Najeeba Syeed-Miller '95
B.S., Psychology

myGuilford Alumnus Feature: August 2011
2012 Young Alumni Achievement Award Recipient

Najeeba received her B.S. degree in psychology from Guilford with a concentration in Women’s Studies, and studied Arabic at the University of Chicago. She is a graduate of the International Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution held at The Hague and received her J.D. from the Maurer School of Law, Indiana University-Bloomington, where she was coordinator of Student Mediation Services and awarded the Oexmann Fellowship for her work in community and campus-based conflict resolution.

Najeeba is assistant professor in Interreligious Studies, senior adviser for Muslim Relations and founder and director of the Center for Global Peacebuilding at Claremont School of Theology. She has been instrumental in developing the first M.A. in Leadership in Muslim Contexts and the M.A. in Interreligious Studies. She teaches courses in the areas of conflict resolution, Islamic Studies, interreligious education/dialogue and leadership. She is also a columnist for feminist.com and writes a monthly column with a Jewish colleague on interfaith relations in the US.

She is an international leader in the field of faith-based diplomacy, transitional justice, gang conflicts, gender based development programming, and complex intervention in interethnic and violent conflicts and multi-faith based conflicts. She has worked closely with children’s entertainment companies on national campaigns to reduce violence in schools and worked with dozens of schools to start conflict resolution programs focused on race relations.

Najeeba has received numerous awards including the South Asian Bar Association Public Interest Award. She has chaired three national conferences in Islamic peacebuilding and published articles in the area of community/police relations and a book chapter on Islamic family law and conflict resolution. She is a part-time faculty member in the master's in negotiation, peacebuilding and conflict resolution program at California State University Dominguez Hills and teaches International and Intercultural Conflict Resolution courses.