Afeefa Syeed

Ms. Afeefa Syeed is the Director of the Center of Innovative Religious Education at Al Fatih Academy. She also serves as an advisor to the AFA Board of Directors. She has worked for the past 30 years with nonprofits, government agencies, and international organizations to implement an understanding of cultural context and religious literacy in their programs and policies. She develops various curricula and training for educators and institutions to integrate a more spiritually grounded framing in their work. Ms. Afeefa is a cultural anthropologist who focuses on identity and self-determination in women’s leadership, social entrepreneurship, educational innovation, social justice, and religious expression. As a founder of AFA, Ms. Afeefa has helped to shape the educational programs of the school to include peace education, service-in-action, and place-based learning. Ms. Afeefa has served as Senior Advisor at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and has been a Scholar Consultant for the Carter Center. In addition to her work at AFA, she is currently a Research Associate with Cambridge University’s Institute on Religion & International Studies, Senior Fellow and Advisory Council Member for the Institute for Global Engagement’s Center for Women, Faith & Leadership, and on the Advisory Board of the Ghazali Children’s Project at Fons Vitae.