Gregory T. Nojeim is the Associate Director and Chief Legislative Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington National Office. The ACLU is a nationwide, non-partisan organization of approximately 500,000 members devoted to protecting the principles of freedom and equality set forth in the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws. In this capacity, he coordinates the ACLU's legislative strategies, supervises its lobbyists, and helps to develop the ACLU position and message on pending legislation. He has been instrumental in developing ACLU's responses to the anti-terrorism legislation and initiatives of the Administration that have threatened civil liberties since the September 11 attacks.

Mr. Nojeim started at the ACLU in 1995 and has been responsible for analyzing the civil liberties implications of federal legislation relating to terrorism, national security, immigration and informational privacy. He frequently testifies before congressional committees and the various commissions Congress establishes. For example, Mr. Nojeim testified before Congress about counter-terrorism proposals following the Oklahoma City bombing, the use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings, driver's license privacy and the threat to civil liberties posed by national ID cards. Nojeim also works to limit the threat to privacy posed by governmental wiretapping and monitoring of Internet communications. He was instrumental in bringing together the broad coalition of groups from across the political spectrum that worked to strip overly intrusive wiretapping proposals from the 1996 anti-terrorism law.

Mr. Nojeim has also labored to preserve financial privacy and restore due process rights of immigrants - including the right of judicial review and the right to see the government's evidence used against the immigrant - that were taken away in 1996 immigration and terrorism legislation. Nojeim has long fought against discriminatory aviation security profiling and against proposals to require passengers to submit to invasive scanning devices that project an image of their naked body underneath their clothing. Nojeim spearheaded ACLU's efforts to ensure that arriving passengers are not strip-searched by the U.S. Customs Service on a discriminatory basis, and without adequate evidence or the approval of a magistrate.

Prior to assuming his position with the ACLU, Mr. Nojeim was for four years the Director of Legal Services of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). He conducted much of ADC's work in the immigration, civil rights, and human rights areas. Mr. Nojeim was employed for five years as an attorney with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, securities law, and international trade. He was graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Rochester in 1981, where he studied Political Science. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1985 and sat on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Journal of International Law.

Denyse Sabagh is a partner with the law firm of Duane Morris LLP, Washington, D.C. office and the head of the Immigration Practice Group. She is a former national President and immediate past General Counsel of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and is on its Board of Governors. She is a former member of the American Bar Association - Coordinating Committee on Immigration Law. She was an Advisor to the Clinton Administration's transition team on the INS. She lectures and publishes extensively on various immigration and nationality issues and has appeared on television and radio as an expert in the field. She represented many Arabs and Muslims post 9/11 in special registration, secret hearing, and material witness cases. She was the first recipient of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Pro Bono Award.

Kareem W. Shora, JD, LLM is Director of the Legal Department and Policy with the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC). He has been with ADC as Legal Advisor since 2000 before being named to his current position.

Shora, who is fluent in Arabic, is a recipient of the “2003 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Human Rights Award.” He has been published by the National Law Journal, TRIAL Magazine, the Georgetown University Law Center's Journal on Poverty Law and Public Policy, the Harvard University JFK School of Government Asian American Policy Review, the American Bar Association (ABA) Air and Space Lawyer, and the Yeshiva University Cardozo Public Law, Policy and Ethics Journal. He is also a professor of Foreign Policy at the American University Washington Semester Program.

Shora was a featured speaker at three panels during the 2002 American Bar Association (ABA) National Meeting in Washington, DC, testified during the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 59th Annual Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in April, 2003, and most recently participated as a speaker during the 2005 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference on Anti-Semitism and Other Forms of Intolerance in Cordoba, Spain and the 2005 OSCE Human Dimensions Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, Poland.

He has spoken at the National Lawyers' Guild Annual Conference, the US Department of State International Visitor Program, the FBI Conference on Countering Terrorism by Integration of Practice and Theory, the ABA Air and Space Law Forum, the ABA Equal Justice Conference, the American University Washington College of Law, the Georgetown University Law Center, Yale University School of Law, Fordham University School of Law, Brown University, Harvard University JFK School of Government, and Whittier Law School's 19th Annual Symposium on International Law among others. Shora is also ADC's representative on several committees with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and a Steering Committee member of the Detention Watch Network (DWN) and the Rights Working Group (RWG).

A frequent guest on Al-Jazeera, Shora has spoken about civil rights, civil liberties and immigration policy with many national and international media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Voice of America, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, the Sacramento Bee, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the LA Times, the San Diego Union Tribune, National Public Radio (All Things Considered and Morning Edition), Pacifica Radio Network, Reuters, the Associated Press, C-SPAN, CNN, the Cairo Times, Al-Arabia, Egypt TV, Rolling Stone Magazine, CBS News, and ABC News among others.

Shora also co-authored the LCCR’s report on racial profiling entitled Wrong Then, Wrong Now: Racial Profiling Before and After September 11, the LCCR’s 2004 Update of Cause for Concern: Hate Crimes in America, and the ADC 1998-2000 Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans and Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans: The Post September 11 Backlash - September 11, 2001 to October 11, 2002 (Part of the Congressional Record).

Shora, who was born in Damascus, Syria, holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) degree from the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law and the LL.M. specialty in International Legal Studies from the American University Washington College of Law. Shora has served as a legal associate with the WV Office of the Attorney General, the WVU Immigration Law Clinical Program, and the Columbia Energy Corporate Law Department.

Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia serves as Senior Policy Associate for the National Immigration Forum, a national, pro-immigrant organization based in Washington, DC. She works to advance the organization's programmatic work on immigration reform, due process and integration with the Administration, Congress, advocates, and the general public. She provides written and verbal analyses on administrative and legislative proposals and speaks frequently on immigration law and policy in Washington D.C. and across the country.

Ms. Wadhia serves as an Adjunct Professor for Asylum and Refugee Law at the Washington College of Law at American University, Washington, D.C. She is a member of the American Bar Association, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and National Lawyers’ Guild/National Immigration Project. She holds bar licenses in Maryland and New Jersey. She is a recipient of the 2003 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Ms. Wadhia’s publications on immigration include “Letter to Lahore," (with S. Ling) The Subcontinental (Winter 2004) and Extreme Hardship for Waivers of Inadmissibility," (with M. Maggio) 21st Annual Immigration Law Update (Florida Bar Association, 2000).

