Meet Embrace’s Sacramento Team
Treasurer
Aimee Sanatkar
Aimee Sanatkar was born in Mississippi, raised in Alabama, and has lived in California for the last 35 years.
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She converted to Islam 45 years ago.
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Aimee has studied Sunni, Shia, and Sufi Islamic disciplines and has been active in many nonprofit activities. Her education is in accounting and management, and she enjoys assisting nonprofits in organization and management structure.
Core Lead
Rashid Thomas
Rashid bin Quadir Thomas was born in San Francisco, California, to a Christian Mother and Muslim Father.
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In 1998 he took his Shahada, Declaration of Faith.
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He has since learned to read Arabic and enjoys tafsir, hadith, and seerah. Rashid enjoys serving the house of Allah and bringing the community together through event planning. He also likes photography, videography, and a good movie. To earn a halal income, he works in the healthcare industry as an Information Technology Systems Analyst.
Core Lead
Rashid Thomas
Rashid bin Quadir Thomas was born in San Francisco, California, to a Christian Mother and Muslim Father.
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In 1998 he took his Shahada, Declaration of Faith.
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He has since learned to read Arabic and enjoys tafsir, hadith, and seerah. Rashid enjoys serving the house of Allah and bringing the community together through event planning. He also likes photography, videography, and a good movie. To earn a halal income, he works in the healthcare industry as an Information Technology Systems Analyst.
Secretary
Mateenah Jackson-Fisher
Mateenah Jackson-Fisher currently resides in Sacramento, CA.
She converted to Islam in 2014.
After exploring different religions in search of “God”, Allah (SWT) guided her to Islam, the religion of peace. Her recent 2019 trip to Madinah, Mecca, and Jerusalem was inspiring and provided her with a purpose to constantly pursue peace within all communities.
Mateenah is active in the community and a member of SALAM, Embrace Sacramento, and several other religious, community, and business organizations. She likes to read, write poetry, play the Djembe drums, and visit family for fun.
Curriculum Lead
Abdel-Kader Darwich
Abdel-Kader Darwich was born Muslim in Beirut, Lebanon, and later moved to the USA for his graduate studies.
Abdel-Kader has been helping new Muslims by leading Halaqas to teach the basics of Islam. He is the organizer of “Umrah for Converts” parts 1 and 2, by which he was able to raise money to cover the cost of Umrah trips for four new Muslims.
He studied mechanical engineering and practices with a private consulting firm in Sacramento, CA. He has published one book, more than ten technical articles, and two articles on saving water from a Muslim perspective and how water was managed in Muslim Spain (Al-Andalus).
Marketing Lead
Elizabeth Moreno
Elizabeth Moreno is originally from Philadelphia, PA, and has lived in California for 20 years.
She accepted Islam at age 40 after having been raised in a Roman Catholic environment.
Elizabeth is active in various Islamic groups in and around the Sacramento, CA area and particularly loves volunteering to feed the hungry, conducting Dawah, and educating people about Islam.
She is bilingual in Spanish and holds a BA in Linguistics and a MA in English. She works in management in state government and is passionate about creating equal access to public health and social services.
Onboarding Lead
Payam Sanatkar
Payam Sanatkar was born Muslim in Mashhad, Iran, and recently immigrated to the US.
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Payam is passionate about a grounded, knowledge-based approach to the deen. He has traveled most of the world and has lived on three continents. He is one of the founding members of Embrace Sacramento.
