Executive Team
Ayman Nassar
Known to the youth as amu Ayman or coach Ayman, he brings over 30 years of experience in youth development, and coaching. He has coached, taught and counseled thousands of youth and young professionals and has been a certified mentor and coach with Big Brother Big Sister, Lutheran Social Services, Dar Al-Taqwa, Prince George’s Community College Asian, Latino, African, Native American (ALANA), New Beginnings Youth Center, Howard County Detention Center and Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA), a youth development organization he founded in 2009. In 2015, he founded Youth Crisis Line (YCL) to address the alarming need for stabilizing young adults experiencing challenges and crises. Ayman is a member of the Howard County Reentry Council and the Howard County Ethnic Diversity Round Table. He holds two Master degrees in electrical engineering, engineering management and systems engineering, and holds certifications in half a dozen leadership areas. He has been trained in cultural competence, youth development, reentry, psychology, curriculum development and has devised over 140 courses and programs for youth and adults. He was faculty at University of California, Prince George’s Community College, Strayer University and Howard Community College.
Akira Funderburk
Akira Funderburk is a Researcher and Youth Project Manager at Islamic Leadership Institute & Community Aid for Baltimore City Recreation & Parks. She is a graduate of Baltimore City College. Akira's interests are in generational trauma and does research in Psychology. She is also an entrepreneur working on her artistry. She enjoys any kind of art, such as writing: poetry, music, singing, drawing, etc. Throughout her younger years, she has come face to face with many battles that took a toll on her mental & even her potential at some point but with her strong-willed attitude, she knew she couldn’t give up that easily. Akira always believed that anything is possible & anyone can overcome life’s challenges. With that being said, she acknowledges this issue with the utmost respect & would love to step into her passion for helping others to the best of her abilities.
Bahaa Harraz
Bahaa is a resident of Maryland, and started his engagement with ILIA while in 6th grade, attending ILIA's young men's circle joint program with Dar al-Taqwa. In 2017, while a senior in year high school Bahaa became an active volunteer, chaperoning with the organization at ILIA's Middle School Entrepreneurship course, he then joined the Internship program as a Project Manager. In 2018 he was promoted to Youth Council President, and then in 2019 to President of the organization. He is a student at the University of Maryland, studying Computer Science.
Esraa Badr
A positive youth development researcher at Islamic Leadership institute of America. She holds a MBBCh degree from Alexandria Faculty of Medicine, Egypt with focused training in adult and child neuropsychiatry specialties combined with a neurology training in Selcuk University, Turkey. Currently she is a pediatrician at the Ministry of Health and Population, Egypt and a participant in Clinical Research Scholars Training program by Harvard Medical School. She is focused on mental health issues affecting youth as part of her postgraduate studies in the High Institute of Public Health, Egypt. Esraa is also a member of the Mental Health Research Network in Egypt and has participated in several research projects on different mental health issues. She is a writer and health promoter about mental health affairs with special interest in parenting issues. Esraa also participated in many civil work projects targeting the public awareness about mental health affairs.
Jannah Nassar
Jannah Nassar is a longtime Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA) student, having been attending programs since 2009. As she grew with the organization, her role as evolved as well. In the past, Jannah was an ILIA intern, ILIA Head of Outreach, and currently acts as the ILIA President. With a diverse background in project management, leadership, and organization, she works to uplift youth and help transform them into the leaders of tomorrow. From making blankets for the needy to planning the anniversary dinners, each project works to serve the bigger community. Jannah Nassar is a Class of 2026 student at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland-College Park and will be studying to earn her undergraduate degree in Business Management. She is passionate about advocacy, youth empowerment and leadership and hopes to inspire others to join ILIA on their mission to transpiring communities around the world.
Mohamad French
Mohamad French has been involved with ILIA since his middle school days back in 2011, when he participated Halal Yeah and Green Sprouts. While in high school he joined the ILIA Internship program setting up a computer lab. He received his BS degree from University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 2021, and shortly thereafter joined ILIA as Digital Transformation Analyst, managing ILIA's technology adoption and strategy, as well as administering ILIA's technology systems. Through his work he has helped transform the organization's back office keeping the organization on the cutting-edge, resulting in powerful outreach and effective engagement with youth and parents. Mohamad has led several IT consulting projects to bring ILIA's non-profit IT expertise & knowledge to other non-profit organizations, and he looks forward to expanding the scope and customer base for these projects, extending his impact outside of ILIA
Moustasem Saifeldin
Moutasem Saif is an Executive Assistant, Administration in Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA), work in capturing mostly all financial transactions and analyze it, tracking donations, processing payments, financial forecasts preparation, tracking funds and campaigns then creating periodically the financial statements and presentations, Multi tasking and work under pressure, as he assists in interviews preparations and implementation, Keeping and tracking human resources records and follow up with urgent communications, For his delegate he became responsible for reviewing grants and starting applications, also being prepared as well to be a grants writing trainer, he has been certified by ILIA for "Intro to Grant Writing for Youth" to be qualified for that role, Helped in Empowerreer, the biggest funding opportunity in 2021 and successfully reported all requirements before estimated due dates, He looks forward to helping the organization to expand multiple times and increase the running programs to a limitless border also supporting organization vision to spread over the whole community and the whole world as well.
Mohamed Fekry
Mohamad Fekry joined ILIA in early 2022, Where he provides executive support and coordination to our academic programming, Mohamed helped ILIA organize operations and get our system up to date such as Donations/ Enrollments/ Volunteering/ Sections/ Campaigns/ Accounts & Contacts and tracking students attendance, He also creates the students programs certificates and sends out the programs documents to be signed via docusign, As well he helps out creating programs & impacts pages and posts on ILIA website and social media, Working on researching and collecting data if it's needed, Outreach and students services and calibrating with the VA program. Mohamad also has huge experience working as Quality Assurance/ Customer service and Live streaming apps
Mohamed Abdelhalim
Mohamad Hassan and a freelance animator/designer with a passion for fun, challenging motion design work. With more than a decade of experience, Mohamad have worked with a wide range of clients, broadcast networks, and design studios. attended the tomsk state university of Technology where he received a B.S. in linguistics (Russian,English,German and polish ) and . Worked full-time positions at Diggers Media Solution where i worked with so many Clients such as Vodafone , Shell , Juhayna , WE and so many more and was Senior Freelancer as well
Zain Nisar
Zain Nisar is a Faculty Member at the Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA). He is responsible for preparing educational content, providing instruction at selected ILIA programs, and digitizing existing content. He is currently the Social Media Lead of Qabeelat Nurayn, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia’s chapter of Almaghrib Institute. He is also a member of the Dar-Us-Salaam Youth Board of Trustees. In addition, he was the 2018 MSA President of Prince George’s Community College. Zain believes that educators have a role and a responsibility to train students to think critically and logically to help students navigate through a complicated world. His goal at the Islamic Leadership Institute of America is to help students develop their identity so that they can change their environment locally. Doing so can then affect the global scene, where they can be the source of positive change. He holds a bachelor’s in Middle School Education. In addition, he has a Maryland Educator Certificate.