Known as one of the most renowned American Muslim figures, Dalia Mogahed is an American scholar of Egyptian origin who has made a lot of impact and positive effects on the community.
In college, Mogahed studied chemical engineering, but she also wrote about geopolitics for the school newspaper.
After a stint in the corporate world, Mogahed combined her interests in data and religion as executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where, through detailed surveys, she revealed: “What a billion Muslims actually think.”
The Muslim American scholar is now the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) in Washington, D.C., where she helps conduct “solution-seeking” research on American Muslims.
Her TED Talk on “What it’s like to be a Muslim in America” has been viewed 2.8 million times. “People respect Mogahed because she brings actual data to discussions about American Muslims. She has the ear of Muslims around the world.”
She is also President and CEO of Mogahed Consulting, a Washington, DC-based executive coaching and consulting firm specializing in Muslim societies and the Middle East. Mogahed is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
She was selected as an advisor by US President Barack Obama on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She was invited to testify before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about US engagement with Muslim communities.
Mogahed also a frequent expert commentator in global media outlets and international forums. She later appeared as a commentator in the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think (2010), which was based on her and Esposito’s book and produced by Unity Productions Foundation.
Mogahed is a board member and a leader in several organizations, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Arabophone World. She is also a nonresident senior public policy scholar at Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.