, and National Press Club Awards. In 2003, Wolfe worked with CNN-International reporter Zain Verjee to produce a documentary on the Hajj. Michael is also the co-director of UPF’s Hollywood engagement program, called MOST – Muslims on Screen and Television, which works with writers and producers to develop more true-to-life Muslim characters and storylines on television and in films.

Arshad Ahmed, esq.

Board Member from 2012 to 2013

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Mr. Arshad Ahmed has weaved his way through law and business, serving at two AmLaw10 law firms: Latham & Watkins LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the latter of which was recognized by PitchBook's Decade Report as the top private equity law firm of the 2000s. After ascending to partner at K&E, he transitioned from lawyer to fund manager, this time launching a VC fund that invested in ASEAN startups. He has taught law and legal theory at various top-tier law schools where he has offered courses on private equity, venture capital, and even contemporary Islamic finance and banking. He has volunteered with organizations advancing traditional knowledge, protecting religious liberty, and challenging bigotry.

Kashi Tahir

Board Member from 2018 to 2020

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Mr. Kashi Tahir is a product leader at Facebook. He currently leads a few virtual reality teams in the AR/VR group. Before that, he held roles in Growth and Interfaces at FB. And in a previous chapter, Kashi founded and scaled Envictus, a national social entrepreneurship that helped 1 million students get into college. He was a participant and is now a mentor at StartX, Stanford University’s startup accelerator. Kashi holds a bachelor's degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and has multiple awards and recognitions from the Public Policy & International Affairs Fellowship (PPIA), BMW Foundation, and the AIP. He has also been featured in TIME magazine and the Washington Business Journal.

Dr. Hatem Bazian

Board Member from 2011 to 2018

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Dr. Hatem Bazian is a co-founder and Professor of Islamic Law and Theology at Zaytuna College, the 1st Accredited Muslim Liberal Arts College in the United States. In addition, Prof. Bazian is a lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bazian between 2002-2007, also served as an adjunct professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses on Islamic Law and Society, Islam in America: Communities and Institutions, De-Constructing Islamophobia and Othering of Islam, Religious Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies. In addition to Berkeley, Prof. Bazian served as a visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College of California 2001-2007 and adviser to the Religion, Politics and Globalization Center at UC Berkeley.

In Spring 2009, Prof. Bazian founded at Berkeley the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the Center for Race and Gender, a research unit dedicated to the systematic study of Othering Islam and Muslims. Prof. Bazian in Spring 2012 launched the Islamophobia Studies Journal, which is published bi-annually through a collaborative effort between the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project of the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California at Berkeley, the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative for the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University; the Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia, and Zaytuna College. In addition to academic work, Dr. Bazian is a weekly columnist for the Turkish Daily Sabah Newspaper and Turkey Agenda online magazine. Dr. Bazian is the founder and national Chair of American Muslims for Palestine, advisory board member of the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Muslim Legal Fund of America, President of Dollar for Deen Charity, and Chair of Northern California Islamic Council.

Ali Sheikholeslami

Board Member from 2009 to 2011

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Mr. Ali Sheikholeslami is a project manager at a major public utility in the San Francisco Bay Area, managing major capital improvement projects. He has a BS in Environmental Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, and an MS in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University, San Jose, CA. He is one of the founders of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Oakland, CA, and he has been an active member of the Muslim community in the Bay Area for the past 30 years.

Dr. Ejaz Naqvi

Board Member from 2011 to 2020

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Born in Karachi Pakistan, Dr. Naqvi graduated from the University of Karachi medical school in 1983. He has been working with Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek and Martinez, CA since 1990. He is Chief of the Pain Management Program and the Director of Graduate Medical Education at Kaiser Permanente, Walnut Creek, CA. He frequently gives lectures on Pain Management at the Kaiser Medical Center. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Naqvi has been involved with various community projects and organizations. He has supported the establishment of Islamic centers, and youth programs, as well as organized health fairs and given healthcare-related lectures to the general community at local Islamic centers. He was the treasurer of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) local chapter in 2009. He is currently the Director of Communications and Public Relations of Imamia Medics International, USA.

Dr. Farid Senzai

Board Member from 2015 to 2019

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Dr. Senzai is the founder and president of the Center for Global Policy and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Santa Clara University. He is on the board of advisers at The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. His most recent book is "Political Islam in the Age of Democratization." Dr. Senzai received his M.A. in international affairs from Columbia University and Ph.D. in politics and international relations from Oxford University.

Dr. Ahmad Bahai

Board Member from 2009 to 2010

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Dr. Ahmad Bahai is a senior vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) of Texas Instruments responsible for guiding break-through innovation, corporate research, and Kilby Labs.

Dr. Bahai is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University and IEEE Fellow. He was a professor in residence at UC Berkeley from 2001-2010.

Throughout his career, Dr. Bahai has held a number of leadership roles including director of research labs and chief technology officer of National Semiconductor, technical manager of a research group at Bell Laboratories, and founder of Algorex, a communication and acoustic IC and system company, which was acquired by National Semiconductor.

previous board members

Alumni Board of Directors

We want to honor and appreciate our volunteer board members who have spent countless hours and resources to support young American Muslim future leaders, since 2009.

Thank you!

Mazen Asbahai, Esq.

Salman Ravala, esq.

Michael wolfe

Arshad Ahmed, esq.

Kashi Tahir

Dr. Hatem Bazian

Ali Sheikholeslami

Dr. Ejaz Naqvi

Dr. Farid Senzai

Dr. Ahmad Bahai

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