Before joining the National Immigration Forum, Ms. Wadhia was a practicing attorney at the Washington immigration firm Maggio and Kattar, P.C., successfully litigating deportation matters before the immigration courts of Baltimore and Arlington. She also represented clients seeking asylum, obtaining family- and employment-based immigration benefits from the Department of Homeland Security (formerly Immigration and Naturalization Service or INS). She obtained her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, where she also served as a research assistant to former INS General Counsel T. Alexander Aleinikoff.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Ms. Wadhia was raised in Ohio and New Jersey and attended Indiana University as an undergraduate where she completed a political science degree with honors. She has spent considerable time in the U.S. and abroad gaining legal expertise at the grassroots level. This has included serving as a trainer and advocate for abused women in Durban, South Africa, completing a field study in two slums in New Delhi, India, and conducting research for the Indian Social Institute, also in New Delhi.

Julia Choucair is a project associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project and serves as assistant editor of Carnegie's e-monthly, the Arab Reform Bulletin. Her research focuses on political reform trends in the Arab world, with attention to the state of debates over reform in Arab policy circles and the measures Arab states need to take to advance the overall process of reform. A native speaker of Arabic, Ms. Choucair also monitors the Arabic press for important contributions to the Bulletin.

Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment in 2004, Choucair assisted with research at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Beirut. She also volunteered in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon for the UN Relief and Works Agency. Julia received her M.A. in Arab Studies, from Georgetown University and her B.S. in International Politics, also from Georgetown University.

Dalal Hasan completed her B.S. at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and her M.A. at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in International Affairs and Economics. She is a specialist in American foreign policy with a concentration in the Middle East, and her areas of interest include political reform, democracy promotion, women's rights, and economic development. Currently she works at the National Endowment for Democracy as an Assistant Program Officer for the Middle East and North Africa, a non governmental organization that supports democracy and human rights efforts around the world. Ms. Hasan is also a member of the board of directors of the The Jerusalem Fund for Education & Community Development, and is an active member of the Arab American and Muslim community in the Washington, D.C. area.

Sahar Khoury-Kincannon, B.A. Business Administration, B.A. English Literature, and Masters Degree in Education, joined the State Department as a Foreign Affairs Officer, working on various democracy issues, including, during the last four years, the Iraqi issue. Her portfolio includes building of democratic institutions, development of political parties, civil society capacity building, and assisting Iraqi women develop a lobby group.

Ms Khoury-Kincannon has attended and participated in several conferences, work shops, and panels, including the Future of Iraq, in which she co-chaired meetings on transitional justice, democratic principles, education, the media, and anti-corruption measures.

In addition to her native Jordan, and as part of the State Department, Ms. Khoury-Kincannon lived in Pakistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and has also visited Iraq several times.

Prior to joining CCEIA, Nadia was the Assistant Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a project housed at Columbia University and directed by 2001 Economic Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz. While with IPD, she managed eight country policy dialogues in the Philippines, Vietnam, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Moldova, and Serbia. Prior to launching IPD in June of 2000, Nadia worked at the World Bank as a Junior Associate in Stiglitz's office, researching and editing speeches and papers. Nadia has consulted for the UNDP in Syria, International Medical Corps, Ashoka - Innovators for the Public, the Global Development Network, the Brookings Institution, and USAID. Nadia has consulted for several foundation including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Ford Foundation.

Nadia also works as a Research Associate for the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture, conducting a research project on Muslim-American Young Adults and the congregations across the U.S. that are connecting with them.

Nadia received her Master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and her Bachelor's degree in economics and international affairs from Stanford University.

Nathan Brown is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program. He is on leave from his position as professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, and is a distinguished scholar and author of four well-received books on Arab politics. Brown brings his special expertise on Palestinian reform and Arab constitutionalism to the Endowment and his research interests also include Egyptian and Palestinian politics, legal reform in the modern Middle East, as well as democratization. Brown’s most recent book, Resuming Arab Palestine, presents research on Palestinian society and governance after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.

Brown was previously a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute. He has recently been a member of the international advisory committee on drafting the Palestinian constitution and consultant to the UNDP's program on governance in the Arab world.

Selected Publications: Resuming Arab Palestine, (University of California Press, 2003), Constitutions in a Non-Constitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and Prospects for Accountable Government, (SUNY Press, 2001), The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Arab States of the Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Dr. Ghareeb is a distinguished scholar at the Center for Global Peace and a Professor of International Relations at the American University in Washington DC. Before that he has taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and McGill University. He is the co-author of War in the Gulf (Oxford University Press, 1997), author of The Kurdish Question in Iraq (Syracuse University Press, 1981) and Historical Dictionary of Iraq (2003). He is a member of the Board of Advisory Editors for the Middle East Journal and he has also appeared frequently on CNN, NPR, VOA, and al-Jazeera Television.

Hisham Melhem is the Washington-based correspondent for Annahar, the leading Lebanese daily, Al-Qabas, the Kuwaiti daily, and Radio Monte Carlo in France. He is currently the host of "Across the Ocean", a weekly talk show for Al-Arabiya, the Dubai based satellite station.

Mr. Melhem received his BA in Philosophy from Villanova University in 1976; he was awarded the 1998 Alumni Medallion, an honor bestowed upon alumni of the University for exceptional professional and personal achievements. In 1976, Mr. Melhem joined the Philosophy Department at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Upon the completion of his course work, he became a full time journalist and commentator based in Washington.

Mr. Melhem's writings appeared in publications ranging from the literary journal Al-Mawaqef to the LA Times, Middle East Report, Middle East Insight, The Middle East Policy. He is the author of Dual Containment: the Demise of a fallacy, published by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. In addition, Mr. Melhem appears regularly on a number of television programs such as the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, The Charlie Rose show, as well as National Public Radio and its national affiliates.

Mr. Melhem speaks regularly at college campuses, think tanks and interest groups on US-Arab relations, intra Arab relations, Arab-Israeli issues, media in the Arab World, Arab images in American media , US public policies and the Arab World, and other related topics.

Mr. Melhem has interviewed many national and international public figures, most recently President George W. Bush prior to his trip to the Middle East in May 2003.

