The Board

Officers

in alphabetical order

Farooq CheEma Treasurer

Farooq Cheema is an experienced serial entrepreneur with expertise in Operations Management. With a focus in human development particularly in Academic Tutoring, Coaching and Development, Corporate Talent Acquisition & Management and healthcare, he has enabled the profitability and longevity of several organizations by steering them to financial and operational stability.

Farooq has launched, developed, expanded and sold a regional teaching and tutoring company with over 200 employees. As CEO of Study Sparkz, he was able to spike revenue by 10 million dollars through close collaboration between Software Development and Operations. With a DevOps strategy and approach, Farooq led the company to an average of 60% annual growth for six consecutive years. As Managing Director of a local healthcare company, he developed and implemented a "Patient-Retention program" that increased gross revenues by more than 2 million dollars annually. This allowed the firm to expand and launch additional branches. Farooq served as the Executive-on-Loan for the National Council for International Visitors; the non-profit organization has operated for half a century. It supports the U.S. State Department with international visitors to the United States.

Currently, Farooq serves as President of OPEN, a nonprofit organization that builds and mentors the next generation of entrepreneurs. OPEN provide the space and tools to support and strengthen the entrepreneurship spirit in the Washington DC Metro area. Organizations and business founded by OPEN Charter Members generate over 2 billion dollars annually in the Nation’s Capital.

Farooq holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and has served on the board of several organizations. And while he holds four patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, he is also an investor who has made key and strategic investments in a number of companies. Farooq’s entrepreneurial zest, agility and incredible work ethics make him an incredible asset to any organization.

Shanna Darwish Secretary

Shanna is a lifelong educator who has worked at all levels of primary and elementary education. She has spent for years working as a preschool teacher and half a dozen years as a substitute teacher. Shanna has also taught abroad at the Nefertari American School in Cairo, Egypt.

She is a creative educator who is passionate about raising the next generation of environmentalists. She inculcates environmental responsibility and accountability in all her young students. Shanna brings a unique experience and expertise to the organization. She is a specialist on Junior environmental education. She has been working and collaborating with other educators on an initiative to transform the school in which she teaches and guide them to become a pioneer in Islamic environmental education and model a “green” and compassionate temperament to its members and community and to become a “GREEN” and “LEAN” facility with holistic energy conservation measures and eco-friendly practices and policiesa.

Shanna holds a BA in psychology from North Carolina State University and a Master of Education (MEd) in New Literacies and Global Learning. She is an irreplaceable asset to the team.

The role of Board Secretary is often confused with Administrative Assistant. This is not an accurate perception. On the contrary, the Secretary is a board member with even more responsibilities than other board members who many not be acting as officers. The Secretary plays a critical role in fostering communication and ensuring proper management and utilization of important organizational records. This role is shaped to meet the unique structure and needs of the organization, rather than filling a standard job description.

The Secretary keeps the minutes of the board of directors. Additionally, the Secretary is responsible for keeping track of the organization’s activities to make sure the actions of the organization are in accordance to the organization’s Bylaws. The Secretary usually keeps track of the board members’ contact information in order to inform the board about meetings and updates on the organization.

Mouhamadou Niang President

Mouhamadou Niang is founder of Muslims 4 the Environment and acting in the capacity of president. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in International Relations from North Carolina State University.

His career spans more than fifteen years in Telecommunications where he wore many hats including Customer Service Representative, Circuit Tester, Network Operating Center (NOC) engineer, Service Provisioner and Implementation Engineer. He has experience in Service Provisioning, Service Relationship Management, Technical Project Implementation, Client Services Management, Client Advocacy, and in Service, Process, and Continual Improvement.  His longest tenure with a leading telecom company was as an Implementation Project Manager. He holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from Project Management Institute (PMI), a Professional Scrum Master (PSM1) certification from Scrum.org, the organization that writes the Book of Knowledge (BOK) on Scrum and an ITIL 4 certification, an accreditation in IT Service Management (ITSM). He is exploring a CBAP certification is Business Analysis and is interested in Design Thinking.

Mouhamadou is fluent in French and Arabic and enjoys writing poetry, essays and is working on the publication of his first novel, a political fiction. He thoroughly enjoys the creative process and paying attention to the smallest details.

As the son of a diplomat, Mouhamadou grew up in half a dozen countries across Asia, North Africa and West Africa. He has lived in Beirut, Lebanon: Casablanca, Morocco: Monrovia, Liberia and Dakar, Senegal where his roots lie. He spent most of his adolescence and teenage years in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Favorite proverb: “Time is like a sword. If you don’t cut it, then it has cut you.”

