Najeeba Syeed @ Chautauqua Institution

Najeeba Syeed is the Inaugural El-Bibri endowed chair and executive director of the Interfaith Institute and is a tenured and full professor of religion at Augsburg University. She is also a senior fellow at the Oxford Interfaith Forum.

Syeed has served as a visiting professor at Yale and Mercer University. She is an expert on Muslim-Jewish relations and has worked extensively on Evangelical Christian and Muslim relations throughout the country. She served as associate professor of interreligious education and director of the Center for Global Peacebuilding at Claremont School of Theology from 2010-2020.

Syeed also brings significant executive experience with organizations as an executive director focused on conflict resolution in community, higher education and government settings, including the Western Justice Center Foundation and the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center. In 2021, she served as chief of staff to an elected member of the Los Angeles City Council. She holds a law degree from Indiana University.