SWISHER is a former marine reservist and federal criminal investigator who currently works as the Director of Programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. where he resides. His recent book THE TRUTH ABOUT CAMP DAVID has been acclaimed in the Middle East, from Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper to the Lebanon Daily Star. He is a frequent guest on ABC News, and has appeared on CNN, CBC, CSPAN, MSNBC, Al-Arabiyya, Al-Jazeera, WNYC's Leonard Lopate show, Voice of America, and been quoted as an authoritative source and published in, among others, the Irish Times, Financial Times and Los Angeles Times. Swisher has lectured at universities including Harvard, Penn, American, and was himself educated at the University of Pittsburgh and Georgetown University.

Rebecca Abou-Chedid has worked for the Arab American Institute (AAI) since August 2003 first as Public Affairs Coordinator and most recently as Government Relations and Policy Analyst. Ms. Abou-Chedid has extensive experience working on behalf of the Arab American community with federal agencies and congressional offices on foreign policy, civil liberties, and immigration policy issues. She is the author of Countdown, AAI's weekly update covering the Bush Administration, Congress, campaigns, and political developments as well as Election Insider, a series published by Arab and Arab American publications on political issues affecting Arab Americans. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and in Near Eastern Studies. Ms. Abou Chedid has also been published in the Boston Globe, the Daily Star and An Nahar.

Samah Norquist is currently the Public Affairs Specialist for Arab and Muslim outreach at the Bureau of Legislative and Public affairs at USAID. In her position, she works on developing and implementing communications and public affairs planning with regard to various Muslim and Arab outreach issues including USAID activities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle and Near East and many parts of the Muslim world where AID is present. This includes serving as a liaison with Muslim and Arab American interest groups to brief them on USAID activities in the developing world and coordination of the Agency's participation in events, conferences, and discussions designed to educate the publics about American foreign assistance. In addition, Norquist attends interagency meetings representing USAID on issues related to Arab and Muslim outreach and public diplomacy.

Prior to working at USAID, Norquist was the director of communications at the Islamic Free Market Institute (IFMI) in Washington, DC. As director, she accompanied members of Congress delegation visits to the Middle East. Before returning to the United States, she was cultural affairs assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, where she was responsible for cultural exchange programs between the United States and Jordan.

Born in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Norquist and her family immigrated to the United States in 1990. She attended Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and received her B.S. in political science in 1995. She also pursued a minor in Asian Studies with a focus on Middle Eastern affairs.

After graduating from Northeastern, Norquist moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she attended the American University of Cairo and received her M.A. in political science with a concentration in international relations. Her thesis, "Religion, Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy in the Third World: The Case of the Indo-Pakistani Conflict over Kashmir," was the first thesis paper to focus on the role of religion in foreign policy formation.

Norquist is a native Arabic speaker and she has worked in the United States, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar.

Mr. Ayoob received his J.D. in 1996 from Duquesne University School of Law, where he was elected vice-president of the Student Bar Association. He also was a member of Duquesne’s Trial Moot Court and Appellate Moot Court Honor

Societies. He clerked for Allegheny County (PA) Court of Common Pleas President Judge Robert E. Dauer. Mr. Ayoob graduated in 1991 from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in international relations and political science. In 1990, he attended La Sorbonne and the American University of Paris. Mr. Ayoob is a member of the Board of Directors of the Nevada State Society and served as the organization’s president from 1999 to 2004. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Maronite (Lebanese Catholics) Foundation.

Jacques Habra launched his professional career during his senior year at the University of Michigan. Although Habra was about to graduate with a degree in English and Philosophy with Honors, he formed a technology company that later became one of the nation’s leading web and Application development firms.

The company, Web Elite, LLC, continues to prosper in Michigan where it services long standing clients including General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, Wells Fargo, Marsh & McClennan.

Habra’s leadership as company founder and CEO from 1996 - 2002 led to several prestigious awards including the Anderson Young Information Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001, 3 finalist nods as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for consecutive years in 2000, 2001, and 2002, 3 GLIMA awards, and 3 Fast Track Awards.

As Web companies began to lose value and go out of business, Web Elite experienced continued growth leading to the successful sale of the company in 2002 to a group of automotive technology investors.

During the course of building Web Elite, Jacques began two real estate firms, HIP, LLC and Habra Enterprises, LLC focused on residential and commercial real estate respectively. Presently, the real estate ventures include properties in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Most notably, Habra purchased a 12,600 commercial property in downtown Ann Arbor that served as the headquarters for Web Elite until its sale. Today, the building is leased to a bio-technology firm and OZ, a high end night club, co-founded by Habra and his college friend Amer Zahr.

Jacques’ latest projects include a thriving consulting practice focused on IT and corporate communications called Noospheric and a sophisticated film equity fund providing financial tax shelter named Indymuse.

Today, Jacques Habra continues to lead Noospheric and Indymuse with the same creativity and entrepreneurial passion.

For more information, please visit:
www.habra.com
www.ozannarbor.com
www.noospheric.com

Fahada Anthony Saad was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is the eldest daughter of the late Charles Anthony and Yvonne Arrieh Anthony. Fahada, the proud mother of four decided to go to work little more than five years ago determined to tackle the real estate market. In that time she has taken the country’s hottest real estate market by storm becoming one of the best sales associates in Naples, Florida. Hard work coupled with excellent client service has paved the pathway to success for Fahada. Her proven, replicable plan has kept her business in an upward motion while the competition continues to grow and become stiffer every day.

Sam J. Saad, Jr. is a retired manufacturer’s representative and real estate investor. He is currently working as a co-founder of a new bank in Naples, FL and opening several casual dining restaurants. Born to parents of Lebanese decent, he is 1 ½ generation American. He is a graduate of the University of Denver with a BSBA in marketing and finance. He spent thirty years representing various manufacturers of automotive aftermarket and consumer packaged goods. During his career, much of his time was dedicated to community service and political involvement. He has a wife and four children, all successful, which represent his greatest achievement in life.

Nellie Shaheen recently completed her Masters in Finance and works at the Export-Import Bank of the United States as a Financial Analyst.

