2014
Remal Hindi
Communications Intern – Fall ’14
Remal Hindi is a Communications intern for CAIR-Chicago pursuing a degree in English at UIC. As an intern she writes articles for the Chicago Monitor as well as assists in the daily responsibility of the CAIR-Chicago Communications Department.
Bill Chambers
Communications Volunteer Activist – Winter/Spring/Summer ’14
Bill Chambers is a volunteer for CAIR-Chicago. Bill is a full-time activist with a long history of civil rights, anti-racism, anti-war, Irish Republican, and Palestine solidarity work. His current passions are taking courses in Islamic and inter-religious studies; writing poetry; organizing Palestine solidarity events; and visiting his new grand-daughter.
Aya Nimer
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Aya is a Communications intern for CAIR-Chicago. She is a rising senior at University of Chicago Lab School. Aya, wanting to increase her participation in the civil community, joined CAIR-Chicago because of its dedication to social justice. Aya hopes to study economics in college. Her passions include poetry, fitness, and running.
Brittany Delk
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Brittany is a communications intern. Brittany is a graduate journalism student at Columbia College Chicago. After she graduates, she plans on moving to Houston or New York to get a job in multimedia, radio and or broadcast. She joined CAIR-Chicago in order to learn more about Islamic culture and covering public affair issues. When she's not reporting and producing video, Delk enjoys traveling, swimming at the beach and going to the gym. She's also heavily addicted to online shopping.
Cynthia Martinez
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Cynthia is a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago majoring in English and minoring in Law and Society. Cynthia hopes to one day pursue a career in communications and continue on to graduate school in order to obtain a Master’s degree in English. She joined CAIR-Chicago in order to learn more about the Islamic culture and help protect the civil rights of all people. She is also interested in learning more about the communications field and wants to further her own knowledge and share it with others. Cynthia is a self-identified romantic literature buff as well as a huge fan of the Chicago Bears.
Dania Mukahhal
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Dania is a Communications intern for CAIR-Chicago. She is a rising senior at Columbia College Chicago with a major in Graphic Design. Dania hopes to utilize her skills in graphic design towards social justice and raise awareness of bigotry and discrimination. Dania enjoys reading, sketching and would love to travel to teach children English or art-related activities.
Hatim Alhathloul
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Hatim is a Sophomore Marketing Major at DePaul University. He works as an Arabic tutor at the Department of Modern Languages in addition to being a Communication Intern at CAIR-CHICAGO. In his spare time, he enjoys photography and spending time with his family. He hopes to pursue a career in non-profit Marketing and Advertising.
Kiersten Hellegers
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Bio coming soon!
Saher Khan
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Saher is majoring in journalism and minoring in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An aspiring journalist, Saher’s professional goals include reporting on current events and international affairs for major publications like the New Yorker. Foreign correspondence and social justice issues are the specific fields she is most interested in. Saher has always had a passion for civil service and has followed the work of CAIR-Chicago for a while. She wanted to contribute to an organization dedicated to civil rights and social justice in the community and decided that working with CAIR-Chicago would be the best opportunity to do so. Saher is a self-proclaimed literati and enjoys traveling, watching movies and photography. She is also a huge soccer and tennis fan. Some interesting facts about Saher are that she has a horse, has traveled to almost every major city in the United States and is an avid follower of Shark Week.
Sara Abdeljalil
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Sara is a communications intern for CAIR-Chicago. Sara interned at CAIR-Chicago's Operations department in 2013. Sara is passionate about economics and foreign policy, and will be attending the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as a rising freshmen this fall, double majoring in economics and communications.
Sarah Husain
Communications Intern – Summer ’14
Sarah is a Communications intern for CAIR-Chicago. She is an undergraduate student at Emory University in Atlanta with a double major in French and Political Science. Along with French, she is fluent in Romanian and Urdu. Sarah loves traveling and will be spending this coming fall semester studying at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, France.
Emma Heidorn
Outreach and Government Affairs Intern – Summer ’14
Emma is an Outreach/Government Affairs intern for CAIR-Chicago. She is a recent graduate of University of Missouri-Columbia where she majored in English with a minor in Political Science. She hopes to obtain a Master’s in Arabic language and/or literature. Emma lived in Morocco during the summer of 2012 and has hiked half-way across Spain as well.
Allen Kenneth Schaidle
Outreach Intern – Summer ’14
Allen is an Outreach extern for CAIR-Chicago. He is currently completing his Master’s degree at Columbia University in International and Transcultural Relations with a minor in Education Development. Allen received his undergraduate degree from University of Kansas. He plans to obtain a Ph.D. in International Education with the goal of making the education system more culturally compatible. Allen enjoys traveling and even taught in Italy for a summer.
