Our Team

Please direct all general inquiries to newyork@getmistified.com or call (646)820-MIST

Regional Director: Ubaid Bandukra

Ubaid Bandukra was born and raised in New York, attended Stuyvesant High School and served as the Vice President for the Muslim Students Association there for two years, after which, he attended University of Maryland, serving in different non-board positions including IAW and Jummah coordinator. During this time he served as Treasurer and then Chair for the MSA DC Council, a regional chapter of MSAs, and he was elected and served as East Zone Representative for MSA National from 2009-2010, after having chaired the MSA National Continental Conference in Washington, DC in 2009. After graduating from University of Maryland with a bachelors in Operations Management and Information Systems, he attended and graduated from the Bayyinah Dream program for intensive Arabic studies in Dallas, TX. He was involved with MIST first in 2007 as a logistical organizer in DC and later helped move MIST New York from Rochester, NY to the New York City metropolitan area. He served as Tournament Chair in 2009 and has been Co-Regional Director from 2010-2012.

 

 

 

Regional Director: Fatoma Rad

Fatoma has been around many people who have been involved with MIST and decided that it was time for her too to get ‘MISTified.’ She became the Secretary in 2010 and simply fell in love with MIST and is excited and honored to be the current co-RD! She is currently attending Pratt Institute, working on her MA in the School of Information and Library Science majoring in Museum Librarianship and Art History. She graduated from SUNY Old Westbury in 2011 with a degree in Comparative Humanities. During college, Fatoma was involved all over campus, serving in the Student Government Association, interning directly with the Director of Student Activities and serving on numerous E-boards. She works hard to bring cultural understanding anywhere she may be. She teaches at local masaajids, works at an art gallery and volunteers at the Northport Historical Society.

 

 

 

 

 

Tournament Chair: Fizzah Sheikh
Fizzah is a third year Physician Assistant student at Hofstra University, where she completed her undergrad in the summer of 2011. She hopes to become a Surgical PA in the near future. Fizzah has also been teaching the Kindergarten class at the Hamza Masjid Sunday School since 2006. She was president of the MSA at Hofstra for 3 years which lead to her introduction to MISTNY, when it first came to Long Island in 2009—she fell in love with MIST immediately and she has been hooked since! MIST brings an incredible sense of community, opportunity to learn from each other, experience the vastness and talents of our peers, and presents the prospect to grow from the new bonds we form during the unique experience that is MIST. Since her first encounter with MISTNY, Fizzah been Venue Coordinator (’09), Registration Chair and Basketball referee (2010), then she took a year off and realized she just could not stay away from MIST and has returned this year as Tournament Chair! She looks forward to another incredible year of MISTastic fun and an incredible tournament in 2012.

 

Treasurer Imran Venjara

Secretary: Hamna Zafar

Hamna is a fourth year student at Stony Brook studying pharmacology. She became involved with MIST as a freshman when it was first brought to the NYC/LI area in 2009. A sister came up to her all frazzled looking for somebody to be in charge of girls’ basketball at the risk of it being cut off. Having played on teams as a kid, she was more than excited to take on the job and has done so ever since. This year she decided to take a larger part, and is excited to work with so many awesome people to help in the planning of MIST.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Webmaster: Sumaiya Iqbal

Sumaiya is a senior and biomedical engineering major at Stony Brook University, where she was introduced to MIST during 2009, its first year in the NYC area. She has volunteered each year since as a judge, and served as Math Olympics head in 2010 and 2011. She puts up with the seventy million MIST emails in her inbox because MIST is awesome and an experience she wants to make as fantastic as possible for all involved.

 

 

 

 

 

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Competitions Chair: Munzareen Padela

Munzareen has known MIST-NY’s founder, Maneeza Dawood since 2003 and had heard about MIST a number of times but was only able to get involved once it moved from Rochester down to the NYC/LI area in 2009. She started in MIST as MIST Bowl and Math Olympics Chair. She loved the enthusiasm of the students and the atmosphere of MIST and became one of the Competitions Chairs in 2010, moving up to Tournament Chair in 2011. Now she’s taken up her former position as Competitions Chair (confusing history, she knows). She loves that MIST allows students to bond and grow together in a unique and fun environment. The bonds that MIST builds are created before the tournament and last beyond it- and it’s great to see the talents of the youth being showcased in such a positive light. Munzareen has lived in Long Island for the majority of her life and attended Stony Brook University as an undergraduate. While there, she joined the MSA and served as a member of the Executive Board from 2006-2009. She is still enrolled at Stony Brook University as a third year medical student and hopes that MIST work can go hand-in-hand with her schoolwork. While not performing physicals, cutting sutures and seeing patients, she loves having another outlet with which to give back to the community.

