Board Of Directors
EXECUTIVE BOARD
President
Dearborn, MI
Hasan Shanawani, MD

Hasan Shanawani
Dr. Hasan Shanawani is the current president of AMHP. His current position is at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Senior Health/ Medicare Advantage, as their Medical Director for Clinical Performance Improvement. Dr. Shanawani has a career interest and extensive training and experience in systems-based practice, health policy, quality improvement, clinical informatics and patient safety. He is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care, and clinical informatics.
Before starting medical school, Dr. Shanawani served as an assistant to the chief of staff of the Maryland State Governor, providing data-Dr.iven solutions to key policy priorities to the then governor of MD. He completed his medical school and an MPH in Epidemiology and Refugee Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. After medical school, Dr. Shanawani completed a one-year civilian fellowship at the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USA-CHPPM), part of the US Army Medical Command, where he worked on disease outbreak management, and on supply chain management and delivery of vaccines and chemical defense supplies to deployed US Army soldiers in Kuwait and Kosovo.
Dr. Shanawani completed his residency and chief residency at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), in Cleveland, OH, and his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine, as well as health ethics and policy, at Duke University in Durham, NC.
Dr. Shanawani has a long history in medical and religious ethics. He has published numerous articles on end-of-life care, Islamic Bioethics, and conscientious objection to medical procedures. He served on the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA)’s ethics committee and was an author of their 2005 “Medical Ethics from an Islamic Perspective” statement. He also served on the American Thoracic Society’s Ethics and Conflict-of-Interest Committee.
Since 1998, Dr. Shanawani has served veterans either in training or as a practicing physician, caring for veterans at least part time for 17 of the last 18 years. He was site faculty for the VA’s National Chief Resident in Quality and Patient Safety (CRQS) program and joined the VA’s National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) in 2015. In 2017 he served as the VA’s deputy CMIO for quality and safety in their Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization. Although leaving the VA Central Office in January 2020, he continues to serve Veterans in their national Tele-ICU program.
Vice President
Boston, MA
Sana Syed, MD, MPH

Sana Syed, MD, MPH Link
Sana Syed joined AMHP as the Director of Government Relations in 2018 and is now appointed as a Health Policy & Advocacy Director. Sana is a neurologist and works as a Medical Director at EMD Serono in Boston. She completed her neurology residency training at Boston University Medical Center and her fellowship trainings in Demyelinating Disorders and Cognitive Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She also completed a Clinical Translational Research Fellowship with Pfizer while working at Tufts Medical Center as an Assistant Professor of Neurology. She graduated from King Edward Medical College and holds a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. During her training Sana was actively engaged in lobbying for healthcare reform with the American Academy of Neurology and the Committee of Interns and Residents. Sana also writes for the Huffington Post, and her writings are inspired by her background in public health. Sana can be reached at GovernmentRelations@amhp.us
Treasurer
Boston, MA
Atif Adam, PhD, MD, MPH

Atif Adam
Dr. Atif Adam is a public health scientist with over 10 years’ experience in clinical modeling and systems approaches. He holds joint faculty appointments in the Dept. of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on utilizing systems thinking approaches to better understand (and model) obesity-associated chronic disease epidemiology, healthy aging, and multi-scale health resiliency (esp. among minority populations). Dr. Adam is also Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Rose — a mental health startup leveraging artificial intelligence to simplify the process for patients to seek and receive mental health care.
Dr. Adam’s work experience spans the US and international sectors, including work as a system scientist at the Johns Hopkins Global Obesity Prevention Center and as a Research Fellow with Johns Hopkins ARAMCO Healthcare Collaborative (JHAH).
Dr.Adam completed his Ph.D. in Health Systems from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a focus on Systems Science and Chronic Disease modeling. His awarded Ph.D. work utilized geographic information systems (GIS) to understand socio-environmental obesity dynamics and leveraged a life-course-obesity computational model to evaluate the potential clinical and economic impact of obesity interventions throughout the lifespan.
Dr. Adam is trained in internal medicine and has practiced in India, England, and the UAE. He also earned an MPH in health policy and spatial epidemiology at Loma Linda University.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mental Health Programming Director Bethesda, MD
Rukhsana Chaudhry, PsyD