Ghassan Atiyah is a senior associate at Hogan & Hartson, LLP and his practice focuses on large-scale infrastructure projects in the energy, transportation, water, and telecom industries, both in the United States and the in the Middle East. Ghassan also has extensive experience in a wide variety of private debt financings and debt restructurings and he has worked on numerous private merger and acquisition transactions in a range of industries on behalf of private equity funds. In addition, Ghassan has represented hedge funds in their financing transactions as well as banks lending to hedge funds. Prior to joining the firm, Ghassan served as the general counsel for international affairs at The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in Kuwait, where he was responsible for advising the CEO of NBK and other members of the Executive Management Committee on international legal issues confronting NBK regarding the opening up of new branches in the Middle East, the acquisition of other Middle Eastern banks, USA Patriot Act compliance, and advising the bank’s credit committees on the risks of proposed financing structures. At NBK, Ghassan worked closely with the Investment Banking unit and advised on infrastructure projects and other business transactions in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, and other countries in the Middle East.

Bassem Nassar is currently an independent consultant in marketing strategy. As a marketing strategy consultant, Bassem works with clients to develop strategies that infuse brand growth through product/service differentiation which add value to customer relationships. Bassem’s last consulting engagement was working with American Express developing new product/service ideas to meet high growth market opportunities for their small business card division.

Prior to returning home to New York in July of 2004, Bassem spent 2 years working in Saudi Arabia for a multi-national communications firm, Euro RSCG as a Senior Strategic Planner. During his tenure, Bassem was responsible for brand planning for the agency’s largest client, Saudi Arabian Airlines, where he developed communication strategy for the airlines’ various products and services for domestic and global markets.

Bassem began his career in media planning and has worked in Internet consulting, general advertising and direct marketing for over 10 years. Bassem earned his B.S. from St. John’s University in New York and his Masters from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Bassem is a founding member of the New York chapter of the Network of Arab-American Professionals and is active in it’s Political Action Committee.

In September 2001, Carl Oberg joined the Department of Commerce to serve as Desk Officer for the Levant Countries (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria). He conducted the Department's trade, commercial, and investment policy activities for those countries, and supported efforts to improve market access and trade agreement compliance for U.S. companies.

Since March 2003, Carl has been the Commerce Department's Iraq & Kuwait Desk Officer as well as a member of the Commerce Department's Iraq Investment and Reconstruction Task Force (IIRTF). He is the primary author and editor for the Task Force's "Business Guide for Iraq." Carl was also a member of Commerce's delegation to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Before coming to Commerce, he worked for Veridian Corporation on contract to the Department of Defense's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program. There he was a Financial Analyst working on Foreign Military Sales programs and was a member of the negotiating team developing JSF's multinational co-development structure with the U.S.'s European allies.

Carl earned a BA in International Studies from American University in Washington, DC and a MA in International Commerce & Policy from George Mason University.

Salah Zalatimo is currently a student at Columbia Business School, studying entrepreneurship and finance. After receiving his MBA, he plans on working in private equity in the US or Middle East, then pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.

Salah has been an active member of the Arab community at Columbia, as well as the greater New York area for the past eight years. His activism efforts have focused on empowering Arabs by engaging the American political system and working to improve media perceptions of Arabs.

Aside from serving on the Media and Political committees of NAAP-NY, he is currently spearheading a committee to defend academic freedom on college campuses.

Prior to business school, Salah worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant and, more recently, at Sony BMG music in business development. He received his B.A. from Columbia University in Economics and Operations Research in 2001. Salah was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, with his two brothers and one sister. He regularly travels to Palestine and the Middle East to visit family and friends.

Walid el-Gabry, 41, is an Anglo-Egyptian journalist who has been with the Financial Times for almost nine years. He is deputy finance news editor for the Americas edition which is published out of New York. Walid's newspaper career began in Istanbul in the late 1980s working for Turkish publisher Sabah. He then worked for Canadian publisher Thomson Corp on various regional papers in the UK, becoming industry editor of a major Scottish daily newspaper.

Walid began his current post at the Financial Times on September 10 , 2001. He is a member of N AAP and ADC media committees in New York and earlier this year formed the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists' Association (AMEJA) .

He was raised primarily in England after his family fled Egypt during the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973.

Cynthia H. Fareed is an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and employment litigation. Cynthia has been lead counsel for, and successfully litigated on behalf of, a wide range of individual and corporate clients, including SAAB, Britannia Airways, Pacific Sunwear and Ales Groupe-Phyto Shampoo. Cynthia has full trial experience and has obtained bench trial opinion in Federal District Court as first chair. As a law student at Brooklyn Law School, Cynthia worked at the Al-Haq Human Rights center in Ramallah and received the Amnesty International Patrick Steward Human Rights Scholarship.Cynthia is also the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of SWAY Magazine, a magazine that highlights the culture, art, and beauty of the Middle Eastern community worldwide.

Hesham Soliman is a Design leader within the Advanced Networking group at Flarion Technologies. He made numerous contributions to the the new generation of Internet protocols, especially with respect to mobility management in wireless cellular networks. He is a member of several Scientific committees related to Internet-based wireless networks and an invited speaker at several conferences and universities. Prior to his current role, he was a senior specialist at Ericsson Research where he led several research activities related to IPv6, mobility management, and cellular networks. Hesham has coauthored numerous conference publications and Internet specifications and is an author of: Mobile IPv6: Mobility in a Wireless Internet, published by Addison-Wesley.

Mona Zughbi has worked at NBC Network News for over five years on both, National and International News desks. Mona is currently a Senior Editor on the International desk where she currently covers stories ranging from the Palestine-Israel conflict to the War in Iraq. She has also worked as a Field Producer for NBC, MSNBC and CNBC in the Middle East. While abroad Mona covered the bombing that killed Rafiq Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon, Yasser Arafat's death in the West Bank and the Super Star Competition in Amman, Jordan. Mona has also reported for MSNBC.COM during the 2004 Presidential election.

Before NBC Mona began her career in television news with WNYW-FOX 5 News as Production Assistant which led to an opportunity at Fox News Channel as an Assignment Editor. Mona received her B.A. in Communications with a concentration in Television Journalism from William Paterson University.

