2007
Yusra Gomma
Civil Rights Law Clerk - Winter '07
Yusra Gomaa is a Law Clerk at CAIR-Chicago. She graduated from the University of Chicago and is a law student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She will be working on employment discrimination cases as well as other civil rights cases represented by CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Department.
Billy Georgakis
Civil Rights Intern - Summer '07
Billy Georgakis is a Law Clerk at CAIR-Chicago. He just finished his second year of law school at Chicago-Kent College of Law where he is a columnist for his law school's newspaper The Commentator. He will be working on employment discrimination cases as well as the other legal projects CAIR specializes in. Billy has previous experience in employment discrimination when he worked at Chicago-Kent's Labor and Employment Clinic during the Summer of 2006. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2005 with degrees in History and Economics.
Christopher E. Lentz
Civil Rights Intern - Summer '07
Christopher E. Lentz is a Law Clerk at CAIR-Chicago. He is a student at the University of Chicago Law School, where he serves as President of the American Civil Liberties Union Law chapter and Vice President of the Public Interest Law Society. Chris graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University in 2003 with a Bachelor's degree in both Political Science and Philosophy. Chris is from Bethlehem, PA, though he has also lived in Santiago, Chile and Lampang, Thailand. His professional interests include international human rights, civil liberties, religion, and cultural studies.
Farha Ahmed
Civil Rights Intern - Summer '07
Farha Ahmed is a Law Clerk at CAIR-Chicago. She graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science. She is currently a law student at the University of Illinois College of Law. She is the treasurer of the Muslim Law Students Association and the Alumni Coordinator for the Asian American Law Students Association at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Amina Butt
Communications Intern - Summer '07
Amina Butt is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she is majoring in Political Science and minoring in Sociology. In 2004 she was one of the founding members of CAIR-UIUC, the first university chapter of CAIR. Since then she has served as that chapter's executive director and communications director. In these positions she has worked to mobilize Muslims on civil rights issues. In 2005 she interned at a legal aid foundation in Southern Illinois providing free legal representation to the underprivileged. In 2006 Amina and her husband traveled to Aceh, Indonesia to teach at an orphanage for victims of the 2004 tsunami. She will be working at CAIR as a Communications Intern for the summer of 2007.
Lori Slimp
Communications Intern - Summer '07
Lori Slimp joins CAIR-Chicago as a summer Communications Intern. Lori completed her sophomore year at American University in Washington, DC where she is an international studies major with concentrations in the Middle East and Islamic studies. Lori speaks French, has studied Arabic for two years, and hopes to eventually speak Persian and Turkish. She loves to read, and first became interested in Islam and Muslims because her favorite book series is set in Egypt. Her other interests include theater, cooking, and playing games with her friends and family. She plans to study in Egypt at the American University in Cairo.
Mirza Baig
Communications Intern - Summer '07
Mirza Baig recently graduated from Benedictine University with a degree in Political Science and joins CAIR-Chicago as a summer Communications Intern. His interest in CAIR and communications evolved from studying and learning about the media. Mirza is planning to pursue an MBA this fall, and would like to work in a position that includes a global perspective. Mirza's interest in writing was sparked when the first news article he submitted to his university's newspaper for publication went straight to the front page. Mirza enjoys traveling and would like to see as much of the world as he can.
Mihammad Akbar
Communications Intern - Summer '07
Muhammad Akbar is a summer Communications Intern at CAIR-Chicago. He earned a Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from North Park University. He is pursuing his Juris Doctorate degree at John Marshall Law School. Muhammad is an active member of Young Muslims, a organization that teaches youth to understand their faith and mentors them so that they can become active contributors to the larger society. Muhammad's passion is to strive for justice and true understanding between people of different faiths and backgrounds to live up to the Quranic maxim [t]hat God created us in different nations and tribes so that we may know one another.
Musab Siddiqui
Communications Intern - Summer '07
Musab Siddiqui rejoins CAIR-Chicago as a Communications Intern. He is a sophomore in undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College. Musab is currently trying to sustain his successes from the first year of college which included creating and editing a new student newspaper, acting in two plays, and being elected vice president of his school's initially defunct, but now active MSA chapter. Musab uses his free time for creative expression, to stay in shape, and to follow his ambitions to become a movie director. He finds that the time he spent at CAIR last summer served to ground and motivate him for the year to come, and he hopes for the same.
Whitney Nickels
Communications Intern - Summer '07
Whitney Nickels opted for a communications internship with CAIR Chicago because it addresses what she feels most passionately about: the public's perception of Islam and Muslims. She hopes to demonstrate her capability in helping CAIR to fulfill its goals associated with media monitoring. Whitney recently graduated magna cum laude from Loyola University Chicago with a Bachelors degree in Religious Studies and a minor in Islamic World Studies. She intends to continue in her academic study of Islam with a goal of becoming a professor of Islamic Studies.
Christopher Noth
Governmental Relations Intern - Summer '07
Chris, 21, is a native of Des Moines, Iowa. He is a senior History major at DePaul University, and although his career path has yet to be fully formed, Chris has taken an interest in scholarship, education, politics and communication. Civil and human rights have become of particular importance to Chris. By the end of 2007, his involvement in service through DePaul University Ministry will have taken him to Denver, Los Angeles, and Nogales, Mexico. Chris has spent the past year acting as College Student Liaison to Community Building Tutors, a Chicago non-profit focused on the development of educated, civic-minded young people. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, playing bass guitar, running and hanging out with friends. Chris is excited to be working with CAIR this summer as a Governmental Relations intern.
Safia Qadri
Governmental Relations Intern - Summer '07
Safia Quadri is an undergraduate joining CAIR-Chicago as a Government Relations Policy Research intern. She is obtaining a Bachelors degree in history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a great interest in the Muslim diasporas and hopes to transform this interest into a career in law and civil liberties.
Abeer Azam
Outreach Intern - Summer '07
Abeer Azam is a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is majoring in English and minoring in Political Science. Abeer joined CAIR-Chicago as an outreach intern because of the opportunity it provides for reaching out to the Muslim community. She plans on pursuing family and immigration law to continue aiding the community. She loves playing tennis and enjoys reading and spending time with her sisters.
Kweon Kook Tak
Outreach Intern - Summer '07
Kweon Kook Tak joins CAIR-Chicago's Outreach Department as a Community Service Intern where he assists in finding diverse volunteer opportunities in the local community. He is a graduate student at Depaul Business School, majoring in Computational Finance to understand financial models and implement these models in the form of computer programs. He is interested in investment banking and hopes to be a quantitative analyst or a CFA(Chartered Financial Analyst) after graduation. Kweon is from South Korea and hopes to acquire valuable volunteer experience.