OUR TEAM
Board of Directors
Dr. Hamid Rezapour
Founder & President
Dr. Rezapour is the founder of the Islamic Scholarship Fund, the largest scholarship program of its kind in the nation. He is also one of the founders of the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California and has been an active member of the Muslim community for the past 30 years. Dr. Rezapour has operated dental practices in the Bay Area for the past twenty five years. He holds an MBA degree from the University of Berkeley Haas School of Business and Columbia University in New York. He has been involved with angel investment groups since 2000 and has been at the founder's level of several startups while serving on the board of several private and venture capital-backed companies. He is also the founder and CEO of Vertical Ventures, a private equity investment firm in the Bay Area.
Dr. Dalia Fahmy
Board Member
Dr. Dalia Fahmy is an Associate Professor of Political Science & Program Director, International Relations and Diplomacy at Long Island University where she teaches courses on US foreign Policy, World Politics, International Relations, Causes of War, and Politics of the Middle East. Dr. Fahmy's current research looks at the changing role of Islamists in the democratic future of the Middle East. She has published several articles in academic journals focusing on democratization and most recently on the effects of Islamophobia on US foreign policy and been interviewed by and written op eds for various media outlets including ABC, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, the Huffington Post, and appears often on Aljazeera. Dr. Fahmy has won several academic awards and fellowships for her research. In 2014, she was one of the recipients of the prestigious Kleigman Prize in Political Science. She was awarded the Newton Prize for excellence in 2016.
Ismail Mahomed
Board Secretary
Ismail Mahomed is a Managing Director at a successful Information Technology company based in San Ramon, CA. Born and raised in South Africa, he holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and has been a Bay Area resident since 1987. He's an advisory board member of IdeaShepherdvc, an Incubator based in San Ramon, that provides angel funding and co-development opportunities for startups. He is also currently on the board of the San Ramon Islamic Center, which addresses the needs of the Muslim community in the Tri-Valley area, and has served as both the President and Vice President of the institution.
Shahed Amanullah
Board Member
Shahed Amanullah currently serves as Managing Director of Frost Capital, a Palo Alto-based private equity fund manager, and concurrently serves as a global VP at growth strategy consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. He also co-founded Affinis Labs, an award-winning social innovation firm that was acquired by Frost Capital in 2019. Shahed also co-founded Zakatify, a social impact fintech startup in partnership with the PayPal Giving Fund.
From 2011-2014, Shahed served in President Barack Obama’s administration as Senior Advisor for Technology at the US Department of State, working on entrepreneurship & technology initiatives under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In 1998, he created Zabihah, the world's first global Halal restaurant guide, and also founded Altmuslim, an online magazine with 2.5 million annual readers, and served as its editor-in-chief for 10 years before its 2011 acquisition.
He has been named three times as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world, five times as one of the 500 most influential entrepreneurs in the global Islamic economy, and winner of the SXSW Community Service Award.
Staff & Consultants
Somayeh Nikooei
Executive Director
Somayeh launched ISF's operations and programs in 2009 and has been expanding the work of the organization ever since. She is passionate about strengthening the Muslim community and has a keen interest in supporting motivated young people as they are the foundation of our future in this country. Somayeh has a BA in Architectural Design from the University of California, Berkeley and a MA in Public Administration with a focus on Nonprofit Management from San Francisco State University. She serves on the board of the Northern California Islamic Council (NCIC) and enjoys yoga, painting, reading, cooking, hiking and biking with her two daughters and husband in her free time.
Lida adim
Program Manager
Lida is a second-generation Afghan-American and community organizer based in the Bay Area, California. During the Trump administration’s negotiations with the Taliban, she led advocacy efforts to ensure Afghan women were represented at the table. In anticipation of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, she co-founded Afghans For A Better Tomorrow, a grassroots organization focused on uplifting Afghan voices and advocating for humanitarian support.She currently serves as a Program Manager at the Islamic Scholarship Fund (ISF), a Bay Area-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing American Muslim representation in media, film, public policy, and law.Lida’s writing has been published in Newsweek and cited by Al Jazeera, Vox, the Los Angeles Times, and Business Insider, among other global outlets. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from San José State University and an M.A. in International and Intercultural Communication from American University.She remains committed to building a more inclusive and just society through advocacy, education, and increased representation of American Muslims across key industries.
