uMentor Talk Show

Baqer moved from London to New York in 2014 to head up the Americas for Purity, a global award winning experiential marketing agency. With a Bachelors in Marketing, Masters in HR, and a decade’s worth of experience, Baqer has been able to establish the entity single handedly and develop A-list clients including Samsung, BMW, HBO, and major startup, Lime. Baqer has been fortunate enough to develop and execute major creative experiences at London 2012 and Rio 2018 Olympics, World Cup Football 2018 etc. Baqer is part of the British High Commission’s “Business is Great” program and is regularly invited to speak on panels to discuss UK-US transitions to help companies make that move. He is also an active member of the St. George’s Society, a British non-profit. A huge football (the one we play with our ‘feet’!) fan, Baqer is looking to develop the young guns of our community and as such taken up a coaching role recently.

Trenton Carl, originally from Houston, Texas, now resides in the Chicago metropolitan area with his wife. He graduated from DePaul University in 2011 with a BA in Islamic World Studies. At DePaul, he was on the board of the MSA and was the VP of DePaul’s Students for Justice in Palestine. After graduating, he worked in the Islamic World Studies program as a research and teaching assistant for Dr. Aminah McCloud. Currently, Trenton is a student of traditional Islamic studies at the Ahl al-Bayt Islamic Seminary. He is an editor of al-Sidrah, the seminary’s publication, and one of the facilitators for the seminary’s summer program, L.I.F.E. [Living Islam Faithfully and Ethically]. In addition to his work at the seminary, Trenton worked for two years as the Youth Director at the Irshad Learning Center in Naperville, IL, and is currently involved with several community education projects.

Zain Ali is a leader in strategy and innovation that has launched new global products, developed business alliances, and helped drive top-line growth for publicly traded and startup companies. He has developed a passion for B2B innovation related to financing, networks and the data that powers them. Currently, Zain is the leading Business Development and Strategy for APiO, a fintech startup, where he is responsible for sales, partnerships and product strategy.

Zain’s other passion is giving back to those in need, and he has been actively involved in a number of meaningful volunteer efforts. Zain also sits on the Board of Children’s Home Society of NJ, which serves 70,000 at-risk children and Muslims for Peace, an organization dedicated to peaceful community building and the organization of charitable events for children, the homeless, and disaster-affected people.

Ali is a manager in the Long Island Office of Marcum LLP, a national mid-sized accounting firm. Ali has been a tax consultant for over ten years and focuses his practice on High Net Worth individuals, small businesses, and private charitable foundations. He is involved in helping his client stay compliant with ever changing tax regulations while consulting with them to help them achieve their financial objectives and serving as their trusted advisor. Pairing his passion for financial planning with tax strategies provides him with the opportunity to put money back into his client’s pockets. Ali completed his undergraduate studies at Adelphi University and began his career at KPMG, LLP in their audit division. He later went on to obtain his Masters in Taxation (Hons) from SUNY Old Westbury. In his spare time, Ali enjoys reading and watching sports.

Shehryar Hussain:

Shehryar has been working professionally for the past 9 years, and is currently a Technology Consultant with Avanade, which is a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft. Shehryar comes from a military household, and his father and grandfather both served in the Pakistan Army. As a result, Shehryar has been well-travelled within Pakistan and abroad. Shehryar had his primary education in London, secondary education in Pakistan, and College in Malaysia, receiving a BSc. Hons in Network Engineering from Coventry University. He now works in the United States. He enjoys playing video games, squash (beginner), is a car enthusiast, and loves to travel.

Shaheen Lakhani:

A Physician Assistant for 19 years initially working in Primary Care and Women’s Health and has been specializing in Gastroenterology for the past 13 years. I am currently a hospital based practitioner working for a private GI practice. My focus on digestive Health and Nutrition also lends itself to my part time career as a health and wellness coach where I help I can help others who may be struggling with their weight and health (as I did) make healthier lifestyle choices and start to incorporate a fitness routine into their daily lifestyle.

Sameer Ladha:

Sameer was born in Songea, Tanzania, grew up in London, England, and in New Jersey, USA. He is an attorney by profession, has worked at the United Nations, and in corporate law in the areas of corporate finance, project finance and mergers and acquisitions, in both New York and London. He subsequently pursued an MS in Bioethics, a field where his interests in law, medicine, ethics, public policy and religion converge. He is currently the Associate Director of the graduate program in Bioethics at Columbia University, teaches in the program, and is particularly interested in Islam’s evolving discourse in the field. He is an avid traveler, cyclist and enjoys spending time with his large family.