Dr. Rukhsana Chaudhry, PsyD
Dr. Rukhsana M. Chaudhry is the Director of Mental Health Programming for the American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP). In this role, she has developed several mental health advocacy and educational initiatives, including the "Muslim Youth Identity" series in which American Muslim speakers delivered TED-style talks about combating stereotypes and prejudice. She spearheaded and convened the first-ever National Interfaith Anti-bullying summit with steering committee partners in December of 2017. Dr. Chaudhry also serves as a senior clinical psychologist and faculty member with the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, a trauma-focused institute with a culturally diverse patient population in Washington D.C. In 2019, she established the first asylum and human rights clinic in the Department of Professional Psychology in her role as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University. In 2016, she received the Leadership recognition award for service in Mental Health Programming by the Muslim Mental Health Conference and Michigan State Univeristy Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Chaudhry received her Doctorate from the George Washington University in 2010. She completed her postgraduate training at Harvard University's Global Mental Health Program specializing in Trauma and Recovery.
Founder & Director of Development Chicago, IL
Arshia Wajid, MPH, MBA

Arshia Wajid, MPH, MBA
Arshia Wajid is the Founder and Board Member of American Muslim Health Professionals. Arshia received a master's degree in Business Administration and Public Health from the University of Illinois and fellowship in Hospital Administration at Stony Brook University Hospital. She is a seasoned Healthcare Executive with nearly 18 years of experience in clinical operations, strategic planning, process improvement, program development and performance management. She currently works as Director of Care Transformation in the Strategy and Innovations Department at Advocate Aurora Health.
Arshia’s personal interest in global health has led her to volunteer with medical relief missions in Haiti, Bangladesh, India, Jordan and Ecuador. Arshia is a recipient of the 2018 Muslim Women’s Alliance Inspiring Woman Award and has been featured in the Chicago Sun Times, CBS Chicago News and U.S. Department of State’s ShareAmerica platform.
In February 2015, she was invited along with 13 other American-Muslim leaders to meet with President Obama at a private roundtable at the White House, to discuss contributions of Muslim health professionals. Arshia drives her inspiration for her activism from her faith which places huge importance on serving humanity. During her spare time, Arshia likes to travel internationally, run and spend time with family. Arshia can be reached at awajid@amhp.us
Board Member
Hasnain Walji, Ph.D.

Hasnain Walji, Ph.D.
Hasnain Walji, Ph.D. is an educator, historian, filmmaker, and author who has penned 26 books on Nutrition and Natural Medicine as well as multimedia educational content in diverse fields such as financial literacy and leadership development. His lifelong quest is to envision ways and means to enable civil society to confront new realities of the current era. Born in Tanzania, of Indian ancestry, educated in the United Kingdom and now living in the US, his institutional work promoting social justice spans four decades in four continents.
Currently, he serves as Executive Director of United Global initiative - an international NGO with a focus on women empowerment and children’s health. A signature project if UGI is CodeGirls with a mission to empower more women in the Tech Sector in developing countries. UGI also runs water projects to provide clean water to rural communities as well as vitamins to women and children in Asia and Africa.
Hasnain’s continued contributions from his active leadership roles on many boards ranging from The World Federation of Khoja Communities, The Frugality Nation Foundation, Universal Muslim Association of America, National Muslim Catholic, Dialogue, Interfaith Peace Ministry of Orange County, The Shura Council of Southern California, and International Society for Empowerment, Enlightenment and Knowledge (ISEEK) all demonstrate the breadth of his socio-political endeavor in tackling social injustices that confront our civil society.
Now in his golden years, his passion is in increasing interfaith and Intra-faith understanding to make this world a better place for his seven grandchildren.
Board Member
Donna Neil-Demir R.N. BSN

