For many of us, AKU has served as the stepping stone to our career. The AKU Alumni Association of North America serves as a vital link in keeping you connected to other alumni, our local opportunities in North America and AKU. An integral part of the Association’s work is its leadership, namely the Executive Council. The Council consists of 4 people: a president, past president, secretary and treasurer.
The Executive Council promotes and supports activities that connect alumni to each other, connect alumni to local opportunities, connect alumni to the University, and connect alumni to the current student body.
Over the years, several alumni have served on the Executive Council and promoted AKUAANA’s mission to connect AKU MC Alumni globally.
We would love to hear your voice / ideas / initiatives / projects and help promote diversity initiatives within the Alumni Association. Your participation strengthens our community and brings value to the Association!
2020 – 21
Executive Council: 2020 - 21 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Faisal Habib Cheema | 2000 |
Immediate Past President | Namirah Jamshed | 1996 |
Secretary | Abdul Waheed (Nov 2020 - Dec 2021) Haresh Kumar (Jan - Aug, 2020) | 2005 2003 |
Treasurer | Tauseef-ur-Rehman | 2007 |
Website Management | ||
Designation | Name | Class |
Web Manager | Abdul Basit Saeed | 2007 |

Faisal Habib Cheema
President
Faisal H. Cheema is a graduate of AKU Class of 2000. He took the road less traveled by and dedicated his entire career to research. At present, he is appointed as an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and an Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences at the University of Houston College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Though he focuses on basic, translational and clinical aspects of research within cardiovascular sciences, he has a particular passion for device innovation. Besides, he provides corporate leadership as the Director of Research in Gulf Coast Division of HCA Healthcare - a role in which he oversees Phase II-IV clinical trials across various disciplines in a consortium of 16 hospitals. In addition, as an entrepreneur he is involved with several startups focused on disruptive healthcare technologies. Dr. Cheema loves to mentor students and young physicians and is actively engaged with various academic, philanthropic and community organizations.
LinkedIn: Faisal H. Cheema

Namirah Jamshed
Immediate Past President
Namirah Jamshed is an Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the Department of Internal Medicine. She joined the Division in 2015 as part of the Geriatrics Division to focus on providing home based primary care to the elderly in the Dallas Metroplex Community. She is the current Medical Director of the Mildred Wyatt and Ivor P. House Call program.
Namirah grew up in Pakistan and moved to the United States in 1998. She completed her geriatrics fellowship training at UCLA, Los Angeles in 2007 and has been working to provide health care to underserved communities since then. She is certified in both Geriatrics and Hospice/Palliative Care and helped start the geriatrics fellowship at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, D.C.
She also received the Geriatrics Academic Career Award (GACA) from the Health Resources & Service Administration in 2007. She was named the "House Call Educator of the Year" award by the American Academy of Home Care Medicine in 2014. Most recently she was the recipient of the "Practice Change Leader in Geriatrics" grant, by Hartford Foundation. Her interests include curriculum development and developing QI processes to improve patient care.
In Dallas, she has dedicated her time exclusively to taking care of vulnerable elderly in the community.
Namirah is married to Faisal Qureshi '93. They have a son and two daughters.
Facebook: Namirah Jamshed

Abdul Waheed
Secretary
A graduate of the class of 2005, Dr Abdul Waheed did his residency training in family medicine from Penn State Hershey Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He is the Family Medicine residency program director at WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon, Pennsylvania and Clinical Associate Professor of Family & Community Medicine at Penn State University College of Medicine and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is a member of Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) Continuous Professional Development Committee. He has special interest in capacity building in research and scholarship as well as faculty and resident academic development in low resource and community hospital settings. Prior to joining WellSpan Health, he successfully developed alternative models and novel approaches towards faculty and resident academic development in collaboration Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dr Waheed is a frequent speaker at regional and national forums including the ACGME Annual Educational Conference, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians. He has an impressive track record of scholarly activity including over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributions to book chapters.
In his leisure, he loves to write poetry in Urdu and read a range of topics including fiction, poetry, sociology, religion, philosophy, and history. He is also founding Chair of Board Governors for Al-Shaoor Library and Al-Shaoor Forum that strives for positive social change and social justice in Kahna Nau, suburban Lahore, Pakistan where he grew up.
Facebook: Abdul Waheed

