19th Annual Event Speakers

Dalia Mogahed is the Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, where she leads the organization’s pioneering research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims. Mogahed is former Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where she led the analysis of surveys of Muslim communities worldwide. With John L. Esposito, she co-authored the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. President Barack Obama appointed Mogahed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009. She was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about U.S. engagement with Muslim communities. Her 2016 TED talk was named one of the top TED talks that year. She is a frequent expert commentator in global media outlets and international forums. She is also the CEO of Mogahed Consulting.

Madhu Krishnamurthy is a senior staff writer and education writer for the Daily Herald. She covers suburban K-12 school districts, including Elgin Area School District U-46, and higher education institutions such as community colleges and universities. She also covers local governments, including Fox River Grove, Huntley and Lake in the Hills. Previously, she covered Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Rosemont and environs. She has covered human interest, political and diversity-related topics.

Madhu joined the Daily Herald in 2000 in the Lake County bureau. After eight years there, she joined the Cook County staff in January 2009. Madhu is also a mobile-journalist at the Daily Herald producing multimedia projects including her own photos and videos. She chairs the Editorial Diversity Committee whose goals are to broaden employees' understanding of the various cultures represented within and reflect the diversity of the communities the company serves through its news products. Madhu has done extensive work covering issues facing the Muslim, Arab, Latino and Hindu communities in the suburbs.

She is a frequent guest on ABC 7 Chicago News, and has given several radio interviews about her exclusive news reports. Madhu was a finalist for the 2010 Peter Lisagor Award for Best Investigative Reporting, and was part of a team of reporters who won the 2010 Lisagor Award for Best Deadline Reporting.

Before joining the Daily Herald, she worked at The Edmond Sun, a small daily newspaper covering Edmond, Oklahoma. There she worked as a writer, copy editor and paginator, designing and laying out the front and inside sections of the paper every day. She interned at the Daily Oklahoman and The Edmond Sun after graduating from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1998 with a bachelor of arts in newspaper journalism.

Governor JB Pritzker was sworn in as the 43rd governor of the state of Illinois on January 14, 2019 and won election with the largest margin of victory over a sitting governor in more than a century.

Before becoming governor, Pritzker founded 1871, the non-profit small business incubator in Chicago that has helped entrepreneurs create more than 11,000 jobs and more than 1,000 new companies. Since the creation of 1871, Chicago has been named one of the top ten technology startup hubs in the world, and 1871 was named the best incubator in the world. As governor, he has expanded support for new business incubators and cut taxes for hundreds of thousands of small businesses while incentivizing job creation and innovation. He also extended research and development tax credits to help manufacturing workers and businesses thrive, and he worked with the business community to create apprenticeship tax credits to promote job training.

The descendant of refugees, Governor Pritzker believes our state and our nation should welcome and protect its immigrant families and that we must fight against the wave of intolerance that has risen in recent years. Before becoming governor, he led the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, a nationally recognized institution where hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, police officers and others learn to fight bigotry and hatred. As governor, he has built the most diverse cabinet and governor’s office in Illinois history.

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, is the 47th U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois, the state’s senior senator, and the convener of Illinois’ bipartisan congressional delegation.

Durbin also serves as the Democratic Whip, the second highest ranking position among the Senate Democrats. Senator Durbin has been elected to this leadership post by his Democratic colleagues every two years since 2005.

Elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996, and re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014, Durbin fills the seat left vacant by the retirement of his long-time friend and mentor, U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

Durbin sits on the Senate Judiciary, Appropriations, Agriculture, and Rules Committees. He is the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and the Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee.

Senator Durbin makes approximately 50 round trips a year between Washington and Illinois. He is married to Loretta Schaefer Durbin. Their family consists of three children--Christine (deceased), Paul and Jennifer--as well as six grandchildren. They reside in Springfield.

Congressman Andre D. Carson is in his 7th full term in the U.S. House of Representatives, has established himself as an influential leader and respected public servant, fighting for good paying jobs, economic growth, and safer communities for Indiana’s working families.

Congressman Carson consistently fights for the middle class, securing hundreds of millions for investments in public safety, education, infrastructure, and the creation and protection of thousands of good paying jobs. Additionally, the congressman has made accessibility a priority for his office, holding regular meetings around Indianapolis and hosting Congress on Your Corner events to ensure constituents have easy access to the resources and information they need.

As one of three Muslims serving in Congress, Congressman Carson is a champion for vulnerable populations and is committed to the goal of equal protection under the law.

Marie Newman earned a B.A. in journalism and business from the University of Wisconsin.

In 2018, the progressive Democrat Newman sought to challenge incumbent Dan Lipinski for his seat in the US House of Representatives, supporting universal healthcare, funding birth control, abortion rights, and fewer incarcerations. However, she lost the primary with 48.87% of the vote to his 51.13%. In 2020, however, she defeated Lipinski in an upset primary victory, winning with 47.3% of the vote to Lipinski's 44.7%. She went on to win the general election in November.

As of her 2020 campaign, she had worked in advertising, consulting, and nonprofit advocacy. Newman founded a nonprofit organization, Team Up to Stop Bullying, which sought to address bullying among school children.
2020.