Sohaib syed
Development Coordinator
Sohaib is passionate about nonprofit work and community engagement, bringing years of experience in non-profit administration and operations. Previously, Sohaib served as an Administrative Assistant at ISF, supporting program management, finances, event management, and IT support. Holding a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and a background in IT and software quality assurance, Sohaib excels in innovative problem-solving. He is dedicated to mission-driven work that fosters organizational growth and impact. In his free time, Sohaib enjoys spending time with family, giving back to his community, and playing league basketball.
Iman Zawahry
Film Programs Director
Iman Zawahry is one of the first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers in the nation. She has worked on numerous films that have played at over 150 venues worldwide. She’s an Emmy award winner, Princess Grace Award recipient, a Lincoln Center Artist Academy Fellow, and Sundance Momentum Fellow. She is also the co-creator of the first American Muslim film grant with Islamic Scholarship Fund where she currently serves as Director of Film Programs. Iman works to amplify the underrepresented female voice and frequently consults and speaks across the nation on Muslims in Film. Her debut film, Americanish, is has screened at fifty festivals and has won twenty five awards, including best director and best film. She is currently faculty of film production at the University of Florida.
Aizzah Fatima
Artist Development & Partnerships Manager
Aizzah Fatima is an award-winning filmmaker, playwright, actor, and comedian. She is a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts. Muslim Girls DTF is her directorial debut. Her feature film Americanish has won 25 festival awards including Best Actress, Best narrative feature among others, and has been acquired by Sony International for distribution. She has been touring her critically acclaimed one woman play Dirty Paki Lingerie internationally and in the US since 2011. She is a 2021 Orchard Project Episodic Lab fellow with her pilot A.S.S. Crawler, and winner of the 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award, Yes, And...Laughter Lab, and an ISF film award for her TV pilot Muslim Girls DTF: Discuss Their Faith. The pilot world premiered at SeriesFest where it won Best Comedy Writer award and The Caz Matthews Fund award in 2022. She received her MFA in Writing for Film & TV from Emerson College, and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Firdaus Arastu
Media Programs Advisor
Firdaus is an advocacy communications strategist with 10 years of experience shifting media narratives for communities targeted by Islamophobia and racism. She creates evidence-based communication strategies that build power, and has trained over a thousand people in media skills across the U.S. and globally. As the Rights and Inclusion Program Director at ReThink Media, she led a team that strengthened the communications capacity of the movement of Black, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian advocates and creatives.
Firdaus was an editor and writer covering women, gender issues, and Muslim American culture. She co-authored “American Muslim Women and Faith-Inspired Activism,” in Feminism and Religion: How Faiths View Women and Their Rights. She provided research for “American Muslims, American Islam, and the American Constitutional Heritage,” in Religious Freedom in America. She has been featured in Al Jazeera English, Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, altMuslimah, Patheos, and The Tribune India, See Something Say Something, and Justice for All Now. Firdaus earned her B.S. in Psychology and B.A in Anthropology from Syracuse University.
Wardah Khalid
Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor
Wardah Khalid serves as Senior Policy & Strategy Advisor for ISF's Congressional Fellowship and Internship program. She is a former ISF scholarship recipient and worked on Capitol Hill as an APAICS Congressional Fellow. She's also a foreign policy analyst, activist, and the Founder and Board President of Poligon Education Fund, a national civic education and advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening Muslim American engagement with Congress.
Zahraa Saheb
Senior Policy Advisor
Originally from Baghdad, Iraq, Zahraa Saheb moved to the United States with her family in 2008 as a refugee, escaping war, political persecution, and terror. In 2018, she graduated from Texas Wesleyan University with a degree in Political Science with a Global emphasis and a degree in English with a Writing concentration. She graduated from the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), earning a Master’s in Global Risk. Zahraa’s passion for service and advocacy brought her to Washington, DC, where she first served as a Legislative Correspondent for Congressman Marc Veasey (TX-33) in 2018. Currently, she is the Legislative Director at the office of Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16). Emboldened by her own experiences as a refugee and a Muslim woman of color, as well as the global challenges of politics and the inequalities we seek to rectify, Zahraa’s lifetime mission is to help dismantle inhumane systems, laws, and policies of oppression.
Muna Sultana
Policy Programs Coordinator
Muna Sultana is currently a Masters of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) student as a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow at Georgetown University, concentrating in Global Politics and Security and Arab Studies. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Studies with a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Franklin and Marshall College where she served as the Student Body President.
During the last few years, she has gained valuable experience working with the U.S. Department of Interior, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of State. Additionally, she is an alumnus of the International Leadership Foundation Scholarship (ILF), Conference on Asian-Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL), Alexander Hamilton Scholarship and Islamic Scholarship Fund.
