Press Releases

Yale School of Nursing and the community will gather to celebrate peace, tolerance, and inclusion in health care or social services at the Third Annual YSN Martin Luther King Day Celebration

New Haven, CT

Judge David Shaheed

On Wednesday, January 22, at 4:00 p.m, faculty, staff and students across Yale, as well as members of the community, will join YSN Dean's Committee on Diversity to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. The celebration will take place at the YSN Lecture Hall, Room 118, 100 Church Street South in New Haven. As part of the celebration, YSN will honor two individuals and two organizations in the Greater New Haven area for their promotion of "peace, tolerance, and inclusion in health care or social services."

The Honorable David Shaheed, Imam of Indianapolis, Judge in the Superior Court of Marion County, former President of the Interfaith Alliance, and Facilitator for the Islamic Affairs Council of the American Society of Muslims will be the keynote speaker. In a lecture titled Contemporary Islam in a Global Society and Its Impact Upon Religious Diversity in America: An American Muslim Perspective" Judge Shaheed will discuss racial profiling, communication and promotion of peace and tolerance across groups.

David Shaheed has been involved with interfaith dialogue for nearly twenty-five years. He was a member of Imam W. Deen Mohammed's delegation to Rome, Italy as Muslim friends of the Focolare in June 1998 and also in October 1999. He is also Chairperson of the Interfaith Alliance of Indianapolis, member of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis and on the Excecutive Committee of the Religious Alliance Against Pornography. He has served as an Assistant Imam in Indianapolis, Convenor of Imams of the Midwest Region and one of the founding members of the Coalition for Good Government Shaheed was the producer of a weekly news and Islamic perspectives television program, Al-Islam in America. He was a consultant to the Lilly Endowment on the Growth of Al-Islam in America. Shaheed made pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1987.

David Shaheed was appointed judge in the Marion County Superior Court of Indianapolis, Indiana, in September 1999 was elected to a six year term in November 2002. Prior to that appointment, he served as Magistrate (judge) in the Marion County Superior Court for three years. He was appointed Master Commissioner (part-time judicial officer) in October 1994. In addition to being in private practice as an attorney since 1985, Shaheed was Staff Attorney for the Democratic Caucus of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1995; Special Deputy Attorney General during 1993 and 1994; Staff Attorney for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development for seven years; and Chief Administrative Law Judge for unemployment insurance appeals for two years. Shaheed has been a lecturer and faculty member on a variety of legal topics.

Following the keynote lecture, there will be a musical presentation by members of the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School Choir.

For more information about this event, please contact Ilya Sverdlov, YSN Director of Public Relations at (203) 737-1376, or Sharon Sanderson, YSN Director of Student Recruitment at (203) 737-2258.

Yale University Home

Copyright © 2003 - 2009, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
All rights reserved. Comments or suggestions to our site editor.