Jesús “Chuy” García is the Congressman of Illinois’ 4th Congressional District and one of the first Mexican immigrants to be sworn into the US Congress. Since taking office in 2019, Chuy has become a member of the Financial Services Committee, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Natural Resources Committee. 

As a progressive community leader and public servant for almost 40 years, Chuy has been recognized for his extensive work fighting for immigration rights, universal health care, criminal justice reform, and workers’ rights. 

Chuy was born in Los Pinos in Durango, Mexico. At 10 years old, Chuy and his family moved to Chicago and settled in the Pilsen neighborhood and later moved to Little Village.

Growing up in Chicago during the 1960’s and 1970’s, Chuy was influenced by the diversity of Chicago’s neighborhoods and contemporary civil rights movements, finding inspiration in leaders such as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and Cesar Chavez. During this time Chuy joined local organizing movements for workers’ rights and community empowerment.

Keith Ellison was sworn in as Minnesota’s 30th attorney general on January 7, 2019. As the People’s Lawyer, Attorney General Ellison’s job is to help Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity, safety, and respect. His guiding values are generosity and inclusion.

From 2007 to 2019, Keith Ellison represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he championed consumer, worker, environmental, and civil- and human-rights protections for Minnesotans. He served for 12 years on the House Financial Services Committee, where he helped oversee the financial services industry, the housing industry, and Wall Street, among others. Among his legislative accomplishments are passing provisions to protect credit-card holders from abusive practices and protect the rights of renters and tenants. While in Congress, he founded the Congressional Antitrust Caucus and the Congressional Consumer Justice Caucus. He also served as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which he helped build to more than 100 members.

Before being elected to Congress, Attorney General Ellison served four years in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Prior to entering elective office, he spent 16 years as an attorney specializing in civil-rights and defense law, including five years as executive director of the Legal Rights Center. As the leader of this public-interest law firm, he oversaw a team of attorneys focused on delivering justice for Minnesotans who had nowhere else to turn. He was also a noted community activist.

Attorney General Ellison received his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1990. He is the proud father of four adult children: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Amirah. He is the first African American and the first Muslim American to be elected to statewide office in Minnesota.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib represents the 13th District of Michigan. Tlaib is a well-known progressive warrior and, in her own words, “a mother working for justice for all.” Her two young sons are at the root of her unwavering passion to help change lives for the better. She is the oldest of 14 children, born and raised in Detroit, the proud daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents.

Rashida made history in 2008 by becoming the first Muslim woman to ever serve in the Michigan Legislature. She is beloved by residents for the transformative constituent services she provided, and for successfully fighting the billionaires and corporations that tried to pollute her district. When families get to know Rashida, they have no doubt that she will work tirelessly to knock down barriers for real change, and whether by policy or action, she will roll up her sleeves to make sure her residents are cared for, no matter how big the challenge.

As an attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, Rashida took the movement to the courts, fighting racist emergency managers, abusive state agencies, and leading the fight for community benefits agreements that promote equitable development. Rashida knows that effective advocacy requires an all-out approach, fighting in the community, in the legislature, and in the courts every day against injustice and inequality, so that every single person in this country has a chance to thrive.

Rep. Ilhan Omar represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which includes Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs.

An experienced Twin Cities policy analyst, organizer, public speaker and advocate, Rep. Omar was sworn into office in January 2019, making her the first Somali-American Member of Congress, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress.

As a legislator, Rep. Omar is committed to fighting for the shared values of the 5th District,  values that put people at the center of our democracy. She plans to focus on tackling many of the issues that she hears about most from her constituents, like investing in education and freeing students from the shackles of debt; ensuring a fair wage for a hard day’s work; creating a just immigration system and tackling the existential threat of climate change.

Rep. Omar also plans to resist attempts to divide us and push destructive policies that chip away at our rights and freedoms—and to build a more inclusive and compassionate culture, one that will allow our economy to flourish and encourage more Americans to participate in our democracy.

Born in Somalia, Rep. Omar and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family. As a teenager, Rep. Omar’s grandfather inspired her to get involved in politics. Before running for office, she worked as a community educator at the University of Minnesota, was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and served as a Senior Policy Aide for the Minneapolis City Council.

In 2016 she was elected as the Minnesota House Representative for District 60B, making her the highest-elected Somali-American public official in the United States and the first Somali-American State Legislator. Rep. Omar served as the Assistant Minority Leader, with assignments to three house committees; Civil Law & Data Practices Policy, Higher Education & Career Readiness Policy and Finance, and State Government Finance.

Sheikh Kifah Mustapha is the Imam and Director of The Prayer Center of Orland Park He is the appointed representative for the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Lebanon (Darul Fatwa) on behalf of the Lebanese Community in the USA

Sheikh Kifah Mustapha serves as the Chairman of the Illinois Council of Imams and Scholars and Chairman of the Quran Institute of Chicago MAS. He also served as a member on the Advisory Boards of The Mission and Spiritual Care for Advocate Health Group in Illinois, The Council for the Center for Faith and Community Health Transformation and The American Islamic College in Chicago.