MR. FIAZ FAREED Board Member/DIRECTOR OF OUTREACH STRATEGY

Fiaz Fareed had always felt a passion and a desperate need to bring relief to the distressed. An academic background in Nuclear Medicine Technology led to an on-going career as a practitioner in this field for more than two decades. Mr. Fareed has left a positive mark on several local area hospitals in the Triangle including Duke Health, UNC Healthcare and WakeMed Health & Hospitals. He has also rendered his experience and expertise at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the Middle East.  This expansive body of work does not begin to tell half the story. Mr. Fareed has another remarkable livelihood which even eclipses his professional accomplishments. This livelihood starts at Close of Business (COB). It is volunteerism.

Mr. Fareed’s affiliation with the Islamic Association of Raleigh (IAR) spans virtually the length of his professional career. But when we speak of volunteerism, we could comfortably say that he’s a professional at it. Take a deep breath. Fareed has given his time in a capacity of school guard and traffic monitor. He has been entrusted to collect donations and has also been on the other side of the financial transaction to sign the outgoing checks. He serves the community as a part time Friday lecturer “khateeb” for half a dozen Islamic centers and associations in the Triangle.

He has especially earned his stripes in the area of outreach (da-wah) and public relations where his passion and commitment is unmatched.  He has given countless formal presentations and informal talks. At the IAR, he is a host, a tour guide and hospitality manager for coordinated visits. He teaches a beginner’s class on Islam for new Muslims and other classes and lectures suited for non-Muslims who want to merely learn more about the religion and their Muslim neighbors. His outreach stretches to prisons across the state where he supports, mentors and counsels inmates.  Mr. Fareed is currently the Outreach Chairman of the IAR and has served previously as a member of its elected Board of Directors (shurah). Undoubtedly, the title he is most proud of is that of custodian of the two buildings (Khadimeel Imaratain”) at the IAR.

For many years, Mr. Fareed toiled to coordinate relief work in Bangladesh, provide clothing for orphans in Gambia and other humanitarian relief for distressed regions unsettled by an International Political Economy (IPE). Recently, he visited the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh where an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 displaced refugees flocked to escape ethnic cleansing and genocide at the hands of Aung San Suu Kyi's and the Myanmar military.

In short, Mr. Fiaz Fareed is first and foremost a giver with a selfless passion to relieve and improve the unspeakable conditions of the poor, oppressed and the weak at home and abroad. This statement of fact can be supported with his early engagement with Mariam Clinic, a healthcare provider that extends free medical & dental care for the underprivileged and disenfranchised. Mr. Fareed is Chairperson of Outreach for Mariam Clinic Outreach & Recruiting. He holds current memberships with several national and international non-profit organizations.

The Advisory Board

Muftau Lawal

Muftau Lawal is a Senior Clinical Analyst and Consultant with over a decade in quality driven research, risk based monitoring, site management, safety and sponsor oversight. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Chemistry from the University of Ibadan where he graduated with honors. He is a Certified Process Technician (CPT) from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and a certification in Mental Health First Aid from Mental Health Systems (MHS). He has been a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals since 2013.

In addition to his career in Clinical Research, Muftau has a long track record in volunteerism and education. Through seminars, he educates and lectures students on SAT preparation and scholarships options while paving a path for them to navigate the road to higher learning without breaking the bank. He has been involved for many years with the Islamic Association of Raleigh’s Community Outreach program and its popular education program. He is on the team of Al Hirz Institute (AHI), a multileveled organization founded and spearheaded by Shaykh Okasha Kameny which spreads Islamic knowledge throughout the world.

Ibrahim Njai

Ibrahim Njai is Senior Manager of Information Technology at John Hopkins University, a private research university founded in 1876 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is responsible for several key Enterprise IT infrastructures for the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) and its medical Institutions.  Ibrahim received a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and Administration from Sojourner Douglass College. He also holds a Masters in Science in Information and Telecommunications Systems from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU). A perpetual learner with an insatiable appetite to learn, he is currently pursuing a MBA at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. 

Ibrahim started his climb on the corporate ladder from a Network Technician to a Senior Local Area Network (LAN) Administrator. He went on to act in the capacity of Senior Systems Engineer and manager of IT before serving as Senior Manager of IT Operations for the last several years. While a member of upper management at Johns Hopkins, he thought a range of classes in Information Technology at ITT Technical Institute under their Associate and Bachelor degree programs. ITT technical Institute is a for profit technical institute founded in 1969 and with approximately 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States. Ibrahim offers his expertise in the capacity of consultant in Enterprise IT architectures and has contracted with Fortune 500 companies like IBM and Wells Fargo. With a broad experience in Business Management, Business Administration and Human Resources Management, Ibrahim brings a unique experience and perspective to the Advisory Board.