Speaker Biographies
Dr. Qanita Mohiuddin
Dr. Qanita Mohiuddin is a mother of six and a passionate educator committed to holistic, faith-centered learning. She earned her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and a Master’s in Teacher Education from the University of California, Irvine. She also holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Management from Alliant International University, where her research focused on advancing social justice and student agency through read-aloud practices and meaningful conversation.
Dr. Qanita is the Founder and Director of RISE, an organization dedicated to empowering youth, parents, and educators while fostering deeply rooted, spiritually aware learning communities. With a firm belief in integrating Islamic values across all core subjects, she develops and teaches interdisciplinary, project-based ELA courses that weave together Seerah, science, history, and math.
As a curriculum developer, community teacher, and advocate for spiritually grounded education, she is passionate about reimagining learning in a way that nurtures the soul, builds character, and inspires a sense of purpose. She strives to find ways for herself and her community to rise to action in this world in hopes of rising to the greatest heights in the Hereafter.
Ustadhah Sarah Ahmed
Sarah Ahmed is an educator and author of (Reading Quran, A Step-by-Step Guide to Qur’anic Fluency) She is an Islamic scholar, writer and home educator. She graduated with an alimiyyah degree in 2011 from Dar ul-Uloom al Madania in New York. She has served as an Islamic Studies instructor and Qur’an teacher for the past decade. She is passionate about working with youth, focusing on empowering young muslim women with knowledge on their deen and spirituality. She currently resides in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children and is working on other beneficial Islamic works.
Hana Khatib
Hana loves homeschooling! For years, she’s cultivated a rich learning environment that inspires, nurtures and empowers, not just her students, but her as well. This may be the secret to her success and the key to her ability to thrive long-term as a homeschooler. In Hana’s words, the homeschooling journey is a challenging one, even in the best of times. Build your confidence as a homeschooling parent as you learn to cultivate your own passions, so you can raise life long learners. In the process, you’re likely to discover who you are, your strengths and your abilities.
Sally Hassan
Sally Hassan was raised on the sunny shores of Southern Florida, and after studying under the desert skies of Egypt, she settled in the state of 10,000 lakes: Minnesota. She set aside her engineering career to pursue her passion for self-development, becoming a certified life coach and working in community development for over 15 years. In 2015, Sally founded Bloom Adventures, an organization that hosts scenic retreats utilizing the serenity of the great outdoors to connect sisters, themselves, and their Creator. Sally currently resides in Dallas, Texas, where she hosts Turaab Tots, a backyard mommy-and-me play circle where toddlers connect through mud, chickens, and wonder—nurturing resilience, joy, and adab in nature’s classroom. Sally is currently pursuing certifications in Forest Therapy and Nature-Based Teaching. When Sally isn't busy wrangling her free-range child, she can be found trying to charm other Muslim families into starting up an eco-commune with her.
Zamzam Abukar
Zamzam Abukar is a licensed clinical mental health therapist, youth mentor, and proud mother of three. With a trauma-informed, person-centered approach, she helps clients explore what gives their life meaning. Zamzam has served as a high school youth mentor at the Islamic Center of Valley Ranch for the past two years and is passionate about nurturing the next generation. She finds joy in plants, coffee, matcha, and creating spaces that feel safe and healing.
Ndaa Hassan
Ndaa is a children's author and creative-design enthusiast. She is passionate about storytelling and social entrepreneurship, with a focus on religion, language, and culture. As a mother of four, she is intentional and mindful of the stories she chooses to share with the world, recognizing that for many children, books are their first introduction to a world beyond their own. She is the author of the best-selling Ramadan Around the World, The Most Powerful Night, and Sitti's Olive Trees. Visit her website at www.ramadanaroundtheworld.com
Mona Hammad
Mona Hammad holds a B.S. in Elementary Education with a Mathematics Emphasis from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Applied Educational Psychology. She is currently pursuing Islamic studies at the Qalam Seminary and serves as an Instructional Excellence Coach at the Muraqaba School in Frisco, TX. Her 15+ years in education span public schools, weekend programs, and national institutions, including 12 years at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth, where she led curriculum projects and trained instructors in Arabic, Math, Psychology, and Writing. Originally from Maryland and now based in Dallas, Mona finds joy in community work, meaningful conversations, and shared reflections on motherhood. She is passionate about building learning environments that are rooted in academic excellence and centered on connection to Allah.
Hanan fadel
Hanan is an ACE-certified personal trainer who’s been helping women build strength, boost energy, and fire up their metabolism for the past 10 years. She’s also a certified Consistency Coach, Pregnancy & Postpartum Athleticism Coach, and a Barre HIIT Coach—because one certification just wasn’t enough!
Hanan is passionate about helping women believe in themselves, inside and out. Her mission? To help you build the kind of physical and mental strength that shows up not just in your workouts, but in your everyday life.
When she’s not coaching, you can find her lifting heavy weights, hiking up a trail, homeschooling her 3 kids, or sipping her favorite cup of coffee.
Maryam khan
Maryam Khan began her academic journey in the sciences, earning a Master’s degree in Research Methods in Cognitive Neuropsychology in the UK. Along the way, she developed a deep love for the Qur’an, which led her to study Qur’anic Arabic and appreciate its profound literary beauty.