Donna Neil-Demir, R.N. BSN
Donna Neil-Demir, R.N. BSN is the senior health advisor at Zakat Foundation of America. Before serving in this role Donna worked as a neonatal registered nurse for nearly twenty-five years on the Southwest side of Chicago. She holds a baccalaureate of nursing from Chicago State University and a bachelors degree in music and the performing arts from the University of Southern California. In 2001, Donna and her husband founded Zakat Foundation of America, a renowned charity organization that operates in over 43 countries.
While at Zakat Foundation, Donna has worked on health endeavors focused on health equity and international health development. Having worked and traveled to a dozen countries she was able to witness health disparities and inequities firsthand. From setting up free standing clinics for Hurricane Maria survivors in Puerto Rico to teaching basic life support classes in Bangladesh, Donna has a deep commitment to being an agent of change.
In her spare time, Donna enjoys singing, poetry, gardening and taking care of her rescued birds. She is also fluent in German and an esteemed flutist. Donna resides with her husband in Palos Heights, Illinois and is a mother to four wonderful daughters and proud grandmother to three grandchildren.
Board Member
Faraz Siddiqui, JD, MPH

Faraz Siddiqui, JD, MPH
Faraz Siddiqui is a life sciences and healthcare attorney at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, where he works on FDA-related matters across a range of product categories and stages of development. Faraz advises drug manufacturer clients on drug development issues and post-approval promotion and reporting. He also advises drug and device companies on fraud and abuse risks, HIPAA compliance, government pricing and reimbursement, and other healthcare compliance issues. Faraz also conducts due diligence for transactions in the healthcare industry as the life sciences subject-matter expert.
Prior to his legal career, Faraz worked in public health as a consultant. After spending a year working with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Faraz co-founded Global Inroad Consulting, a Toronto-based management consulting firm to advise Canadian and international clients on health services delivery, monitoring, and evaluation with a particular focus on refugees, Aboriginal Canadians, and other vulnerable populations. Global Inroads was hired by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center to conduct research on issues in global health governance and the right to health. Here, Faraz participated in a research consortium that drafted health-related development goals for the European Union. Faraz also worked at the Baltimore City Health Department as an emergency preparedness epidemiologist.
Faraz received his JD, magna cum laude, from Howard University School of Law. He has a Masters of Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, with a focus on disaster recovery and risk management. Prior to that, Faraz obtained his Bachelors in biology and bioethics from the University of Toronto.
Board Member
Almaas Shaikh MD

Almaas Shaikh MD
Almaas Shaikh MD is a physician and surgeon currently practicing in the Los Angeles area. Her practice focuses on the management of the injured patient – including life saving trauma care, surgical critical care management, and emergency general surgery. She completed a trauma and surgical critical care fellowship at Shock Trauma at the University of Maryland where her training was both in the clinical management of the trauma patient and in trauma leadership. She has served in multiple administrative positions throughout her career resulting in significant clinical expansion, integration of team based patient centered care models, development of community health and outreach programs, and tremendous financial growth of her service lines.
Using her experience in leadership of over two decades, Dr. Shaikh offers her expertise as an executive coach and organizational consultant through her consulting firm, Shaikh Trauma Consulting. Driven toward optimal healthcare delivery of trauma centers and trauma systems, Dr. Shaikh provides guidance for healthcare systems devoted to process improvement and quality outcomes. Furthermore, Almaas offers a wider range of coaching services – with a focus on women in healthcare - to enhance performance and outcomes of individual executives, teams and organizations.
With a growing interest in population health and community healthcare delivery, Dr. Shaikh looks to expand her influence and reach with the completion of her MPH Program, anticipated 2022 from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
Board Member
Jawad Arshad, MD, FACEP

Jawad Arshad, MD, FACEP
Jawad Arshad is an Emergency Physician with over 18 years of clinical and administrative experience. He started his career at Henry Ford Health System in 2001 for his residency and then stayed on to eventually become director of the Emergency department at HF West Bloomfield Hospital. Along the way, Jawad went through leadership and administrative training, and then transitioned to Beaumont Health about 7 years ago to pursue his extra-clinical interests.
He started a clinic briefly which gave him first-hand insights into the challenges that medical practices face, which led him to start his latest project, WoW Health, a direct-pay healthcare community that provides price transparency for all ambulatory services across a nationwide network of providers who are paid at the time of service–providers skip the claims and waiting weeks to be paid, and consumers get to shop for the best value regardless of their insurance status.
Jawad has worked with amazing non-profits like ICAN and DREAM. He has a keen interest in politics and social policy, especially the effects of technology on these issues. Jawad lives with his wife Ayesha, and twin sons Shahzad and Shiraz in Metro Detroit.
ADVISORY BOARD
Intuitive IT Solutions Inc.
Tayyab Yunus, CEO