Mohamed Abdel-Kader is the Assistant Director of University Development at George Mason University, where he is responsible for development efforts on behalf of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study and also aids the university in strategic planning and other fundraising initiatives. Abdel-Kader completed his undergraduate degree from Clemson University and his Masters degree from Vanderbilt University in Institutional Advancement & Higher Education Policy focusing on institutional branding of American universities in the Middle East. He has worked in public relations as well as the Director of Project Dialogue, a Vanderbilt based forum intended to engage the community on culturally sensitive issues. Mohamed volunteers his time as a Board member of the South Carolina Youth in Government program - a mock legislature and courts program for high school students. A newer member of NAAP, Mohamed joined the DC chapter of the organization when he moved to the Washington area in May of 2004.

Sarab Al-Jijakli, is a founding member of the NY chapter of the Network of Arab-American Professionals. Sarab graduated from Pace University, with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Marketing, where he founded Pace's Arab Student Union. Currently, Sarab is a Marketing Manager at an integrated marketing firm, and specializes in developing marketing programs that cut across all mediums. As NAAP-NY's Political Action Committee facilitator, Sarab has focused on developing comprehensive election outreach campaigns throughout New York and New Jersey in Arab-populated neighborhoods, and is heavily involved in coalition building efforts with grassroots initiatives, particularly in efforts to raise awareness about the situations in Palestine and Iraq, as well as to increase civic participation within the Arab-American community.

George Naggiar is President of the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights (ww.aaper.org), America's Pro-Palestine Lobby. He is a lawyer and a member of the New York and New Jersey State Bars. He holds a law degree from Georgetown University School of Law, where he specialized in the international law of human rights and armed conflict and where he served as Vice-Chairman and Chairman of Georgetown's Middle East Law Society. Prior to attending Georgetown, Mr. Naggiar received a BA Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He has appeared on a number of radio and television programs, including the BBC and CNBC, and in a number of publications, including Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, Lebanon's Daily Star, Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly and Al-Hayat.

Zeina Azzam Seikaly has worked as Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University since 1994. She coordinates programs for pre-college educators on all aspects of Arab affairs and serves as a consultant for curriculum materials and speakers in the classroom. She regularly plans or presents lectures about the Arab world, the larger Middle East, and Islam for teachers and community groups. Her experience in Middle East studies at Georgetown dates back to the 1980s, when she was Assistant Director and Publications Manager at CCAS for eight years. Previously, Ms. Seikaly worked in the publishing field as editor of academic articles and monographs on the Arab world and Islam. She has written articles and book and film reviews for scholarly publications, worked as a Lecturer in the Sociology Department at George Mason University, and taught Arabic to children and adults. Ms. Seikaly was a board member of the Middle East Outreach Council for five years, and currently serves as president of the organization (for 2004-06). Her academic background includes an M.A. in Sociology from George Mason University and a B.A. in Psychology from Vassar College, as well as a Publication Specialist Program certificate from George Washington University.

Professor of Engineering and Applied Science Director, Institute for MEMS and VLSI Technologies George Washington University

Professor Mona E. Zaghloul received from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (1975), M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (1970) and M.Math in Computer Science and Applied Analysis (1971). She received her B.S. from Cairo University in 1965. She is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the George Washington University, 1980 present. She was the Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1994 1998.

Dr. Zaghloul has worked extensively in the general areas of sensors and their circuits interfaces, and microelectronic systems since 1975. She has published over 200 technical papers and reports in the areas of circuits and systems theory, nonlinear system theory, micromachining MEMS sensors design, and micro- electronic VLSI analog and digital circuits design, and has contributed to four books.She initiated a strong VLSI and MEMS programs at The George Washington University where she teaches several courses on VLSI design and test and MEMS. In 1996 she initiated the Institute of MEMS and VLSI Technology at The George Washington University, which she directs.

Laila Al-Qatami is the Communications Director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

Al-Qatami's work involves daily interaction with major domestic and international media outlets. She has provided commentary for NPR, Pacifica, BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC, MSNBC, Fox News, AlterNet, CNET, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Guardian, the Associated Press, and many other news sources. She has also appeared on the leading Arabic language television stations Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, and Abu Dhabi TV.

She can be heard live every Wednesday from 5-6 pm EST on Radio America. She can also be heard every third Sunday on the month from 8-9am on the Washington, DC radio program "Ladies at the Roundtable" which is simulcast on Big100 and Sportstalk 980.

She has also served as an editorial consultant for a wide range of documentaries and educational programs about Arabs, Arab Americans, Islam, and Civil Rights in the US. These programs have aired on PBS, Discovery, Showtime, BBC, MTV, and Nickelodeon in addition to several independent films.

She was an editor of the 1998-2000 Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans: The Post September 11 Backlash (ADC, 2002). She continues to edit and design ADC publications, including the ADC Times.

She has a B.S in Journalism from the University of Colorado and an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. She is currently a mentor for Georgetown University students in the Patrick Healy Fellows Program. She was raised in Kuwait, her father is Kuwaiti and her mother is Hispanic American.

Nisreen Baroudi, Esq., 29, is a trial attorney specializing in criminal defense work. She is a devoted Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender in San Jose, California. Prior to joining the Office of the Public Defender, Ms. Baroudi interned and volunteered with several organizations, including the Pro Bono Project of Silicon Valley and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee ("ADC"). During her internship with ADC's Legal Department, she authored a law review article entitled, "The Use and Abuse of Secret Evidence", which was presented at the ABA 2001 Annual Meeting (International Law and Practice Division) in Chicago. She was a panelist in 2002 at ADC's National Convention. She remains dedicated to working on issues relating to civil right abuses, particularly as they pertain to the Arab and Arab-American community.

Ms. Baroudi received her Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of California, Davis, and graduated from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. She is a founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Network of Arab American Professionals ("NAAP"). Fluent in Arabic, Ms. Baroudi was born in Damascus, Syria.

Bio Coming Soon

Laila works as an analyst at Key Venture Partners, a Boston area based venture capital firm investing in expansion stage technology and communications businesses. At Key, Laila is responsible for sourcing deal opportunities, working with portfolio companies and executing new investments. Prior to joining Key, Laila worked as an associate at Spectrum Equity Investors, a Boston-based private equity firm with $3 billion of capital under management. At Spectrum, Laila focused on sourcing investments in privately held late-stage growth businesses in the information technology and information services sectors. Prior to joining Spectrum, Laila was a financial analyst in the Technology Group of Bear Stearns where she executed M&A transactions and debt and equity financings. Laila is an Arab-American very much in tune with her culture and heritage. When she's not working, Laila spends much of her time volunteering with the Network of Arab American Professionals. She is also a member of Zaitoun, a Boston-based Palestinian Dabke Performance Group. Laila also volunteers with the Center for Women and Enterprise, a non-profit organization that helps women entrepreneurs start, grow and operate their businesses. Laila earned a B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs, with Distinction, from the University of Virginia.