As a Pakistani-American woman, Muna hopes to uplift Muslim and South Asian voices in public service and is excited to serve the Islamic Scholarship Fund community!
Shajuti Hossain
Legal Programs Advisor
Shajuti Hossain is an attorney working with the Law Office of Julian Gross on racial and economic justice policy development, including equitable contracting initiatives and community benefits agreements, for public agency and nonprofit clients. She has experience in affordable housing, land use development, and transportation policies. Previously, Shajuti was an Associate at Renne Public Law Group, where she represented local public entities in California in property tax and employment litigation, investigated workplace complaints, and provided advice on various employment issues. Before that, she was a fellow then staff attorney at Public Advocates, where she advocated for equitable policy changes and legal implementation to address the Bay Area housing affordability crisis at local, regional, and state levels. Shajuti is from Raleigh, N.C, but now lives in San Francisco and is admitted to the California bar.
Shaheed Ansari
Legal Programs Manager
A graduate of the City University of New York School of Law, Shaheed distinguished himself through his academic excellence and leadership. As a recipient of the 2023 Sorensen Center for Peace and International Justice Fellowship, the ISF 2024 Bar Grant, and the ISF 2021 Legal Scholarship, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to justice and inclusivity. His involvement as Co-Founder of the Men of Color Collective, Student Representative, and Teaching Assistant reflects his dedication to uplifting underrepresented voices in the legal profession. Shaheed’s multifaceted career is rooted in his belief in the power of education, mentorship, and systemic change. Through his work at ISF, he continues to amplify resources and representation for Muslim legal professionals, ensuring the next generation of lawyers is equipped to break barriers and serve their communities with excellence.
Lena Ghrama
Legal Programs Manager
Claire Downing
Foundation Relationship Officer
Claire Downing is a seasoned nonprofit and philanthropic professional with a track record of building capacity with communities impacted by the War on Terror, structural Islamophobia, and human rights abuses. She currently runs a consulting practice, The Moonlight Collaborative, through which she advises and partners with nonprofits and funders to achieve their goals in racial equity, evaluation, program strategy, and more. Claire is a community builder, connector, educator, advocate, and conflict resolver whose work centers empathy, healing, and creativity.
Prior to starting The Moonlight Collaborative, Claire worked in racial equity consulting, in philanthropy with BAMEMSA communities (Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian), and supported nonprofits building organizational capacity. Claire is a former Young Professionals in Foreign Policy Human Rights Fellow, and a current PhD candidate in conflict analysis and resolution.
Aisha Ghori
DEIJ+ Advisor
Aisha Ghori Ozaki (she/hers) is a justice, diversity, equity and inclusion practitioner serving as an inaugural DEI Director in Northwestern University’s Office for Research. She also recently spent several years on the enterprise-wide Inclusive Diversity & Equity team at Allstate. Aisha is a frequent presenter and facilitator on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as professional development topics. She is devoted to ensuring that all individuals feel welcome, find their passion and contribute toward creating an inclusive and just environment. In addition to her corporate experience, Aisha spent about 18 years in higher education and is thrilled to be back in the higher education arena. Aisha holds both a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Sociology from DePaul University and is certified in the administration and interpretation of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and the MBTI. Aisha also holds Diversity and Inclusion certificates from Northwestern University and Cornell University. Aisha volunteers with multiple organizations and especially enjoys mentoring and supporting organizations like Chi-Care, Young Center, Association for Northwestern Women (ANUW), Bethany House and My Block My Hood My City. Aisha serves on the board of directors for Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago and Muslim Women’s Alliance of Chicago and recently completed a 2-year board term with IL Muslim Civic Coalition. Aisha remains active in various professional associations, has authored 3 articles for the Inclusion Solution and especially enjoys her support of the Forum on Workplace Inclusion where she has served on the conference programming committee, presented at the annual conference and served as a coach since 2020. In her free time, she enjoys spending time traveling, with her family (when they’re all in the same place), trying new foods and most nights you can find her at her local gym catching a workout class.
Tina Tran
Accountant
Tina Tran is ISF's accountant and the Director of Client Services at Abacus Hive, a cloud-based, full service, full force accounting firm that partners exclusively with nonprofit organizations in our shared communities. She graduated from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville with a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, with a focus on Supply Chain Collateral. Before Abacus Hive, Tina worked as Senior Production/Corporate Accountant at NorthSouth Productions, National Senior Accountant at Random Acts of Flowers, and as an Accounting Intern at ORNL Federal Credit Union.
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