IMANA PRESS RELEASE

Islamic Medical Association of North America Announces New Executive Director To Lead the Medical Relief Organization Amid the Ongoing Pandemic

Akrama Hashmi brings a decade of experience with IMANA including most recently as managing director

Qudsiya Siddiqui

October 25th, 2021

LOMBARD, Ill. — As a member of the leadership team of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA), Akrama Hashmi works to deliver urgent health care and medical relief to communities around the world. This month, IMANA announced that Hashmi will step into the role of executive director, taking over the top leadership post at an inflection point for the organization, amid an unprecedented public health crisis.

Hashmi’s successes for IMANA include overseeing fundraising efforts that have brought millions of dollars to fund relief work, expanding the organization’s scholarships to medical students, bringing medical professionals from across the U.S. to countries where vulnerable populations are in need of care, and more. Most recently, Hashmi led a group of eight volunteers who traveled on behalf of the organization to Pakistan to treat more than 2,000 patients seeking medical care.

“My time with IMANA began more than a decade ago, drawn to the organization’s mission of social justice and human rights,” said Hashmi, who officially assumed his new position with the organization on September 1. “It is an immense honor to now serve as the next executive director for an organization that has done so much in its first 50 years. I’ve had the great privilege to work alongside an incredible, hard-working group of physicians, clinicians, funders and volunteers who are committed to advancing global human health, and their strength and dedication to IMANA’s vital work will help me to ensure it continues for the next 50 years.”

In his time as managing director of IMANA, Hashmi made it his mission to prioritize action. Now, in his new role, Hashmi has big plans for how to grow and strengthen IMANA’s work, including increasing the number of medical missions the group organizes each year, expanding its work into new countries and new continents to reach more at-risk populations, and providing greater medical resources in the wake of natural disasters here in the United States.

“As we cope with an ongoing pandemic, medical disinformation campaigns, and a changing climate that threatens to prolong and exacerbate future public health crises, the work of IMANA has never been more essential. I can think of no better leader to guide our network of medical professionals and volunteers than Akrama,” said IMANA Board President Dr. Marium Husain. “Together, we will continue to ensure IMANA is well positioned to bring health care and medical relief to communities around the world on a basis of need, not a basis of nationality or religion.”