Tayyab Yunus
Tayyab Yunus is the founder, CEO of Intuitive IT Solutions Inc., a firm dedicated to reinventing the customer experience in healthcare. Mr. Yunus is also a partner with AltaPoint Data Systems, LLC and Xynapx Inc. With over 20 years of experience, he is responsible for developing strategic initiatives for long term sustainability while providing guidance and resources for short term execution, but also engages as a resource across global teams to increase success of strategic plans.
Tayyab’s aim has always been focused and aligned with his perspective on Personal Development and Life Improvement of all those around him. He believes in not just acquiring knowledge and skills, his entire journey has been to contribute towards the bigger picture of giving back to the Community. Tayyab’s career journey began at the age of 17 when he was based in Gainesville, Florida, he was surrounded by mentors and teachers, and it was then when he became one of the founders of a community youth group. Two years later, he ended up as the National President and decided to move to Chicago. Over the course of another two years, Tayyab gained insight, resources, and the expertise to finally initiate his Business. Intuitive IT Solutions came into being in the year 2002, as a dedicated IT, Consulting, and Software Service Provider for Healthcare Practitioners. Over the period of 15 years, Intuitive Solutions has developed 3 mature divisions including Revenue Cycle Management, Scribe and Technology Solutions. With offices in India and Philippines, the Intuitive Global Family caters to a clientele of over 2,500 healthcare providers.
NETWORK Lobby
Sr. Simone Campbell

Sr. Simone Campbell
Create Hope, Change, and Community,” published by HarperCollins. She has received numerous awards, spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, and has appeared on 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She is a religious leader, attorney and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change.
Ethica Global Alliance
Rehan Dawer, Founder

Rehan Dawer, Founder
Rehan Dawer is an advocate for social innovation and growth. Guided both by his compassion for humanity and a deep conviction for a purpose driven life, Rehan founded Ethica Global Alliance. As a Principal of Valuebridge International; advisory firm helping companies create sustainable value through social entrepreneurial ventures, he has built several companies.
Among those include Guidance Financial Group (the largest unique minority finance company in the US); Buttonwood Financial – financial advisory firm; Novastar Group – dedicated to delivering a higher standard of educational services. As an active member of the philanthropic community, Rehan has served and currently serves on several boards, including the Buxton Initiative, a non-profit sponsored in part by the Steve Case Foundation; Board member – Communities in Schools, Board Member – ADAMS Compassionate Healthcare Network, Board member Leadership Council – Convergence: Center for Policy Resolution.
Prior to forming Ethica, he has held several executive positions with various blue-chip multi-national companies such as Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and American Express. Rehan built his academic foundation at University of Maryland and Georgetown University and holds degrees in Finance, Marketing, International Business Management, and Certificates in Senior Executive Leadership Management and Leadership Coaching.
East Territory
Saba Ternikar

Saba Ternikar
Saba brings 20 years of industry experience where she has held various organizational and regional leadership roles as Partner or Senior Vice President with marque benefit consulting firms and most currently with a Fortune 50 health plan. Her experience spans from Chicago to Tampa to Washington D.C., where her responsibilities included, but were not limited to, P&L accountability and growth, people management, and women in leadership initiatives.
She is health care strategist for Fortune 500 companies. She is passionate about total population health, understands the emerging trends of value based care and has been known to introduce innovative disruptors to her clients. Saba has a Master’s in Health Services Administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH and a Bachelor’s in Business Management from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. She is a native of Tampa, FL and currently resides in Northern Virginia. In her spare time, Saba enjoys running and traveling.
McDonald Hopkins
Mazen Asbahi, Partner

Mazen Asbahi, Partner
Mazen Asbahi is a partner at the law firm of McDonald Hopkins. Mazen specializes in the areas of Health Care, Corporate and Nonprofit Law. He maintains a national practice and serves clients that include physicians, dentists, and other healthcare providers, healthcare and non-healthcare related businesses, entrepreneurs and investors. Mazen also provides counsel to a variety of nonprofit organizations on matters ranging from their day-to-day operations to governance and regulatory matters. Mazen is an honors graduate of both the University of Michigan and the Northwestern University School of Law.