Niala Mohammad
Director of Policy and StrategyPrior to joining the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) as the Director of Policy and Strategy, Niala Mohammad served as the Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), focusing on religious freedom conditions in South Asia.
Before her tenure at USCIRF, she worked as a multimedia broadcast journalist for fourteen years with the South and Central Asia division at the Voice of America (VOA), covering the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, India, human rights, politics, terrorism, and extremism.
From 2009-2012, Niala served as a Cultural Advisor to the Department of Defense, where she produced strategic studies on cultural, economic and political factors affecting U.S. counter-radicalization objectives, strategic messaging, and influence operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
She holds a Master’s in International Studies and Diplomacy from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.