He has received the CAIR-Chicago Mobilizer Award, the Arab American Business & Professional Association’s Outstanding Leadership Award and Lincoln Land Legends’ Scholars for Dollars Award. He is an experienced public speaker and an active participant in interfaith relations.

Sheikh Kifah Mustapha holds a bachelor’s in Sharia from American Islamic University in VA, USA, a diploma of Sharia (Master’s Program) from Beirut Islamic University (Azhar Beirut) in Beirut, Lebanon, and a diploma of Islamic Studies (Master’s Program) from Global Theological Foundation in IN, USA.

Sheikh Hassan Mostafa Aly is the Imam and Director of Religious affairs at The Mecca Center in Willowbrook, Illinois since December 2011. He is a graduate of prestigious Al-Azhar University of Cairo, Egypt in Islamic Studies and Sharia. 

He has the “sanad / ijazah” linked to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Quran and Hadith. He has held the position of Imam and served as the director of religious affairs in many Islamic centers and has taught at Islamic schools in Egypt and the USA. 

He is also the author of many articles published in newspapers and websites. Sheikh Aly is the recipient of the Best Religious Speech award from Al-Azhar University Cairo in 2002. He has hosted many Islamic radio shows in US. Currently, he is a Ph.D candidate in Theology. 

Gerald Hankerson is CAIR-Chicago’s Outreach Coordinator, leading community outreach, youth development, and civic engagement efforts. He directs the internship program, presents workshops, coordinates events and international engagement, and advocates policy and voting issues. He serves as a member of the African American Leadership Advisory Council at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), which aims to maintain and increase recruitment and retention efforts for students of African and African American descent. He also served three terms on the Board of Directors for Arise Chicago, an interfaith labor rights group. Gerald attended Lindblom Technical High School, graduating an Illinois State Scholar with high honors. A President’s Scholar and Pipeline to Justice Fellow in the Social Justice Initiative at UIC, he graduated with a B.A. in Communications. Gerald served two terms in the Muslim Students’ Association as its Program Coordinator, was an UIC Ambassador through the African American Action Network, a member of the Black Student Union, and was inducted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

An alumnus of the Chicago Debate League, Gerald contributed to the urban debate movement for 15 years, including serving as Head Coach and Coordinator of policy debate programs in Chicago Public Schools for six seasons. Given his years of service and activism, the Chicago Debate Commission and the Chicago Debate League honored Gerald as its 2015 Alum of the Year. North Park University (Chicago) recognized Gerald as a “Man of Excellence” in 2012. His personal journey as a new Muslim during high school and college is featured in the book I Believe In...Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Young People Speak About Their Faith (compiled by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins, © 2004), as well as the international public education campaign, MyJihad. Gerald has been committed to sharing his experiences and perspectives on multiculturalism, youth development, volunteerism, writing, research, policy debate and social critiques to bridging gaps between diverse communities. Gerald can be reached at ghankerson@cair.com.

Ahmed Rehab is Executive Director of the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as well as CAIR's National Strategic Communications Director. CAIR is the nation's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group. A prolific writer and lecturer on contemporary social issues including civil rights, media relations, and Islam-West relations, Rehab lectures at various University campuses in Chicago and around the nation. Rehab comments regularly as a guest on various local TV and cable news programs, as well as on radio stations. He has been interviewed by news publications such as the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, the Washington Post, the Orlando Sentinel, the Economist, the Boston Globe, Crain's Business Magazine, Germany's Die Zeit, and many more. His Op-Ed's have been published in numerous newspapers around the country.

Rehab, an alumnus of the FBI Citizen's Academy, leads local efforts to foster positive relations with law enforcement officials, elected officials, political appointees, and representatives of various governmental agencies. Prior to joining CAIR in August of 2004, Rehab was a freelance speaker, writer, and activist in the fields of interfaith collaboration, education, and community outreach. Between 1999 and 2002, Rehab served as a consultant for Arthur Andersen LLP - a global consulting firm. In 2005, he served as a consultant for Chicago's Niagara Foundation, a cutting-edge interfaith organization that promotes interactive dialogue and as Saturday night host for a local Radio Program on Chicago's AM dial.

In the summer of 1999, Rehab co-founded Ibex Computers in Des Plaines, IL and served as its president until April of 2005. He holds a Masters degree in software engineering from DePaul University and a Bachelors in Psychology from UIC. Rehab serves as a board member of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) a co-founder of the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University. He served as a board member and secretary of the Egyptian American Society, a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' (CCGA) Muslim task force, and an Eisenhower fellow of the American Assembly.

Muhammad Mazen Kudaimi, MD, FACG, is a Board Certified physician in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and currently practices gastroenterology in Northwest Indiana. He was born and raised in Syria and graduated form Damascus University Medical School in 1979. He moved to Chicago in 1980 and was trained at Cook County Hospital. Dr. Kudaimi served on the board of Universal School, the Mosque Foundation Board and the board of the Mosque Foundation Youth Center. In addition to being the board chair of CAIR-Chicago, he is currently the President of the Illiana Islamic Association in Highland, IN. He is married to Dr. Randa Loutfi and has six children.