MEET THE 2022 TRAINING TEAM
As Executive Director of PANA, Ramla Sahid has overseen the organization’s growth and prominence as it has skyrocketed in a few short years to become one of San Diego’s most important civic engagement and advocacy organizations. Ramla has received numerous awards for her work with PANA including the “2017 Women of the Year Award” by Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, “2017 Global Citizen Award” from the United Nations Association of USA, the “Muslim Community Champion Award” by the Islamic Center of San Diego, and was named the “2017 Voice of the Year “by the Voice of San Diego. She regularly speaks at conferences on the power of building and leveraging community voices to achieve equitable outcomes for families.
Dilara is a communications strategist, progressive advocate, and mom fighting for abortion rights based in Washington, DC. For nearly a decade, she has led communications for organizations and campaigns at the state, regional, and national levels. Dilara founded Yilmaz Communications where she works with nonprofits around the world to achieve their communications goals. At home, she loves to bake bread, play with her dogs, and travel.
Kamilah A. Pickett is a public health professional, trained lawyer, writer, abolitionist, racial equity trainer and curator of dope Black Muslim spaces. Her work focuses on the intersections of race, justice and health; she brings a racial equity lens to every space in which she is engaged, community and professional. Kamilah believes in the power of transformative justice and is most concerned with cultivating healthy spaces and getting folks free.
Sijal is a multimedia artist, grassroots organizer, and former Kairos fellow based in Durham, NC. A lifelong southerner, he has spent the past 10 years building political and cultural organization in NC. From co-leading the protest band “Cakalak Thunder” to supporting electoral efforts for progressive power building with the Campaign to Elect Jillian Johnson and Durham for All, he is now practicing how to run meaningful and relational campaigns online. His approach to organizing has been informed by his Palestinian upbringing, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the collective struggle for immigrant justice globally.
Linda is an award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, community organizer, every Islamophobe's worst nightmare and mother of three. She is a Palestinian-Muslim-American born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is the former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and the co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPower Change. Linda was one of the national co-chairs of the largest single day protest in US history, the Women’s March on Washington. She has been named amongst 500 of the most influential Muslims in the world. She has won numerous awards including Champion of Change from the Obama Administration. She was recognized as one of Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders and featured as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. Linda is a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow and just released her highly anticipated book, “We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love & Resistance. She is a frequent media commentator on issues impacting Muslim communities, Middle East affairs and criminal justice reform and most recognized for her transformative intersectional organizing work and movement building.
Reema Ahmad is a community organizer with experience in political, electoral, and issue-based campaigns. Reema was born and raised in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious family in Milwaukee. She credits her strong belief in civic responsibilities and community-built power with social activism growing up, as well as coming of (political) age post-9/11 in a tight-knit American Muslim community with a history of educational outreach. In her first job after college, working in government affairs, she saw firsthand the consequences of political dis-engagement on the ability of minority communities to see their concerns taken up by elected officials. Identifying a need, Reema collaborated with community leaders to found Project Mobilize, a 501(c)4 organization dedicated to increasing civic participation and representation from politically marginalized communities across Chicago. The effort increased political participation from American Muslim voters by 54 percent and saw 2 of its first-time candidates elected into local offices. Reema later joined Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Chicago, where she led the Pan-Asian Voter Empowerment [PAVE] Coalition of 13 social service community-based organizations. She directed strategic community outreach for the Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia mayoral campaign in Chicago, mobilizing political support, money, and votes from across Middle Eastern, Asian, Arab, and Muslim American communities. More recently, Reema was campaign manager for a state representative race in Chicago and the second most diverse district in the country for a grassroots Asian American and Muslim American candidate. Reema is passionate about creating the authentic relationships and mutual investments between diverse communities that will be essential in the next 30 years as the U.S. becomes a minority-majority country. She firmly believes this job will be rooted in community organizing and driven by young people: paving the way for future generations to keep the baton moving forward.
Said Durrah oversees the Volunteer Department at Islamic Relief USA, also known as the Volunteer Management Office (VMO). This means that anything related to engagement of over 15,000 Volunteers and Interns nationwide is his top responsibility. Said joined Islamic Relief USA over 6 years ago and has worked in Fundraising and Community Outreach departments as well as an Event Coordinator and Development Coordinator before making the move to become the National Volunteer Manager. He has traveled all over the world visiting the many different projects implemented by the support of Islamic Reliefs donors and volunteers including refugee camps, shelters, and even disaster sites. He has witnessed first hand how a small collection drive organized by a few youth or a large fundraiser can change lives.