Milia Islam-Majeed is the daughter of immigrant parents who migrated here in 1986 from Bangladesh. She has since then lived in the United States spending most of her childhood and adolescence in the small Midwestern town of Fulton, Missouri. She obtained her undergraduate degree in World Religions and Psychology from Westminster College in Missouri and thereafter moved to Boston for her graduate work. She is a 2004 graduate of Harvard University where she earned her Masters in Theological Studies of the World Religions and Anthropology.

 

She has spoken worldwide about her interfaith work and some of her recognitions include being one of eight national recipients of the USA Network 2010 Character Unite Awards, awarded the NAACP “2011 Woman of the Year” in Long Beach, selected in 2015 as one of the Future-50 Emerging Leaders under the age of 35 who are shaping the landscape of faith in Los Angeles by the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture & Interreligious Council of Los Angeles. Most recently in 2017, Milia was chosen as one of 11 individuals throughout the world to be a research fellow at the Dali Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT where her research focuses on the intersection of Islam and Ethics. Most recently in 2020, she was awarded the Harvard Divinity School 2020 Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68 Distinguished Alumni Honoree.  This award honors distinguished HDS alumni whose excellence in life, work, and service pays homage to the mission and values of Harvard Divinity School and Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68.

 

In 2008 Milia joined as the Executive Director of the South Coast Interfaith Council (SCIC) – the largest and oldest interfaith council in California, serving 35 cities in Southern California.