MCDR Welcomes Saadia Ahmed
as new Executive Director
Saadia Ahmed is a nationally recognized community leader, nonprofit strategist, and faith-rooted peacebuilder whose career intersects advocacy, scholarship, and social change.
She brings a foundational belief that conflict resolution is not merely a legal process, but a moral one, grounded in spirituality and the pursuit of justice tempered by compassion. This orientation makes her uniquely suited to lead an organization committed to faith-inspired, community-centered dispute resolution.
Her organizational leadership spans both the local and national stage. Saadia has founded and shaped several high-impact nonprofits in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and beyond, and has served as a nonprofit consultant guiding organizations in capacity building, cross-cultural coalition development, and translating mission into measurable outcomes. She currently holds board positions with Breakthrough T1D (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), 200 Muslim Women Who Care, and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), organizations at the forefront of health equity, civic engagement, and research.
Saadia’s academic credentials are equally distinguished. She holds a Master of Divinity in Islamic Chaplaincy from Chicago Theological Seminary in partnership with Bayan Islamic Graduate School, one of the nation’s premier institutions for training ethical Muslim leaders and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a minor in French from Austin College, where she also completed the Posey Leadership Institute. Her formation is further deepened by an Abrahamic Traditions Fellowship at Chicago Theological Seminary, a Lead by Faith Fellowship with One America Movement, and a Spiritual Entrepreneurship Certification from Columbia University Business School through GLEAN Network’s START Fellowship. This breadth of training equips her to lead with intellectual rigor, interfaith fluency, and pastoral grounding.
Her impact has been recognized with some of the community’s most prestigious honors: the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation’s “Trailblazer” Award, CAIR-DFW’s “Community Leader of the Year,” Radio Azad’s “Unsung Hero” Award, the American Muslim Communities Foundation’s “Philanthropist of the Year,” and most recently the inaugural “Fatima Al-Fihri Leadership in Service” Award, presented to a Bayan graduate in recognition of extraordinary commitment to community leadership.
Saadia is multilingual and meets people where they are, in language, in culture, and in the fullness of their experience.
A Message from MCDR
To Our Community:
Alternative Dispute Resolution refers to the process of resolving disputes through methods of mediation, arbitration, and negotiation. MCDR offers certified and trained Neutrals to offer practical, solution-centered, and faith-inspired alternative dispute resolution services to people, organizations, and communities in the middle of a conflict. We aim to make alternative dispute resolution accessible to all Americans regardless of race, religion, sect of worship, level of religiosity, gender, income, or education level. As we grow, we plan to enrich the site with resources and other useful information to help parties resolve conflicts without setting foot in a courtroom.
Let MCDR resolve your conflict.
What We Do
MCDR‘s mission is to promote, facilitate, and provide cost-effective alternative dispute resolution services with certified professionals and a faith-inspired process that employs the highest standards of integrity and transparency.