AMPD Executive Team 2016-17

Lila is a manager at Kulesa Faul, a leading mid-sized agency providing expert public relations, social media and content marketing services to enterprise tech companies. She brings a positive, can-do attitude to her teams and is passionate about giving back.  

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Past experiences have taken her across the globe. Lila has worked in communications at organizations including: the UN's International Labor Organization, CCLR - an environmental nonprofit focused on urban renewal, and NPR affiliate KQED in San Francisco. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in government with an emphasis in international relations from Smith College and studied a year abroad in Geneva, Switzerland. 

 

Lila's interests include travel, art history and human rights. She is grateful for all the blessings in her life. This includes having parents who constantly remind her to live by the words of J.F.K.: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what can you do for your country." 

Dr. Nelly Kaakaty is an educator, researcher, and advocate dedicated to creating a more inclusive and accepting world, one classroom at a time. Nelly earned a B.S. in Psychology and Child Learning and Development from the University of Texas at Dallas, an M.S. in Psychology from Texas A&M University-Commerce, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Her current work is twofold: she serves as the Middle School Learning Specialist at the Episcopal School of Dallas, where she supports students in 5th-8th grade, and an adjunct professor at Texas A&M-Commerce and Grayson College, where she teaches courses in psychology and special education. Central to her work is the idea of building empathy in both students and teachers. She leads professional development training on learning differences for schools in the Dallas-Forth Worth area and is actively involved in diversity and inclusion efforts to raise awareness for traditionally marginalized groups of people.   

Rabia comes to us from San Francisco, California.  She studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the original “Aggie” School, University of California of Davis, and proceeded to grow in diverse roles in the biotech industry in quality assurance, operations, and research and development.  Rabia’s past experiences have allowed her to be on the cutting edge of research in Diagnostics for Oncology and Infectious Disease screening.  Passionate about details, inspiring people, and all things science, moving to DFW to lead Operations at Exact Diagnostics was a natural fit.  

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Grateful to be part of the AMPD Community, Rabia is ready to use her experience to grow and expand the organization.

Mahwish Naviwala was born in Pakistan and moved to Texas when she was 9. She obtained her B.S. in Management Information System from University of Texas at Arlington. Mahwish is currently working at Misys International as a Senior Business Analyst. Her past experience includes working at TMX finance, Argo Data, Bank of Texas and Bank of America.

 

Mahwish’s passions include reading, traveling, meeting new people, eating biryani, and helping her community. 

Farheen loves to bridge the gap between East and West. She enjoys engaging people in out of the box conversations and making them think deeply about subjects. 

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Her hobbies include reading, music, and spending time with her family. Traveling the world is a passion she hopes to pursue further.

Farheen has a Bachelors in Psychology from Assumption College in Massachusetts and was a Crisis Intervention Counselor before settling down to raise her two boys. She enjoys volunteering and being active in the community. 

AMPD Executive Committee Chairs

Muhammad is a software engineer at a leading financial services firm.He is currently working on  automating the code release management process in the cloud. He is a cloud computing enthusiast and leads one of the most engaged AWS cloud computing groups in the country.

 

When he is not working he can be found spending time on hardware hobbyist projects like making multi-rotor drones and robots at The Lab.ms Plano Makerspace ,a hardware hacking space  

 

He is passionate about using technology to bring people together and make word a better place .While doing his Masters in Computer Science from Pace University in New York he organized  resources to build a web platform to empower the creative community in Lower Manhattan

 

He is  an avid swimmer .He is part of the Plano Wetcats swimming team and is member of the United States Masters Swimming Organization, He is training to swim the English Channel next year.

Mehreen Khan is the Program Director for Muslim Community Center for Human Services, located in Richland Hills Texas. She graduated from Foundation University Medical College, Pakistan and is currently finishing her Masters in Healthcare Administration from University of Maryland. Mehreen is the recipient of President’s Volunteer Service Award and avidly promotes volunteerism and community service.

 

She is a member of American Muslim Women Physicians Association, Quill and Scroll Chapter and Upsilon Phi Delta Honor Society of Healthcare Administrators.