Salma Jaffer:

Salma recieved her BA and BEd from Simon Fraser University in 2002. She started teaching in the Coquitlam School District and had experience teaching Kindergarten to Grade 7. In 2008, Salma moved to the Delta School District and has taught primarily grades 3 and 4. Her areas of speciality are around understanding behaviour and promoting an inquiry based teaching style within the classroom.

Salma’s teaching philosophy involves creating an atmosphere that is centered around each child’s specific needs, engaging learners by bringing their learning to life and facilitating a space that’s promotes critical and creative thinking in a collaborative setting.

Recently Salma has taken on leadership positions in her district that allow her to mentor new teachers in the district as well as facilitate collaboration amongst staff in her school. Her hope is to soon go back to university to work towards a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership.

Salma, along with her 2 colleagues, created a program that worked with North American Madrasah teachers. Together they explored basic teaching strategies and found ways to teach the material in meaningful ways. This program was under the NASIMCO umbrella and was implemented in 11 madaris in North America.

When not teaching, planning lessons or thinking about teaching… Salma is busy exploring the beautiful outdoors in true West Coast style with her husband and 3 children.

Mohamed Haider:

Mohamed Haider serves as a Sales Director for Europe at New Vision Display. He brings a combined 27 years of experience in more than 30 countries covering R&D, operations, manufacturing, technology transfer programs & sales and marketing for European, Asian & US-based companies. He received his BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Drexel University and an MBA in Engineering Management, and has acquired numerous certifications in Leadership Training, Project Management, Six Sigma, Project Management and Quality Control. He is a Mentor at Share Ventures & is on the Board of Directors for Anjuman Wazifa Saadat O Momineen, a nonprofit organization that provides interest free educational loans.

For more information about Anjuman Wazifa, please visit http://www.anjumanwazifa.org/

Mir Hussain:

Mir Hussain is in Admissions for Avalon University School of Medicine. His role at Avalon University is to assist with the admissions process and recruit those students that are looking to pursue their MD degree.

For more information about Avalon University School of Medicine, please visit: https://avalonu.org/

umojaoutreach.org/mentor/2018-10-27/

Reza Ladak:

Reza Ladak is currently an Account Supervisor at Harrison and Star, an advertising agency for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. He specializes in developing and executing strategic and tactical marketing plans for some of the world’s leading Pharma and BioTech companies, focusing on the areas of Oncology and Neurology.

Reza has a Bachelors of Sciences degree in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Business from the Univeristy of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He has over 8 years of experience, working with clients ranging from corporate, non-profit, and advocacy settings.

Amina Al-Sadi:

Amina Al-Sadi got her start in radio at KUOW, Seattle’s NPR affiliate station, as a Weekday High School Intern in 2007. After finishing her degree at the University of Washington, she returned to call-screen, volunteer, intern, fill-in, and produce for the shows Weekday and Week in Review. She helped launch KUOW’s daily news show The Record in 2012.

Amina was a RIAS Berlin Fellow in 2016. She is interested in how policies and technology are changing our lives and culture. She likes to explore the curiosities of the changing Puget Sound region in the stories she tells as a producer for The Record.

Aaliya Sheriff:

Aaliya Sheriff is a graphic designer and artist in Vancouver, British Columbia. She received a Bachelor of Applied Design from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. In 2012, Aaliya received a Masters of Design in Graphic Branding and Identity from the UAL – London College of Communications in London, U.K. She has worked as a freelance graphic designer for almost 8 years, working with different communities and organizations to create resources and products in secular and religious education. She currently works for REACH Orton Gillingham Learning Centre. Aaliya has continued to take on freelance projects in her spare time and is also exploring her artistic style with custom hand-made cards and other products on Instagram under the name CardsbyAaliya.

Bilal Bokhari:

Bilal is a senior consultant in the Protiviti IT Consulting practice, specializing in penetration testing. Bilal is a technical resource and has performed numerous information security assessments and penetration tests across the energy, telecom, retail, financial and manufacture industry. He has also assisted clients for a number of years using his information security knowledge and experience by providing strategic short, medium and long-term recommendations, while also providing tactical recommendations to specialists, to improve the security posture of organizations.

Prior to joining Protiviti, Bilal gained over seven years of experience in the areas of web application security engineering, network penetration, and vulnerability assessment during his time with PricewaterhouseCoopers, RSM US and Alert Logic.

He received his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Hons, in Network Computing from Coventry University, U.K.