Amer Ahmed is an individual with an eclectic personal and professional experience. As a teacher, student, spoken word poet, Hip Hop activist, consultant and administrator, he channels his diverse experiences into work geared towards effective change serving to create mutual benefit for all. Born in Springfield, Ohio to Indian immigrants, Amer has dedicated his life to engaging and facilitating diversity across human difference. As an undergraduate student at Miami University in Ohio, he studied Anthropology and Black World Studies enhanced by powerful study abroad experiences in South Africa and Nepal. Amer’s education, world experiences and his Indian-American upbringing helped him understand the need for respect and dignity of all people. He went on to Indiana University for his graduate studies in Anthropology and African American/African Diaspora Studies.
During his time in Bloomington, Amer was an Associate Instructor, PR Officer for the Muslim Student Union (during 9/11) and also became integrally part of strengthening Diversity and culture on campus through a fast-growing student organization known as the Hip Hop Congress (www.hiphopcongress.com). Amer now serves as the Chair of Midwest and International Development on the national board for Hip Hop Congress, which has become the largest grassroots Hip Hop organization in the United States.
Following his graduate studies, Amer was employed as Director of Intercultural Programs at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. His education, global experience and prominent role in the Hip Hop Congress assisted him in addressing pressing issues of Diversity on campus. In Dubuque, Amer was a trailblazer working to promote respect and human dignity in a community riddled by a painful history of racism and prejudice. In a post 9/11 middle-American context, Amer is also opening up deep discussion and dialogue regarding Islam in the world and in America.
During his tenure at Loras, Amer expanded the discussion on Dialogue to address all forms of marginalization that affect how individuals experience institutions and society at large. He has become engaged in the field of Intercultural Communication drawing from the work of Dr. Milton J. Bennett and others who focus on a developmental approach to Intercultural competency. Such approaches have been useful in his work in Organizational Assessment and Development, Workshop facilitation, Public Speaking and Student Support. Amer is now continuing this work at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota where he serves as Director of Intercultural Affairs.
Amer strives to be an inspiration to young people who see purpose in the pursuing of their ideals. He stresses the need to identify one’s own talents, abilities and the importance of articulating them effectively in order to reach positions in which we can enact what he calls “Realistic Idealism”. Today, his work continues to prove that the millennial generation has an opportunity to shape its own future through passionate energy and a dedication to create effective positive change.
Email Amer: aamera@oneummahconsulting.com