Following the birth of her first child, Maryam was introduced to the Montessori philosophy. Disheartened by the limited early childhood options available in her local Dallas community, she decided to pursue formal training and went on to earn her AMI 3–6 diploma from the MINT Institute. She later led a Montessori classroom of 26 children in Columbia, Maryland, and served as an assistant guide in Austin, Texas.
Today, Maryam is a homeschooling mother of five—ranging from 7 years to 7 months old—including a pair of spirited toddler twins. Her experiences in both formal education and parenting have shown her that even the most respected pedagogies can fall short when they separate young children from the nurturing rhythms of family life.
Ustadhah Maysa Elsheikh
Ustadha Maysa Elsheikh a homeschooling mom of her three daughters ages 5 and under. She is the Co-founder of Soul Studies Institute, along with her husband, Sh. Mustafa El-kilany, in which they teach Islamic sciences with a focus on practical spiritual implementation. She is a graduate of the Qalam Alimiyah Program in addition to having a Bachelors in Political Science and Anthropology. Her passion is dawah, teaching, and mentorship for girls and women of all ages.
Khadijah Qamar
Khadijah Qamar is a writer and academic researcher in the area of Islamic ethics, aesthetics and pedagogy. She recently completed a LifeWays Waldorf Early Childhood Certificate. She has a Masters in Islamic Intellectual History from Harvard University's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a Bachelors in International Affairs from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. She is the founder of Zāwiya, an early childhood institute reviving traditional Islamic pedagogy with aspects of a Waldorf approach. Zāwiya strives to create a holistic, wholesome and nurturing environment to teach children life skills modeled by murabbiat who lead with Prophetic adab and tarbiyah.
Sana Jalili
Sana Jalili is the founder of The Rose Garden and its first iteration, Peace Village - a Muslim educational farm in California where the classroom is an urban farm and falling in love with Allah leads the way.
Raised across Pakistan, New York, Connecticut, California, and Jordan, Sana’s life has been shaped by traditional Muslim communities, cross-cultural living, and study with some of our era’s most beloved teachers. A graduate in Information Systems with honors, she began her career in tech but was transformed by motherhood, which awakened a longing to raise children in deep love for the Prophet ﷺ.
Her journey led her to study at the early Zaytuna community, in Tarim, Jordan, Medina, and Syria, where she was profoundly shaped by Raising Spiritual Children under Ustādha Sawsan Imady and later to a second immersive period of study in Jordan. She also completed Waldorf and AMS Montessori training, as well as project-based learning with permaculture and forest school education, weaving these into a Prophetic tarbiyyah model.
Four years ago, she returned to California to co-found The Rose Garden with the vision that the fragrance of the Garden Rose ﷺ infuses hearts, homes, and communities - reviving a model of education where the purpose of life and the purpose of learning are one.
Duha Jalili
Duha Jalili is the co-founder of The Rose Garden, a Muslim educational farm in California dedicated to designing irresistible, meaningful programs where the classroom is an urban farm and falling in love with Allah leads the way.
Homeschooled in her mother’s first urban farm school called Peace Village, Duha grew up in a community where the purpose of education was aligned with the purpose of life itself: a journey of discovering Allah, falling in love & living a life devoted to His service.
At the age of eleven, her family moved to Jordan & Turkey for nearly 9 years. There, she memorized the whole Qur’an, became fluent in Fuṣḥā Arabic, and studied fard ayn, seerah and Shamail with amazing teachers in thriving spiritual communities. It wasn’t until life’s trials hit in her teenage years that she realized what an anchor her farm childhood focused on loving our Prophet saaw was and this epiphany drove her to strive to revive the vision again for Muslim children.
Today, she leads The Rose Garden’s programming, with an ijāzah in tajwīd, the completion of four years in the Alamiyya program from Dār al-ʿUlūm Ashrafiyyah in CA, Arabic training in multiple curricula (Dandana, An Anūs, HudHud, and Midad), Montessori certification in Language Arts, Math, and Science, along wirh early childhood education units. She has studied Prophetic tarbiyyah from classical works with esteemed teachers, and trained in the traditional art of singing with maqāmāt and duff. Duha’s also completing a custom-designed Bachelor’s degree in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Theater, and the Arts, approved by her college, allowing her to integrate multiple disciplines in service of The Rose Garden’s educational vision.
Rahma Jalili
Rahma Jalili is the co-founder, program designer, and artistic website and social media designer for The Rose Garden, a Muslim educational farm in California. She is passionate about blending the best of both East and West into a living curriculum that nurtures the fitrah and inspires a deep love for Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.
With a background in traditional arts, Rahma integrates creative and therapeutic approaches to teaching the Qur’an and spiritual education. She holds an ijāzah in tajwīd, completed the four-year ʿĀlimiyyah program at Dār al-ʿUlūm Ashrafiyyah (CA), and has studied Prophetic Parenting in Jordan. Currently in her final year at Usul Academy’s BA program in Comparative Islamic Sciences in Turkey, she studies with scholars from around the world and participates in retreats exploring art, healing, and Islamic traditions.
Her years living and studying in Jordan and Turkey combined with training in Montessori, Waldorf, maqāmāt, duff, and art therapy enable her to design programs where the Qur’an, nature, and community come together as one seamless expression of worship.