Wa'el Alzayat is CEO of Emgage, a national civic education and engagement grassroots organization for Muslim Americans, and a lecturer at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Alzayat previously served as a U.S. Middle East policy expert at the U.S. Department of State for ten years, including as senior policy advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
Sahar F. Aziz is a Professor of Law, Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar, and Middle East and Legal Studies Scholar at Rutgers University Law School. Professor Aziz’s scholarship examines intersections of national security, race, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the U.S.
Maya Berry is Executive Director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), steering the Institute's policy agenda.
Taif Jany was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq. At age 16, he fled the sectarian civil conflict in the country and sought refuge in Damascus, Syria. Jany arrived in the United States at age 18 to attend Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he studied sociology and French.
Faiza Patel serves as co-director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program. She has testified before Congress opposing the dragnet surveillance of Muslims, organized advocacy efforts against state laws designed to incite fear of Islam, and developed legislation creating an independent Inspector General for the NYPD. Ms.
Ibraham Qatabi is a Yemeni American political analyst and a human rights advocate and organizer. He is also a legal worker for the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Mr. Qatabi serves as a UN-U.S.
Hina Shamsi is the director of the ACLU National Security Project, which is dedicated to ensuring that U.S. national security policies and practices are consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human rights.