Fatima Shareef
Outreach Intern – Summer ’14
Fatima is an Outreach intern for CAIR-Chicago. She is an undergraduate student at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign with a major in Political Science. She is also currently on the board of the CAIR UIUC chapter. Fatima enjoys cooking, baking and watching Food Network.
Shivani Chokshi
Government Affairs Intern – Summer ’14
Shivani is a majoring in Biological sciences and criminology and law studies and minoring in Arabic at Marquette University. Shivani decided to join CAIR-Chicago because she is learning about the Arab culture in school while learning the language and decided that gaining experience out of the classroom would help a lot in connecting with the people. Her hobbies include photography, writing, and dance. Some interesting facts about Shivani are that she knows five languages and she also taught children English during her stay in India. She wants to continue to do social work in developing countries around the world.
Victoria Barbino
Government Affairs Intern – Summer ’14
Tori is pursuing her masters at the University of Richmond. She is majoring in Politics, Philosophy, economics and law and minoring in Arabic studies. Her professional goals are to work in government, non-profits or NGO’s where she can enhance the rights of all people. Tori decided to join CAIR-Chicago because she learned a lot about CAIR while looking for organizations that promote and enhance the rights of the Muslim community. Tori’s hobbies include reading, spending time with her family, watching CSPAN, engaging in social gatherings and philanthropic events through her sorority, Pi Beta Phi. She also likes watching football and golf, and enjoys eating. She loves sushi, has two nieces and a nephew and her best friend on Snapchat is her father.
Lateef Ajimotokan
Operations Intern – Summer ’14
Lateef is an Operations intern at CAIR-Chicago. He is completing his bachelor’s degree at Depaul University in Business Management and a minor in marketing. Lateef hopes to become the operations/finance manager for a non-profit institution. He enjoys adventure obstacle racing around the Chicagoland area and is fluent in sign language.
Changho Kim
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Changho Kim is a law clerk in the Civil Rights Department at CAIR-Chicago. He is currently a rising 3L at the University of Chicago Law School. He is a graduate of University of Tokyo in Japan where he earned a bachelor’s degree in law. Before coming to the U.S., he practiced in a Japanese law firm in Tokyo. His parents are both South Korean citizens, and he holds South Korean citizenship. He has been committed to pro bono activities, especially in the field of rights of foreign residents in Japan. Currently he is involved in policy advocacy to prevent hate crimes and hate speech in Japan as a member of various NGOs. He wants to gain experience in the area of hate crimes and discrimination against Islamic communities. He is a member of Japan and New York Bar. He also serves as a regional governor of Japan for the International Association of Korean Lawyers.
Hanna Wen
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Hanna is a law clerk in the Civil Rights Department at CAIR-Chicago. She is a student University of Illinois College of Law and hopes to gain experience with legal writing and advocacy. She is a graduate of University of Illinois at Chicago where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. Hanna is half South Korean and half Taiwanese and has dabbled with learning many languages including Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Russian and German.
Jason Keller
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Jason is a law clerk in the Civil Rights Department at CAIR-Chicago. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University where he received his bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing. Jason is currently completing his J.D. at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He enjoys basketball, snowboarding and used to write copy for T.V. and radio commercials.
Layla Taha
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Bio coming soon!
Louis Joseph Welebob
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Louis is a law clerk in the Civil Rights Department at CAIR-Chicago. He graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with a double major in History and Political Science and a minor in Islamic World Studies. Louis is currently a law student at DePaul College of Law. He enjoys baking, old movies and has lived in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.
Navid Zarrinnal
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Navid graduated the University of Iowa law school. He has a J.D. law and an M.A. in Islamic Studies. Navid’s professional goals include being a civil rights litigator and advocate and having a career related to constitutional and international law fields. He also wants to do investigative reporting and journalism and dedicate time to academia and teaching. Navid decided to join CAIR-Chicago because he has a passion for civil rights theory and practice, and constitutional law. He has an experiential and identitarian connection to Islam and the Muslim community and his philosophical and professional commitments relate to CAIR-Chicago’s work. Navid is an Iranian-American and his favorite poet is Hafez. His hobbies include connecting with Iranian diaspora, traveling and Persian and Arabic literature and language. He also does reporting for an international press, some of which deals with issues of American Muslim communities.
Tamer El-Amour
Civil Rights Law Clerk – Summer ’14
Tamer is a law clerk in the Civil Rights Department at CAIR-Chicago. He is a third year law student at Valparaiso law with an interest in Constitutional law. He wants to help close the bridge both legally and culturally between Islam and other sects of American society. Tamer is from North Carolina and is a dual-citizen of Palestine and the United States.
Samia Shameem
Communications Intern – Winter/Spring ’14
Samia is a Communications Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the English department. Samia is on her way to becoming a journalist and wants to use her career to write and educate the masses on various issues and events. In her free time, she is a health nut and loves to make green smoothies.
