Bushra Amiwala, Chicago native, activist and a student in the Driehaus College of Business, has been elected to the Skokie school board. Amiwala is the first Muslim American woman to win a seat on the Skokie School District 73.5. (DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief)Bushra Amiwala, a Chicago native, activist and a student in the Driehaus College of Business, has been elected to the Skokie school board. Amiwala is the first Muslim American woman to win a seat on the seven-person board of Skokie School District 73.5., where she attended elementary and middle school years ago.
The DePaul junior previously ran for Cook County Commissioner, but despite a loss to her opponent, Larry Suffredin, she credits him as the first person to ask her to run for the board of education post.
"Not only did he support me, but he also contributed to my campaigns and was only just a phone call away," Amiwala told 14 East Magazine. "He wasn’t the only one who was asking me to run for the board. I think all of them saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself at the time and that’s what inspired me to run."
As a Skokie school board member, Amiwala hopes to increase board meeting transparency, promote local school events to recruit volunteers and bring forth more community partnerships.
Amilwala will speak at TEDxDePaulUniversity on April 12 at the Holtschneider Perfomance Center. Learn more.