Competitions Chair: Nabiha Zakir

Nabiha Zakir is a graduate student at Stony Brook University working towards her Masters of Arts in Psychology, specifically studying the implications of secure base attachment. In 2011, she graduated from Stony Brook with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Child and Family Studies. She’s highly involved in anything and everything she sees as worthwhile, including serving as her college MSA’s President and teaching at her local Sunday School. Waiting for the day she will inevitably go insane, she divides her time between teaching, sleeping, research, eating and MIST. She started out as a Writing and Oratory Category Head, and fell in love with MIST since. Currently the Competitions Co-Chair, she has been a part of MIST for 3 years and is excited for bigger and better years with MIST to come! Let’s get MISTified!

Competitions Email: mist.competitions@gmail.com

 

 

Event Setup Chair: Noushad Mohd

Noushad Mohd was previously a competitor at MIST for 2 years with the Bronx Science Brigade and is now in his 2nd year as an organizer. He greatly enjoyed his experiences during MIST with the rest of his team. Noushad likes to play soccer and basketball, but above all, he loves to run. His favorite track and field events are the 1600m and the long jump. He also loves to eat pizza and firmly believes that Verizon is the best phone company out there. His mii looks almost nothing like him.

 

 

 

 

Fundraising Chair: Maha Akhtar

Maha Akhtar graduated from Queens College in June 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design and second major in Political Science. As secretary of the Muslim Students Association at Queens College during her junior year, Maha became an active volunteer of Islamic Relief and has assisted the organization in raising funds and awareness of its multiple charity efforts through organizing fundraising initiatives on and off campus. She has been supportive of MIST since she first discovered its existence, and is now thrilled to finally be a part of the team.

Fundraising Email: mistny.sponsorship@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Marketing Chair: Muhtasham Sifaat

Muhtasham Sifaat is a first year student at William E. Macaulay Honors College. Alhamdulillah, after competing in the tournament with the Bronx Science Brigade, Sifaat joined the MIST NY team with a clear goal: to work for MIST so future competitors can have the same, if not greater, love and highlights he had during high school. Sifaat likes to draw, take afternoon walks, meditate, and pray (sometimes nap) at different masaajid throughout the city. He especially loves martial arts and is currently a disciple of Hoshinkido Hapkido. As you can see in the picture, he is enjoying his time on campus while his hair went on a six-month vacation to train in the mountains. InshaAllah, he hopes for it to return on time for MIST 2012!

 

 

 

Marketing Chair: Omar Shareef

Omar is a second year student at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine and a highly-spirited organizer who has been with MIST ever since it was brought to the NYC area back in 2009. Always a source of energy and laughs, he does his best to give off an aura of excitement. MIST for him is an incredible opportunity to bring together so many different competitors and volunteers from all over the state for what he sees as one of the most memorable weekends of the year. His goal as an organizer each year is rather simple- to make MIST an experience that is unforgettable.

Marketing E-mail: mistny.marketing@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Programs Co-Chair: Haseena Sahib

Haseena is thrilled to help MIST-NY foster a love for learning, community activism, and mature competition in today’s youth. Don’t be afraid to approach her and talk to her! She wants to listen and learn from the stories of the MIST participants. Haseena hopes that the excitement and fun that is inherent to MIST competitions are merely the stepping stones toward the euphoria that she hopes MIST Alumni feel once they become contributors to their communities.

Haseena is a 2010 graduate of Stony Brook University and has recently begun graduate studies at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her concentration is Environmental Epidemiology and thus she is also an advocate of the Green Deen movement and overall Environmental Health initiative. Haseena has chosen a drum as her picture because she enjoys drumming and learning new qasidahs/nasheeds in her spare time.

Programs Co-Chair: Obaidullah Ahmad

Programs E-mail: nymist.program@gmail.com

 

 

 

Registration Chair: Naveed Akter

Registration E-mail: mistny.register@gmail.com

Security Chair: Haroon Bhatti

Volunteers Chair: Whitney Terrill
Whitney has benefited tremendously from the Muslim community in New York. This spring 2011 she found a way to give back to the community. She is elated to serve as the volunteer chair for MIST 2011.

Whitney’s enthusiasm for MIST stems from her own participation in DCMIST as a high school student. Outside of MIST, Whitney enjoys the arts, the outdoors and her friends and family.

Volunteers Email: mistny.volunteer@gmail.com