KAREEM SHORA

• Director of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee’s legal department
• Was appointed (by President Barack Obama) to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in 2009

Born in Damascus, Syria, Kareem W. Shora holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law. Shora went on to serve as a legal associate at the West Virginia Office of the Attorney General, the WVU Immigration Law Clinical Program, and the Columbia Energy Corporate Law Department. He is currently the Director of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee’s legal department. He is also a professor of foreign policy in the American University Washington Semester Program.

Shora was once a guest speaker at the National Lawyers Guild's Annual Conference.

In 2003 Shora received the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Human Rights Award. He has been a frequent on-air guest at many national and international media outlets -- including Al Jazeera television, National Public Radio, and Pacifica Radio -- where he has spoken on such topics as civil rights, civil liberties, and immigration policies.

Shora assisted in producing the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights’ (LCCR) report on racial profiling, entitled Wrong Then, Wrong Now: Racial Profiling Before and After September 11. He also helped put together the LCCR’s 2004 updated edition of Cause for Concern: Hate Crimes in America. He co-authored the ADC’s 1998-2000 Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans, as well as a 2002 publication titled Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans: The Post-September 11 Backlash.

Shora has been a blogger on the Organizing for America section of President Barack Obama’s website. In 2009, Obama appointed him to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in the Department of Homeland Security.