Dena Zakaria is a practicing products liability attorney in Philadelphia, PA and one of the many co-founders of the Philadelphia chapter of NAAP.

She is also active with the Philadelphia chapter of the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund. Ms. Zakaria is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bars, and holds a law degree from the Temple University Beasely School of Law, where she specialized in patent law and products liability litigation.

While there, she organized seminars regarding Arab American Civil Liberties, human rights in the Arab World, and also founded the Temple Law School Muslim Students Association. Prior to attending Temple, Ms. Zakaria received a BS with honors in Biology and Bio-behavioral health from the Pennsylvania State University. She has appeared on a number of media outlets, including CNN and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sawsan Zaky is an active member of the NY chapter of NAAP. She is currently a first-year law student at New York Law School in Manhattan. She graduated from Pace University with a BBA Summa Cum Laude in Accounting and Finance, and recently obtained her MBA from Pace University as well. Sawsan was born and raised in New York and as a Palestinian-American, she is an active member of her community. She is an enthusiastic NAAP-NY member who is currently the co-facilitator of both the Student Affairs Committee and the Social/Cultural Committee. As NAAP-NY's Student Affairs Committee Co-Facilitator, Sawsan assists in the development of Arab Student Organizations throughout the NY-NJ area and, through the Arab-American Mentorship Program, matches NAAP student-members with professionals in their respective fields.

After having taught at several universities, Dr. Douglas Card is presently an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon, where he had also earned his Ph.D. His emphasis in teaching and research has long been in the area of Comparative Sociology, including Eastern Europe during the period of the Soviet Union. Currently, his courses emphasize the ethnicity and culture of the Americas, emphasizing pluralism and the increasing multiculturalism of American society, as well as factors of social and economic inequality.

Outside of academia, Dr. Card has long been a strong supporter and activist for civil liberties and equality for all Americans both at the national and local level. This includes educational programs and and writings on local history dealing with America's ethnic conflicts and progress. He has also been a long-term supporter of a fair two-state, peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis. After years of fighting racism at all levels, in 2002 he was stunned to find himself attacked as a supposed anti-Semite by the controversial neo-con critic of higher education, Daniel Pipes, which eventually forced him to sue Pipes in order to clear his name.

Michael C. Hudson is Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Professor of International Relations and Seif Ghobash Professor of Arab Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He did his undergraduate studies at Swarthmore College and holds the M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. His research interests include political liberalization, politics in divided societies, Lebanese politics, U.S. Middle East policy, Gulf security, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the information revolution in the Arab world. He has held Guggenheim, Ford, and Fulbright fellowships and is a past president of The Middle East Studies Association. He has lectured in universities and research institutes around the world, including Australia, Britain, Egypt, France, Iran, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. He is regularly interviewed about Middle East issues in the news media, including the BBC, National Public Radio, Arabic satellite channels, and major newspapers.

Among Dr. Hudson's publications are The Precarious Republic: Political Modernization in Lebanon; The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (second ed., co-author); Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy, and The Palestinians: New Directions (editor and contributor). Recent articles include "The Transformation of Jerusalem, 1917-1987" in K.J. Asali (ed.), Jerusalem in History, 1988, 1997; "The Middle East Under Pax Americana: How New, How Orderly?" Third World Quarterly, 1992; "Bipolarity, Rationality, and War in Yemen," in J. al-Suwaydi, The Yemeni War of 1994 (London 1994); "Arab Regimes and Democratization: The Challenge of Political Islam," in L. Guazzone (ed.), The Islamist Dilemma (London/Rome, 1995); "International Interventions in Lebanon," in M. Esman and S. Telhami (eds.), International Organizations and Ethnic Conflict (Cornell, 1996); "Obstacles to Democratization in the Middle East" Contention, 1996; "To Play the Hegemon: 50 Years of U.S. Policy toward the Middle East," Middle East Journal, 1996; "Trying Again: Power-Sharing in Post-Civil War Lebanon," International Negotiation, 1997; "A Pan-Arab Virtual Think Tank," Middle East Journal, 2000, and "Area Studies and the Discipline: The Middle East," PS: Political Science and Politics, 2001. His latest book is an edited volume, Middle East Dilemma: The Politics and Economics of Arab Integration (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), and his latest articles are "Imperial Headaches: Managing Unruly Regions in an Age of Globalization," Middle East Policy IX:4 (December 2002) [an Arabic version appears in Al-Mustaqbil al-Arabi (Beirut, November 2002)], and "Information Technology, International Politics, and Political Change in the Arab World," Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (Amman, Autumn/Winter 2002). His paper on "The Politics of Pax Americana in Iraq and the Middle East," presented to a conference in Beirut in March 2004, was reprinted as a series in The Daily Star (Beirut) , April 6, 7, and 8, 2004.

Angela Migally is an attorney in New York City where she practices corporate litigation. She is a member of NAAP-NY. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on the drafting of an Islamic Penal Code for the Maldive Islands. Throughout her undergraduate, graduate and and professional career she has worked with the Arab-American community as an advocate of civil and human rights.

Issa Mikel is a Palestinian-American lawyer and activist currently living and working in New York City. He studied the politics and history of the Middle East at Brandeis University and the School of Oriental and African Studies before finishing law school in New York.

He has also spent time in Palestine engaged in volunteer work, writing, and photography. Until recently, he has been involved in the campaign at Columbia University to defend members of its faculty against an assault by conservative Zionist groups intent on occupying the field of Middle East Studies at U.S. universities.

Mr. Andoni is a seasoned technologist and business consultant. He has over 20 years of enterprise experience in the Computing Industry. He focuses on identity management, strategy and planning for both business and IT alignment; enterprise architectures and supporting technologies; visioning and future directions. He has strong specialized skills with Microsoft technologies, which include server infrastructure deployment, messaging and collaboration, software distribution, Identity Management, and IT Service Management (ITSM) methods and techniques. Mr. Andoni holds a Master Degree in Computer Science from American University and working on his PhD in Information security in George Mason University.