Alishba Malik
Communications Intern – Winter/Spring ’14
Alishba is a Communications Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently a student at Northeastern University for Justice Studies with a minor in Psychology. In the future she hopes to attend law school. In her free time Alishba likes to go out with friends and to go rock climbing. She was born in Pakistan and has three siblings.
Hadeel Hejja
Communications Intern – Winter/Spring ’14
Hadeel is a Communications Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is also a student at DePaul University studying biological sciences. In her future career she wishes to go into speech pathology and freelance journalism. Hadeel enjoys arguments, and has read over 8,000 books in 5 years!
Sabah Adil
Communications Intern – Winter/Spring ’14
Sabah is a Communications Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in Biology at DePaul University. After completing her degree she plans to attend medical school and do volunteer work in her field. In her free time Sabah likes to learn new things and help those around her.
Dounia Mshaiel
Communications Intern – Winter/Spring ’14
Dounia is a Communications Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently enrolled in a Bachelors program at DePaul University majoring in political science with a minor in Arabic. She eventually wants to work internationally with refugee camps and human rights development. In her free time she loves to travel and helping others to make a difference in a positive way.
Alexandra Beer
Government Affairs Intern – Winter/Spring '14
Alexandra is a Government Affairs Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently pursuing a degree in Politics and Environmental studies at Lake Forest College. Alexandra hopes to have a profession working towards social and environmental justice. In the past, Alexandra has participated in off campus study at the Mexican-American border and she is the President of the Lake Forest College Amnesty International.
Bilal Hussain
Government Affairs Extern – Winter/Spring '14
Bilal is a Government Affairs Extern at CAIR-Chicago. He is currently a PhD. Candidate in Sociology at Loyola University. His professional goals include coordinating, researching and teaching as well as building a better understanding of the Muslim Community in Chicago. He was born in the month of Ramadan in 1988 and is the first person in his family to attend graduate school.
Nick Burandt
Outreach Intern – Winter/Spring '14
Nick is an Outreach Intern at CAIR-Chicago. He is currently pursuing a degree in International and Arabic studies at DePaul University. In the future he would like to possibly attend law school and study abroad in the Middle East. He has a passion to protect human rights of all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. In his free time he likes to play the guitar, travel and learn new languages.
Nekira Francis
Outreach Intern – Winter/Spring '14
Nekira is an Outreach intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently pursuing an Associates Degree focusing in Journalism at Harold Washington College and hopes to transfer to University of Chicago or Depaul University for International Studies soon after. In her free time she enjoys dancing, reading, learning new languages and spending time with close family and friends. Nekira also has a working knowledge of Portuguese and spent time traveling, studying and dancing in Europe at age 18.
Michelle Mueller
Outreach Intern – Winter/Spring '14
Michelle is an Outreach Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is studying International Studies at DePaul University and minoring in Arabic and Communications. She is passionate about foreign policy and hopes to eventually enter the Foreign Service upon graduation. Michelle is an obsessive life planner with an extensive bucket list of 181 events!
Claudia Bertacchi
Law Clerk – Winter/Spring ’14
Claudia is a Law Clerk at CAIR-Chicago. She has been with CAIR-Chicago for two years now, specifically working on “the Prison Project.” She graduated from DePaul University in 2011 with a double major in Italian and Political Science, and a minor in Spanish. In addition, she studied law while in Cuba; and economics, history, and politics while she was in Argentina and Chile. She is fluent in both Italian and Spanish; and is a dual citizen of Italy and the United States. Claudia is currently in her last semester at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she is focusing on criminal law. In addition to working at CAIR-Chicago, Claudia has been working for the Cook County Public Defender’s office as a law clerk for the past two years. She has conducted over five trials and won several motions in court. Claudia has also worked for the National Immigrant Justice Center, where she helped detained immigrants facing deportation, and at Family Rescue, where she helped advocate for victims of domestic violence. She describes herself as a fierce person, who fights for what is right and does not take “no” for an answer. Claudia hopes to become a successful criminal defense attorney, and vows to never charge people who truly cannot afford her services. She also hopes to become a judge in the future. Besides her legal experience, Claudia is a certified Catechist for the Catholic Church, and she currently teaches Catholicism (“Sunday School”) to high school students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Melrose Park. In addition, Claudia also coaches soccer during the summer and fall. She enjoys cooking, watching Law & Order SVU, spending time with her family, and being a Pro-Life activist.
Chloe Bremer
Law Clerk – Winter/Spring ’14
Chloe is a Law Clerk at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently in her second year of law school at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
Kristen Callahan
Civil Rights Intern – Winter/Spring ’14
Kristen is a Civil Rights Intern at CAIR-Chicago. She is currently pursuing a degree in English at University of Illinois at Chicago. Eventually she wants to attend law school and practice law in Chicago.