Fatima Shama

Fatima Shama was born in 1973 in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx. She earned a bachelor of the arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a master of public administration from Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs Executive Program in Manhattan. After college, she worked with the Arab American Family Support Center and the Greater Brooklyn Health Coalition to improve New Yorkers’ access to services like healthcare and education. She served in New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration from 2006-2014, first as Senior Education Policy Advisor and then as Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. During her tenure, she worked to build stronger ties between Muslim communities and the city government. After leaving the administration, she became Executive Director of the Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on providing low-income children in New York City with access to nature. See this narrator’s full biography and oral history.

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Oral History Clips:

Fatima Shama describes how her family made New York a home away from home.

See this Oral History Clip’s interactive transcript.

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