Mr. Andoni is a co-founder and current chairman of Global Institue For Technology Advancemnet, GIFTA. GIFTA is a 501 c (3) non-profit organization dedicated to improve the daily lives of people in Palestine by promoting Technology Advancement. We aim to provide a body to help Technology professors, students, researcher, and business owners from Palestinian origin or interested in the technology sector in Palestine, to become active in shaping the future of Technology sectors in Palestine. For more i nformation on GIFTA, please visit their web site at http://www.gifta.org

Rania Awwad is a medical student at the George Washington University. She serves on the board of directors of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund and is co-founder of the PCRF's Washington, DC chapter. Her work with PCRF includes negotiating free specialized surgical care in the DC area for Palestinian children, recruiting medical professionals to participate in medical missions to Palestine, and coordinating other medical relief projects including wheelchair and medical supply/equipment shipments to Palestine.

Ammal Elhaddad graduated from the University of Miami in 1998. During her undergraduate years, she established OASIS, the Organization of Arab American Students. She was elected as Senator of the College of Arts and Sciences, chaired the Student Health Advisory Committee and Pro-Diversity Committee, and held several other leadership positions.

She worked as Editor of Community Affairs for METV, serving as a liaison to the Arab/Muslim community of South Florida and has helped coordinate local events with various organizations such as AAI, ADC, CAIR and local community, health and law enforcement agencies.

In 2003, she served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for the first Arab Resource Corps, a nationwide community and social service program organized by ACCESS. As the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Arab Cultural Center of San Francisco, Ammal was responsible for building coalitions with Bay Area cultural organizations, organizing events for the Youth and Social Services Program, conducting Cultural Competency Trainings to local agencies, and coordinating the "Oasis in the Desert" Mural Project, the Arab Youth Symposium, and the Annual Arab Festival.

Through the years, Ammal has worked on several political campaigns and in 2004 was selected by EMILY's List to participate in their Political Opportunities Program. She remains on the Broward Bill of Rights Defense Coalition and the Florida Arab Leadership Council.

Ammal continues to serve as an advisor to OASIS and as an advocate for human and civil rights. She is currently a candidate for the Master's of Public Health (MPH) and Master's of Public Administration (MPA) Degree at the University of Miami.

Mrs. Nina Sahouri Ghannam, is President and a founder of the educational media organization, Imagine-Life, which broadcasts in over 100 cities nationwide. She is the co-owner and operator of several health related business ventures. She has served as a Regional Director of Community Relations for national long-term care companies and consulted for a variety of profit and non-profit organizations.

She has co-authored various publications, on the integration of technological advancements into Business systems in the Journal of Management and educational instructional material such as, Comparative Anatomy of the Cardiovascular Systems of the Human and Feline. She is the recipient of various awards, including Dean of Students and the National Area Peacemakers Award. Ms. Ghannam has done various media freelance projects for networks such as ART Television. She has spoken at various conferences on the importance of media centered activism. Mrs. Ghannam received her M.B.A. from LaSalle University and completing her post-graduate studies in Policy, Planning and Operations at Harvard University.

Taleb Salhab is the National Outreach Director for the Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services (ACCESS). Founded in Michigan in 1970, ACCESS is the largest Arab-American human service organization in the US and runs over 70 programs in the areas of national outreach, health, social services, youth development, cultural outreach, and the environment.

Salhab has been active in the Arab-American community for over 15 years. While in college, he played an active role in the student movement with several local and national Arab-American organizations. After college, Salhab was appointed the National Executive Director of the Palestine Aid Society of America, a national non-profit charitable and cultural organization. He also served as a consultant to the United Nations to organize an annual symposium for non-governmental organizations working on the issue of Palestine.

After working in the non-profit sector, Salhab worked in the private sector for 8 years, serving as the Sales & Marketing Director for large conglomerate in Florida. In 2005, he returned to the non-profit sector to work for ACCESS.

Salhab has a long history of community activism. He served as a board member and then President of Arab American Community Center in Orlando, Florida. In 2004, he worked closely with the Arab American Institute and coordinated the effort to organize and mobilize the community in Florida. He was elected as one of only seven members to represent the State of Florida on the Rules Committee at the Democratic National Convention. During the Convention, he served as an analyst on Al-Jazeera. He has been interviewed and quoted extensively by local and national media including C-SPAN, ABC News, BBC, Washington Post, National Public Radio, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Orlando Sentinel and Wall Street Journal among others.

After having studied and worked as an airplane engineer in The Netherlands for several years, Hany Abu-Assad entered the world of cinema and television as a producer. He worked on television programs about foreign immigrants and documentaries like "Dar O Dar" for Channel 4 and "Long Days in Gaza" for the BBC.

In 1992, Abu-Assad wrote and directed his first short film, "Paper House." The film depicts the adventures of a thirteen year old Palestinian boy, who tries to build his own house after his family's original house has been destroyed. "Paper House" was broadcasted by NOS Dutch television and won several international awards at film festivals.

One year later, Abu-Assad produced the feature film "Curfew," directed by Rashid Masharawi. An international co-production between Argus Film Productions, WDR, ARTE and AVRO, "Curfew" was highly praised, winning awards including the Gold Pyramid in Cairo, and the UNESCO Prize in Cannes, among others.

After his second short "The 13th," which he wrote, produced and directed, Abu-Assad began his first full-length feature project as a director. He teamed up with writer Arnon Grunberg to develop a script that challenged and explored cinematic narrative and style in a comedy about a couple in Amsterdam. The film, "The Fourteenth Chick," was the opening film of the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht 1998 and was distributed by United International Pictures.

Recent works include the bittersweet documentary "Nazareth 2000," which Abu-Assad made for Dutch VPRO television. The turmoil in a divided and secretly occupied city and its quarrelling Palestinian inhabitants, Christian and Muslim, is viewed through the eyes of two gas station attendants. Combining both a kind and a satirical approach to a serious subject matter, Abu-Assad succeeded in creating a multifaceted and surprisingly humorous documentary.

