Mahnaz Shabbir is president of Shabbir Advisors, an
integrated strategic management consulting company focusing on planning, marketing, public relations, diversity transformation
and website design on a national basis. Over the last five years, Shabbir has given over 100 lectures, locally, nationally
and internationally to organizations interested in knowing more about diversity issues. She has been the subject of dozens
of articles, both locally and nationally. In March 2005, Kansas Governor
Kathleen Sebelius appointed Shabbir to the REACH Health
Care Foundation, a $100 million foundation. Shabbir is also on the faculty at Baker
University teaching marketing classes in the school
of Professional and Graduate Studies and at Avila
University teaching diversity classes. She is frequent lecturer at the Command
and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth
sharing her knowledge about Islam with the officers before they are deployed to Iraq
and Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
Prior to forming her own company, Shabbir was
the Vice President for Strategic Planning and Business Development at Carondelet Health, a Catholic health care system in
Kansas City.
She had been with the organization for over 18 years. In this capacity, Shabbir planned $40 million projects like the four
story medical mall at Saint Joseph Health
Center. She
has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Missouri- Kansas City.
Shabbir is very involved in community activities
that range from the Central Exchange, Boy Scouts of America and Overland Park Rotary to being a leader amongst the Muslim
community in the greater Kansas City. Shabbir is a board member of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, Boy Scouts of America
and CRES (Center for Religious Educational Studies). She is also the past president of the Heartland Muslim Council and past
board member of the Crescent Peace Society. She recently became the Kansas Political Chair for the
Greater Kansas City Woman’s Political Caucus. Her work has been featured
in Family Circle (April 2005) and Entrepreneur (July 2005) magazines and other local and regional media outlets.
Her article, “I am an American Muslim Woman”
appeared in the Kansas City Star and was syndicated throughout the United States. She has also written articles for
Kansas City Voices, Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, Ingram’s Magazine and Kansas
City Voices. Her articles are found in national publications such as New
Light and the National Catholic Reporter. Shabbir is also the founder of Community Praying for Peace.
Shabbir was featured in the CBS special “Open Hearts, Open Minds” in October 2002
and interviewed in 2003 on Voice of America. In February 2005, she presented
an hour-long program on the radio show, Voice of the Cape that aired in Cape
Town, South Africa to 150,000 listeners.
Shabbir was the Kansas City Press Club Journalist of the Year for 2003 and received another
Journalism award in 2005 and the Gold Award in 2007. She was also recognized
by The Women's Foundation of Greater Kansas City: A Celebration of Women in June 2003. In October 2003, Shabbir received the award for Community
Image from the Heartland Muslim Council. In March 2004, she received the
YWCA award for the Gold Honoree in the category of Racial Justice at their annual luncheon banquet. Shabbir Advisors was nominated as “Minority Professional
Service Firm of the Year” at the US Small
Business Administration annual regional meeting in November 2004. In November
2005, Shabbir received a special recognition award from the Crescent Peace Society for her contributions in community service. On September
11, 2006, Shabbir
received the Human Rights award from Church Women United. Shabbir will receive the Dick Kurtenbach Racial Justice Award from the ACLU in November 2007.
Shabbir’s parents immigrated to the United
States in the 1950s from India. She was born in Philadelphia and has lived in the Kansas City area for the last 27 years. She
is the mother of four boys.
