Shafiqa Ahmadi is the Master’s Program Chair at the Rossier School of Education, and a Professor of Clinical Education at the Rossier School of Education and the Co-Director for the Center for Education, Identity, and Social Justice. She is an expert on diversity and legal protection of underrepresented students, including female Muslims, bias and hate crimes, and sexual assault survivors. Prior to joining the Rossier faculty, she taught at the Gould School of Law and was a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Urban Education, at Rossier. She has also served as a Research Associate at the Research Institute at Rossier where she assisted with grant proposals and worked on a grant awarded by the Department of Education (DOE) designed to prevent and reduce on-campus sexual assault. Most recently she worked for the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, where she investigated alleged violations of civil rights and discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, and access to state and state funded services.

Ahmadi received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law, at Bloomington, Indiana. She graduated with Dean’s Honors. While in law school and graduate school she focused on Employment Law, Corporate International Law, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Islamic law (Shari ‘a). She is fluent in five languages. She is a native speaker of Persian (Dari & Farsi) and her second language is English. She also speaks Hindi and Urdu. She has presented extensively and conducted research on diversity and the legal protection of underrepresented students.

Darnell Cole is the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs at the Rossier School of Education, and a Professor in Education of Higher Education and Education Psychology at the University of Southern California in the Rossier School of Education. He also serves as Co-Director of the Research Center for Education, Identity and Social Justice. His research areas span K12 & Higher education and focus on race/ ethnicity, diversity, student-faculty interactions, learning, and college student experiences.

He has published over 50 research articles, book chapters, and reports. He also co-edited a book with Shafiqa Ahmadi on “Islamophobia in Higher Education: Combating Discrimination and Creating Understanding.” Dr. Cole has also accrued over $13M in research grants and contracts. His scholarship is featured in the major journals for higher education and other related fields, including the Journal of College and Character, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Negro Education, Research in Higher Education, and Review of Higher Education.