Since Augustus Film was founded by Abu-Assad and Bero Beyer in 2000, Abu-Assad has directed "Rana's Wedding" (2002), a production realized with the support of the Palestinian Film Foundation of the Ministry of Culture of the Palestinian National Authority, and describes a day in the life of a young woman in Jerusalem, during which she tries to get married before four o'clock that day. The film was selected for Critics Week 2002 in Cannes and went on to win prizes at Montpellier, Marrakech, Bastia and Cologne.

Abu-Assad's latest documentary, "Ford Transit" (2002) played at the Sundance Film Festival. A portrait of a driver of a Ford Transit taxi, the film humorously observes the resilient inhabitants of Palestinian territories. The film won the FIPRESCI award during the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the In the Spirit of Freedom Award in Jerusalem and together with "Rana's Wedding," the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the Human Rights Film Festival in New York.

Abu-Assad and Beyer wrote "Paradise Now" (http://wip.warnerbros.com/paradisenow/) in 1999 and shot the film in Nablus in 2004. It made its World Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival 2005, where it was won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film, the Berliner Morgenpost Readers' Prize and the Amnesty International Award for Best Film.

David A. Hamod is President and CEO of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC), a position he accepted in January 2004. Since its inception more than 35 years ago, NUSACC has been the preeminent organization for fostering trade and investment between the United States and the 22 countries of the Arab world.

Mr. Hamod has been a prominent and active member of the U.S. business community for two decades. Prior to joining NUSACC, he served as President of Intercom International Consultants, a Washington-based business consulting firm that he founded in 1988. Intercom has served as an advisor to numerous business groups, including more than 30 U.S. companies. As President of Intercom, Mr. Hamod served on the International Policy Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade.

During the past 15 years, as U.S. Representative of the American Business Council of the Gulf Countries (ABCGC), Mr. Hamod served as the Washington-based voice of the American business community in the Arabian Gulf. He played an instrumental role in the success of the U.S.-GCC Business Dialogue, as well as the U.S.-GCC Standards Cooperation Program.

Mr. Hamod has worked on business issues in the U.S. Congress since 1985, and he is very familiar with every facet of the legislative process. He has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives on a number of occasions and has played a role in just about every major piece of trade-related legislation to work its way through Congress in the past decade. In 1997, in a ceremony on Capitol Hill, Mr. Hamod was honored with a "Patriot of the Expatriates Award" for his outstanding commitment to U.S. international business competitiveness.

As a result of his prominent role in the U.S. private sector, Mr. Hamod has developed expertise in transparency and best commercial practices. As a consultant to the Development Center of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is playing a lead role in promoting good business ethics internationally, Mr. Hamod has served as a liaison to such groups as Transparency International, World Bank Group, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In recent years, Mr. Hamod has held leadership positions in and/or served as a consultant to such business organizations as: the Greater Washington Board of Trade; the American Chambers of Commerce in Egypt, Lebanon, and Canada; World Federation of Americans Abroad; Small Business Exporters Association; and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). He also serves in a leadership capacity at the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) and American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA).

Prior to founding Intercom, Mr. Hamod worked for the Brookings Institution, Neill and Company, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and The New York Times.

In part because of his strong commitment to ethics and "Service Above Self," Mr. Hamod was chosen as "Rotarian of the Year" in Washington, D.C. in 1996. He served as President of the Rotary Club of Washington D.C. and was named "Outstanding President" in District 7620 (USA).

Mr. Hamod is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (M.A.) and the University of Iowa (B.A.). He was selected as the University of Iowa's "Distinguished Young Alumnus" for 1999-2000. A member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, Mr. Hamod has been the recipient of 15 scholarships, two of which took him to Yale University and the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Anthony Shadid is the Islamic affairs correspondent for the Washington Post. Since September 11, 2001, he has reported from Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel and Palestine, where he was wounded in the back while covering fighting in the West Bank. In March 2003, weeks before the U.S. invasion, he traveled to Iraq, his third visit to the country. He remained in Baghdad during the invasion, the fall of Saddam Hussein and the war's aftermath. He left in spring 2004, then returned later that year.

Before the Post, Shadid worked for the Boston Globe in Washington, covering diplomacy and the State Department. He began his career at the Associated Press in Milwaukee, New York, Los Angeles and Cairo, where he worked as a Middle East correspondent from 1995 to 1999. He is a native of Oklahoma City, where his grandparents emigrated from Lebanon, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Shadid was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2004 for his dispatches from Iraq. That year, he was also the recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' award for deadline writing and the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for best newspaper or wire service reporting from abroad. In 2003, Shadid was awarded the George Polk Award for foreign reporting for a series of dispatches from the Middle East while at the Globe. In 1997, Shadid was awarded a citation by the Overseas Press Club for his work on "Islam's Challenge." The four-part series, published by the AP in December 1996, formed the basis of his book, Legacy of the Prophet: Despots, Democrats and the New Politics of Islam, published by Westview Press in December 2000. His second book, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War, was published in September 2005 by Henry Holt.

Asma May Fouathia, 22, graduated from Humanities Prep Academy in NYC and completed her undergraduate studies at Pace University, graduating with a BS in Economics and a minor of Political Science. A member of the Arab Alliance at Pace University and NAAP-NY, Asma has been involved with the arts through numerous platforms, such as: acting, dancing and writing/directing. She was also part of the Algerian National team for Internal Rhythmic Gymnasts competing in multiple world competitions.

Recently, Asma beat out over 60 screenplay script submissions to win the 1st Annual Arab-American Film maker Award in 2005 sponsored by Tony Shalhoub, Zoom-in Focus and NAAP. Asma’s screenplay “Mush” will be featured at the 3rd Annual NAAP Conference in Washington D.C.

Maysoon Zayid is an actress and professional stand-up comedian, who received her BFA in acting from Arizona State University. She has appeared on As The World Turns, MTV, 20/20, the New York Times, and WashingtonPost.com. Maysoon has performed comedy in top New York clubs, including Caroline's, Gotham, and Stand Up NY, and has toured her stand-up act extensively in both the USA and abroad.

Maysoon was the first comedian to perform stand-up live in Palestine, performing in Nazareth, Haifa, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. Maysoon spends 3 months a year in Palestine where she runs an art program for disabled and wounded refugee children She is also Co-Chairperson of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival as well as co-host of the radio show Fen Mejnoon ("Crazy Art") with Dean and Maysoon.