Board Leadership

Board Chair – Dr. Syed Khaja Hussain

Dr. Syed Khaja Hussain has been part of St. Louis community for the last twenty six years. He is the previous chairman of the Majlis Al Shura of the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis and a member of the shura for the last 20 years; He has also served as Vice-Chair of IFGSTL as well as General Secretary of Islamic Foundation and past chair of Social Services committee. He has also served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Head Injury Services of St Louis. He was the chair of Al-Salam Day School board from 2013-2017 and was reappointed as the Chair of the board in June 2023.

Vice-Chair – Sr. Jaime Dodd (Strategy and Policy adviser – Early Childhood Education)

Dr. Jaime Dodd specializes in the research and application of Montessori theory and practice in early childhood educational settings. She is a member of the executive leadership team for a nonprofit, educational and research institution in St. Louis, Missouri where she has invested more than two decades of her life, representing the greater part of her professional career. Dr. Dodd has served on Al Salam Day School Board continuously, from 2017 to the present. She serves on the board of various St. Louis area non-profit entities, focused primarily on educational, humanitarian and/or healthcare concerns. Dr. Dodd’s passion is manifest in her work with the American Islamic Montessori Association (AIMA), a professional membership organization to advance Islamic Montessori Education (IME) as a bridge to foster understanding, promote education and expand peace across the U.S. and around the globe.

Faten Tamimi

Faten Tamimi is an alumni of ADS. She attended as a student in first grade when ADS was initially founded and located in the basement of West Pine Masjed in St. Louis University. She was in fourth grade when the new campus was built and only a few classes were available in the basement of Dar Ul-lslam Masjed. Faten is a medicinal chemist and certified Toxicologist. At one point she taught chemistry to ADS Highschool students. She is a lifelong devout community member who has sent all 4 of her children to ADS at various times. Faten joined the board in June 2023.

Nida Al-Ramahi

Nida Al-Ramahi, MHA, CSSGB is the Executive Director of Operational Strategy for the Mercy Health System. She is responsible for driving strategic and growth initiatives throughout a 44-hospital health system across 4 states in the Midwest. This includes operational performance, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, acquisitions, ambulatory care, retail care, and new market development.

Nida was the former Executive Director of Operations for Mercy Health System’s Nursing and Operational Services. In that role, Nida was responsible for directing and overseeing strategic initiatives to promote clinical, operational, financial and innovative performance excellence across the ministry in partnership with stakeholders across various levels. In managing nursing strategy, operations, and workforce, Nida has developed a centralized workforce labor team, a center for clinical operations and innovation, created and operationalized a shift pick up application (Mercy Works on Demand) across 44 hospitals with over 20,000 users and subsequently reduced premium labor spend by 30.7 million in year one and 25 million in year two, and developed operational performance systems. Ultimately, Nida enjoys translating and driving strategy into sustainable action.

Nida formerly worked at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) in Philadelphia, PA as the Director of Strategic Operations for the Office of the Senior Vice President (SVP), Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Quality Officer (CQO) where she provided leadership in setting strategic and operational direction, and in driving the execution of key organizational imperatives across the enterprise. Nida worked closely with leadership and key stakeholders across organizational lines, at varying levels, to execute strategic operational objectives focusing on select programs in strategy, operations, quality, safety and value improvement. In addition, she led the health system’s pandemic response, vaccinating over 43% of Philadelphians as recognized by the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania (HAP). Nida held a dual role with the Center for Health Equity Advancement (CHEA) as their Director of Care Transformation and Strategic Planning. Nida was a former Administrative Fellow for UPHS, during which she held several interim director roles in hospital operations, service line operations, quality, and other organizational areas. Prior to working at UPHS, Nida worked at BJC Healthcare Center for Clinical Excellence and Washington University School of Medicine in strategy, operations, and finance.

Nida received her Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree with a triple concentration in Finance, Quality, and Population Health and Bachelor of Science degree in Health Management and Policy (BSHMP) from Saint Louis University, College of Public Health and Social Justice. Nida holds a Six Sigma Green Belt. Nida is nationally recognized as a Beckers 40 under 40 leader. She is published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM) and the the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). She is a lecturer for the American Journal of Healthcare Strategy (AJHS).

Nida believes in the importance and impact of education and the consistency of educational institutions that work to empower others to actualize their greatest potential. She aims to bring her skill sets of creating highly reliable administrative infrastructures through strategic planning, operational execution, measurements of success, and actualization of sustainable outcomes to ADS to ensure student success and institutional longevity.

Board Leadership