Donna Auston
Donna Auston is an anthropologist, writer, and activist whose body of work focuses on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, media representation, and Islam in America. Her dissertation is an ethnographic exploration of Black Muslim activism and spiritual protest in the Black Lives Matter era. Some of her written work includes book chapters on the historical contributions of African American Muslims in the arts, culture, and social justice movements, and the intersection between Islamophobia and Black Lives Matter.
Donna has a forthcoming co-authored book chapter on Black Islam and U.S. Politics, and she has also published a number of short essays, including, “Mapping the Intersections of Islamophobia and #BlackLivesMatter: Unearthing Black Muslim Life and Activism in the Policing Crisis,” and “Recalled to Life: On the Meaning and Power of a Die-In.” Her work has been covered by national news outlets, including NBC News, and The Huffington Post, and she was named one of the top 100 Muslim Social Justice leaders by MPower Change in 2016.
Zamir Hassan – MFP Humanitarian Award Recipient
“An Inspiration to Inclusion and Diversity”
Zamir Hassan devotes himself to feeding two kinds of hunger: hunger for food and hunger for connections. The founder of Muslims Against Hunger, Faiths Against Hunger, and the Hunger Van, his projects aren’t just about bringing food and other essentials to the homeless on the streets, but about bringing people of different backgrounds together to do it, especially in a time of division and polarization. “It’s really about engaging people to get involved and building volunteer communities.”
Dr. Shereef M. Elnahal: MFP Leadership Award Recipient
Dr. Shereef Elnahal, Commissioner of the Department of Health, serving the first Muslim-American Cabinet member in the history of New Jersey. Dr. Elnahal worked as a physician executive in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), serving as the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health (ADUSH) for Quality, Safety, and Value in the Veterans Health Administration. He was also an adjunct assistant professor at the Georgetown University Department of Health Policy and Management.
Rowaida Abdelaziz -MFP Activism Award Recipient
“Changing the World by Discovery of Truth & Giving Voice to Injustice”
Rowaida Abdelaziz is a journalist at Huffpost, where she focuses on reporting on civil rights and social justices issues within the Muslim community. Rowaida spearheads the coverage of Islamophobia and the rising anti-Muslim sentiment across the U.S at Huffpost. Her goal is to provide guidance for diverse coverage of the Muslim community in mainstream media as a hijab-wearing woman in the newsroom. In 2016, Rowaida was a lead reporter for the Islamophobia Tracker, a project that documented the anti-Muslim rhetoric that spiked across the U.S. She also launched HuffPost’s Tomorrow Inshallah, a community Facebook page that targets and amplifies Muslim voices and perspectives. Fluent in Arabic, Rowaida also has written numerous stories on the Middle East and covered the refugee crises in Syria, Yemen and other parts of the Arab world. Before joining HuffPost, Abdelaziz was at the Committee to Protect Journalists and Al Jazeera Arabic at the United Nations.
