Ibraheem Samirah

Dr. Ibraheem Sumaira is a second generation American-Palestinian refugee who has been an active member of the Northern Virginian community as both a local and national organizer. He focuses on creating strong societies through working towards uplifting the issues of marginalized people. Throughout his life, Dr. Sumaira faced many hardships; among the toughest was growing up under the poverty line as a Muslim American and the son of immigrants. Dr. Sumaira, like many disadvantaged American children, watched his parents climb that shining city on a hill, only to learn it is fraught with blind spots and injustice. With his parents unable to afford the cost of higher education, Dr. Sumaira worked hard and earned a full-scholarship to American University in 2009. Dr. Sumaira would earn a degree in political science and eventually go on to graduate from Boston University’s internationally-acclaimed Goldman School of Dental Medicine in 2017. As a board-certified dentist, Dr. Sumaira could not find a better place to call home other than Northern Virginia and so he returned to it.

Since moving back to the US in 2009, Dr. Sumaira has been an active part of the community for Palestinian rights in the US on the college activism level, local level in places like Chicago, DC and Boston, and on the national level. Of particular focus for him is advancing American democracy by getting Muslim Americans who may be disenfranchised registered to vote. Awed by the state of American Democracy under the leadership of Donald J. Trump, Dr. Sumaira dropped his dental work and took charge of GOTV efforts for the soon-to-be first Muslim American congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib. Aside from activism, Dr. Sumaira devotes time to teach K-8 students dental hygiene, was a summer camp counselor at Kid Power and spent time as a Chesapeake Bay environment protector.