Omar Shakir, currently pursuing his JD at Stanford University’s School of Law, completed his master’s degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he held the prestigious Khaled Juffali Scholarship. Born of Iraqi descent and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Omar graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with honors in international relations. A 2007-2008 Fulbright scholar in Syria, he conducted research on contemporary Syrian economic reform and studied Islamic jurisprudence with the Dalalah Institute. Omar also studied abroad at Oxford University and in Morocco and Cairo and spearheaded humanitarian projects in Syria, Jordan, and the West Bank. At Stanford, he was actively involved in student organizations related to Islam and the Muslim World, serving as president of the Muslim Students Awareness Network in the year it was named Organization of the Year by the Student Union, president of the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, and founder and president of Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel. He was elected to the Stanford Undergraduate Senate with the most votes in the association’s history and served as the student representative to the Board of Trustees Finance Committee. In recognition for his contributions, Omar received Stanford’s 2006 James W. Lyons Service Award.