Our Staff
Faarah Misbah, MFT
Marriage and Family Therapist
Faarah is a Marriage and Family Therapist and coordinates programs at Alanur. She completed her M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy at Antioch University Seattle and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Washington (UW). She has research experience with the Social Psychology department of UW as well as Non-profit administration experience with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Seattle. Faarah currently provides couples and family counseling at Alanur and Nourish Therapy and Wellness in Skippack, PA.
Read more about Faarah’s services at www.healingwithfaarah.com.
Schedule a consultation with Faarah today!
Melissa Murin
Program Coordinator
Melissa is a program coordinator with Alanur. She graduated in 2024 from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and is currently pursuing a Master of Social Service at Bryn Mawr College.
Melissa has previously served as a research intern with the Global Livingston Institute in Uganda, conducting program analysis on their Mental Health Facilitator program. She has worked on several study teams, most recently with a clinical trial on a collaborative care model for suboxone treatment in primary care settings.
Please contact her at mel@alanur.life for Alanur collaboration requests.
Board of Directors
Patricia Anton
Chair
Chaplain Patty is the founder of Alanur in addition to serving as Chaplain and Director for Muslim Life at the University of Pennsylvania. She has come into chaplaincy with a background of working with Muslim, interfaith, academic and peace-building institutions, including: the International Interfaith Peace Corps, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Relief, Pillars of Peace, and American University, among others. Patricia received her BA in International Relations from the Ohio State University, MA in Islamic Studies from the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, A Graduate Fellowship in Non-Profit Management and Governance from Indiana University, additional graduate studies at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Hartford Seminary’s Islamic Chaplaincy program and is a certified mediator. She currently serves on the board of the Muslim Endorsement Council.
Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui
Tasneem Siddiqui is a board member of Alanur in addition to working as an assistant professor at Drexel University in the Department of History with a joint appointment in the Program in Africana Studies. Professor Siddiqui’s research explores the intersections of race, gender, categories of power, spirituality, geography, and how historically marginalized peoples and communities produce systems of knowledge that inform their futurity in freedom. This line of inquiry constitutes her current book-length manuscript titled, Freedom is a Place: Black Self-Determination in the Low Country and Sea Islands, which examines the post-Reconstruction freedom struggles waged by rural Black American laborers in South Carolina and Georgia’s low country and coastal islands for access to and ownership of land. This study argues that the struggle for land and a claim to place facilitates a form of communal life for racialized groups who faced systematic social marginalization in different phases of development in the New South.
Umar Abdul Rahman
Umar Abdul Rahman is the Muslim student advisor/chaplain and the co-director (interim) of the Interfaith Center at Swarthmore College. He completed an M.A. in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary (now Hartford International University for Religion and Peace) and is currently completing the Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy (GCIC).
Prior to beginning work in religious and spiritual life, Umar practiced immigration law, specifically deportation defense, for a number of years in the Philadelphia area. He received his J.D. from Temple Law School. Umar holds a B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Lehigh University. During his undergraduate study, he spent a semester at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and subsequently spent a year in Sana'a, Yemen under a Fulbright grant researching the impact of Yemen’s history with Marxism on religious thought.
Umar grew up in Philadelphia and the neighboring North Penn Valley.
Sevim Kalyoncu
Sevim is a founding board member of Alanur and Executive Director of Green Muslims. Growing up in Alabama surrounded by woods and creeks, Sevim discovered at an early age that her most direct connection with God came through nature. To this day, she still finds peace in natural surroundings and holds a deep concern regarding humankind’s responsibility as vicegerent of the earth. She is involved with multiple local climate action groups and dedicated to helping educate youth about the importance of environmental awareness for spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. She holds a B.S. from Georgetown and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and has many years of nonprofit experience in Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also a naturalist interpreter and a yoga instructor.