Tauseef-ur-Rehman
Treasurer
Tauseef is a graduate of the AKU Medical College class of 2007. He completed his Internal Medicine residency in Minnesota and despite the snowstorms and polar freeze, he loves the area and ended up staying there. He works as a hospitalist in the twin cities area and also serves as the Medical Director for his program with a special interest in Quality Improvement. When he is not traveling in his time off, Tauseef can be found reading financial blogs and topics on personal finance. He takes great pride in the fact that the name of Aga Khan University is so well recognized and the universal admiration for AKU alumni that follows this recognition.
He firmly believes that the alumni body is very well-poised to contribute to the University's larger mission and make a difference for the community at large. Tauseef's goal is to increase engagement of AKUAANA with the alumni, and find more effective ways to work towards mutual goals.
Facebook: Tauseef ur Rehman

Abdul Basit Saeed
Web Manager
Abdul Basit Saeed is a graduate from the Class of 2007 and has been associated with AKUAANA since 2012. He took over reins of the challenging AKUAANA Website Redesign Project (initiated by Atif Khan '99) in 2013, and has served as Web and Social Media Manager for the association since. Working closely with the Executive Council, he is the rock around which the technical aspects of AKUAANA's web presence have been built and the organization will always be indebted to him.
He has been involved with community building websites for 16 years, and has experience with websites powered by WordPress, vBulletin and XenForo. He believes in empowering the AKU Alumni community through a web presence that provides robust membership and networking features, and is the founder of the AKU Students and Alumni Network (AKUMC-STAN).
He loves playing table tennis, basketball and running.
Facebook: Abdul Basit Saeed
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2018 – 19
Executive Council: 2018 - 19 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Namirah Jamshed | 1996 |
Immediate Past President | Habib Ahmed Chotani | 1995 |
Secretary | Noor Afshan Khan | 1996 |
Treasurer | Faisal Habib Cheema | 2000 |
Website Management | ||
Designation | Name | Class |
Web Manager | Abdul Basit Saeed | 2007 |
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2016 – 17
Executive Council: 2016 - 17 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Habib Ahmed Chotani | 1995 |
Immediate Past President | Faisal Qureshi | 1993 |
Secretary | Muhammad Rehan Raza Khan | 1994 |
Treasurer | Amber Hameed Syed | 1994 |
Website Management | ||
Designation | Name | Class |
Web Manager | Abdul Basit Saeed | 2007 |
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2014 – 15
Executive Council: 2014 - 15 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Faisal Qureshi | 1993 |
Immediate Past President | Sadaf Khan | 1992 |
Secretary | Atif Shafqat | 1993 |
Treasurer | Shazia Hussain | 1990 |
Website Management | ||
Designation | Name | Class |
Web Manager | Abdul Basit Saeed | 2007 |
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2011 – 13
Executive Council: 2011 - 13 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Sadaf Khan | 1992 |
Immediate Past President | Faiz Bhora | 1992 |
Secretary | Amna Iftikhar | 1990 |
Treasurer | Jawad Sher | 1997 |
Website Management | ||
Designation | Name | Class |
Web Design Lead Project | Atif Jalees Khan | 1999 |
Administrative Staff | ||
Designation | Name | |
Executive Coordinator | Shain Amershi |
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2009 – 11
Executive Council: 2009 - 11 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Faiz Bhora | 1992 |
Secretary | Faisal Cheema | 2000 |
Treasurer | Jawad Sher | 1997 |
Administrative Staff | ||
Designation | Name | |
Executive Coordinator | Shain Amershi |
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2007 – 08
Executive Council: 2007 - 08 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Muhammad Rizwan Khalid | 1999 |
Secretary | Atif Jalees Khan | 1999 |
Treasurer | Talha Malik | 1999 |
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2005 – 06
Executive Council: 2005 - 06 | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
President | Asad Ansari | 1994 |
Secretary | Naureen Attiullah | 1994 |
Treasurer | Aniq Shaikh | 1990 |
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Past Presidents (till 2004) | ||
---|---|---|
Name | Term | Class |
Tahseen Mozaffar | 2003 - 2004 | 1989 |
Muneer Abidi | 2000 - 2002 | 1992 |
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Past Executive Council Members (till 2000) | ||
---|---|---|
Designation | Name | Class |
1999 - 2000 | ||
Secretary | Fahim Jafary | 1990 |
Treasurer | Nayyar Iqbal | 1990 |
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Disclaimer: The history above has been compiled with the assistance of many graduates. If something is incomplete or inaccurate, please contact us at .