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Speaker Biographies and Lecture Summaries

Sanjana Ahmad

Sanjana works on environmental issues in both her personal and professional life.  She obtained her Masters in Public Policy with an environmental policy concentration at the University of Maryland and currently works in the DC-area on transportation and domestic policy. Over the past year and a half, Sanjana has been working with a group of "green Muslims" in the Washington, DC area to explore the Islamic basis for environmental awareness and activism.  The DC Green Muslims hope to encourage dialogue and action around these issues to create a more sustainable future for us all.

Imam Suhaib Webb

Imam Suhaib was born and raised in Oklahoma. During his teens, he was a successful local Hip-Hop DJ and made many records with different artists and bands. After a three-year period of exposure to Islam through local Muslim acquaintances, he became a Muslim himself in 1992 at the age of twenty. He graduated with Honors in Education from the Central Oklahoma University and has studied Arabic and Islamic Sciences under many notable scholars. Imam Suhaib Webb has been an active member of the Muslim American Society and its youth department for the last ten years. He is currently studying Islamic Law at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he resides with his wife and two children.

Reed Nelson

Reed earned his degree in Environmental Studies and began his career in the energy efficiency business 16 years ago as a PG&E residential home energy auditor. Currently, he is a PG&E Account Executive with Cisco as his top customer. Prior to PG&E, this Eagle Boy Scout was a professional snow ski racer and windsurfer. Reed resides with his wife and three children in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Kevin Bryant

Kevin grew up in the Chicago area and moved to California to escape the rough weather and gentle topography. He has been gardening with native plants in the South Bay for 15 years, experimenting and learning what plants look best and grow best in a variety of situations. He currently works as a native plant landscape consultant and serves as the president of the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

Erik Klockemann

Erik was born and raised in the Bay Area and became Muslim shortly after 9/11. In 2004, he traveled to Hadramaout, Yemen, where he spent the next two years studying the Islamic Sciences. There, he was impressed by the simplicity of Yemeni life and the Islamic teachings that inspired it, which sparked his interest in environmental issues and a desire to reduce his own "footprint.” Shortly after returning home, Erik took a "bio-intensive" home gardening class with Common Ground in Palo Alto. Since then, he has kept a 225 square-foot, high yield organic garden in his backyard. Erik is dedicated to sharing his gardening experiences with others while encouraging them to understand their environmental impact and how to reduce it.

Youssef Ismail

Youssef is a second-generation California native of Syrian descent. Born and raised in southern California, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990 to pursue graduate work at Stanford University. In 1996 he graduated with both a masters and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering. His photographic endeavor began in 1990 out of a desire to photograph and document the new crescent moon in an attempt to quell debates about the start of Islamic lunar months. Since then, he founded his company, Organic Light Photography, and continues to photograph the natural world, exhibit his photographs at public and private events, and teach photography workshops to adults and children at all levels. Youssef lives in the Bay Area with his wife and four children.