Najeeba Syeed is the inaugural El-Hibri Chair and Executive Director of the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg University, USA. She is a professor, expert practitioner, and public speaker in the fields of interfaith studies, mediation, conflict resolution, deliberative democracy, and social, gender, and racial equity.
In 2021, Professor Syeed served as Chief of Staff to the first Asian American woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council. She was Associate Professor of Muslim and Interreligious Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary in 2020. From 2010 to 2020, she held an Associate Professorship in Interreligious Education at Claremont School of Theology.
Under Professor Syeed’s leadership, the two conflict resolution centers received the Jon Anson Ford Award for reducing violence. She was named the Southern California Mediation Association’s “Peacemaker of the Year” in 2007. She was awarded the Fisher Faculty Teaching Award in 2014 for her excellence in teaching. In 2017, she received the Scholar-Activist Award from Auburn Seminary, and in 2020, the Instructor of the Year award.
Professor Syeed co-designed a doctoral program in Interreligious Education and directed dissertations on topics including resilience in interreligious learning, decolonial models for interreligious programs, Christian-Buddhist peacemaking in Southeast Asia, Black Muslim community practical theologies of community development, etc.
Professor Syeed authored a chapter in Asian and Asian American Women in Theology and Religion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), and co-edited Critical Approaches to Interreligious Education (Brill, 2020). Her work has been the subject of news reports and documentaries, such as the NBC film on Waging Peace: Muslim and Christian Alternatives.