Our Consultants
Aaron Paley
CARS creates unique experiences where art, culture, community and civic life collide.
CARS is engaged in the changing dynamics of culture and cities. Based in Los Angeles since 1989, our work is centered on event planning and production, urban planning, public engagement, and marketing. Through partnerships with neighborhoods, nonprofits, foundations, cities, cultural institutions, developers and designers, our work highlights and transforms the unique character and untapped potential of a particular place.
With over 40 years of experience, Aaron’s work has garnered him a significant reputation in the fields of cultural advocacy, event production and urban planning. He received the Durfee Foundation’s Stanton Fellowship in 2008, which allowed him to focus on the utilization of public space in Los Angeles and which led directly to the birth of CicLAvia, now the largest car-free, open streets event in the United States, which has allowed Angelenos to walk, bike, socialize and celebrate their city in new ways. In 2015, the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter awarded him its highest honors for non-architects honorable membership.
Mohannad Ghawanmeh
Mohannad is a scholar, cineaste, educator, and culturist intimately at large. A teacher of communication and media for twenty five years, Mohannad’s instruction has centered on the cinema, for which he has also written, produced, acted, consulted, programmed, and curated. He is co-founder of the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival produced by Mizna. Mohannad curated the first of the Arab American National Museum’s film festival editions and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Italian Film Festival, as well as the series Melnitz Movies at University of California, Los Angeles.
Mohannad is well awarded and published, having earned in 2020 his PhD from UCLA in Cinema and Media Studies. His research of the cinema decidedly examines such intersecting fields as governmentality, migration, nativity, religion, theater, music, literature, industrialization, and modernity typically in the mold of cultural history.
Born to Palestinian refugees and an immigrant to the United States, Mohannad has also lived in Egypt, Japan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Mohannad thrives on conjoining education and cultural production, connecting people and places, enriching and inspiring.
Aliya Z. Khabir
Mrs. Khabir received her bachelors of business administration with a concentration in marketing in 2001 from the Fox School of Business at Temple University. She received her certificate in professional meeting and event planning, also from Temple University. In 2007, Aliya received her master of professional business communication with a concentration in public relations from La Salle University. She is a self published author, penning and releasing Just Be Still, a novel about the lives of Black American Muslim women.
Aliya has also grown her firm offerings into diversity education with a focus on the American Muslim consumer. Her consultancy has partnered with various health organizations and to education healthcare professionals about how to properly, and professionally engage Muslim patients when they access care and with the intention of producing the healthiest outcomes. For the last three years AZK has advised and trained healthcare professionals at the Gift of Life Donor Program, helping them to understand the nuances of approaching Muslims about organ donation. She has also offered DEI training to the Please Touch Museum staff in preparation for Muslim guest to visit a very special exhibit about Islam, specifically Philadelphia.
Khabir occasionally contributes commentary to both Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest African American Newspaper in the country. She is an associate member of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.
BillyPenn.com was also recently named Aliya to its list: Who’s Next in Communications: 18 young people helping Philly find its voice.
In 2019, she received the Communications Professional of the Year Award from the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists (PABJ). She loves traveling and chocolate, in that order. In her spare time, she bakes brownies, cookies and cakes she shouldn’t eat while folding laundry and watching Resurrection Ertugrul and Law & Order SVU marathons.
Shamsul Huda
After raising the boys to their adulthood and after they had left the nest, Mr. Huda has devoted his life to social works and helping his native country grow businesses with USA.. He is presently taking care of administrative matter of North Penn Mosque in Lansdale, PA, interfacing with religious leaders of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. He is a member of several faith groups including the Wissahickon Faith Community Association.
Mr. Huda, just known as Shams, sits on several boards, including the United Way (UWSNJGP), Pearl S Buck (PSBI), PEAK Center (GHNPSS), Montgomery County Office of Senior Services (MCOSS), and also sits on the advisory boards on Diversity at YMCA (Lansdale) and Montgomery County Community College. Shams is also the co-chair of the Faith Committee working on 2020 Complete Count Census under the office the Montgomery County Commissioner, Val Arkoosh.
For three years till two years ago Shams had been participating in the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders economic forums. For the past six years Shams is heavily involved in several committees of the International Spring Festival that celebrates diversity and inclusiveness in North Wales, Lansdale and surrounding areas. ISF is being transformed to round the year services to the communities partnering with YMCA (Lansdale), Pearl S Buck Foundation, Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board and the Montgomery County Commissioners office. According to some state officials ISF hosts the largest such festival in the State. Shams is the co-chair of ISF. Shams is also the chairperson of a newly formed organization known as the Global Horizon International. GHI provides various community services to the needy people. It is totally a volunteer based organization, run by dedicated community leaders who have significant contacts with various groups of people in multiple counties.
Line Producers
Rasheed Knox
Lubna Muhammad
Teresa Hadjali
Janeen Bey
Janeen’s resume speaks for itself as she has served exquisitely delicious meals to her very satisfied customers at events ranging from an intimate dinner for two to large parties, hosting over 6,000 participants.
A Philadelphia native and active member of the Muslim community, Janeen currently holds contracts with local schools and religious organizations to provide daily halal meals.
She is committed to serving healthy and flavorful options to enhance and supplement the well-being of growing children and members within the community.
Sabrina Zouaghi
Nafeesa Malik
She is the proud mother of four highly energetic and scholarly young men. She is also an entrepreneur, a student, a teacher, an analyst, a thinker, a doer, and a creator. For more than twenty years, she has worked in Youth Programming and Business Management. She holds two undergraduate degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in International Business, and a dual concentration master’s degree in Financial Management and Information Systems. She is a developed leader who enjoys cultivating relationships and building robust teams. She is also a resolute community worker who values the importance of volunteerism and giving back to the community.
New Medina Learning Institute was founded on the aim to grow the minds of children through creation-based knowledge combined with 21st century technology and learning models. New Medina’s mission is based on four purposes: 1) to promote dignity and self-esteem, 2) to foster independence and self-determination, 3) to facilitate social interaction and involvement in community life, and 4) to dispel stereotypes about Muslim American children and families. New Medina’s multi-faceted approach to educating children makes the school unlike other educational environments and allows it to play a truly vital role in the community.
Iman Ahmad
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