BIOGRAPHY

Isra Chaker is a Syrian-American civil rights activist, humanitarian advocate, and public speaker. She currently serves as Senior Campaign manager at Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), where she is a strategic leader, fostering innovation and creativity, and leading a cross-organizational team of volunteers and staff to deliver winning campaigns. She also serves as a key thought partner to the National Director of Campaigns and Crisis Response in developing and winning AIUSA’s Campaigns.

Previously, Isra served as a Campaign Strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and as the Senior Refugee, Migration and Protection Campaign Lead at Oxfam America. In these capacities, she led campaigns on issues including immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker rights, racial justice, and discriminatory policies such as the Muslim Bans.

One of her infamous projects that went viral in 2017 was bringing refugees to President Trump’s childhood home in Queens, New York to share their experiences and their “American Dream”.

She is an appointed Ambassador for One Young World (OYW), a global forum of young innovative leaders and has served as a speaker at their annual OYW Summit in London (2019), and Manchester (2022). She is a Public Advocate for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency USA (UNRWA) for her invaluable contributions in raising awareness and funds for their projects supporting Palestine refugees.

In addition, Isra was recognized as an Icon for the "We The Future" campaign by Amplifier, which recognizes ten young activists from across the United States in their leading work on current social justice issues affecting humanity. Isra was chosen to represent the refugee and immigration justice theme, known as "We the Future, will not be Banned". She is the only Muslim in the campaign, and art work of Isra as well as a curriculum she designed to break down the stereotypes and misconceptions of Muslims, refugees and immigrants was taught to over 400,000 students in schools across the United States in the 2019 academic year.

Isra has been interviewed and featured on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, NowThis, AJ+, ABC News, Al Jazeera, CNN, the Associated Press, VICE News, the Washington Post, etc.

Isra’s previous work experience includes serving as the Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator at Syria Relief and Development; a leading humanitarian NGO working on the ground in Syria. She served as a lead advocate in the United Nations, meeting with the Special Envoy to Syria in consultations on the greater Syria strategy. Her leadership elevated the voice of Syrians to the highest level meetings at the White House, Capitol Hill, the US National Security Council and the United Nations Security Council.

Isra is a firm believer in positive social change and believes that “Change is On Us”. She created a social media platform @IsraSpeaks to empower people around the world to use their personal narrative to become engaged and active global citizens who use their voice to create positive change. She uses her platform to educate people on social justice and political challenges facing humanity, to advocate for underrepresented populations, and to put a spotlight on leaders and organizations doing positive social change work. Isra has been invited to speak at the United Nations, major global conferences, and a multitude of local organizations and university campuses across the United States and world. Her story of choosing a life of purpose to shatter stereotypes of Muslim women because of islamophobia and discrimination she endured growing up Muslim in America, is the reason she is a powerful, eloquent and successful public speaker and engaging over 250,000 people on her social media platforms.