Afreen was born in Bangladesh, raised by Bengali-Muslim parents and immigrated to the US when she was 3 years old. She is a 32 year retired educator who is passionate about diversity awareness. She raised three children in a multi-cultural family in a small community. This makes her uniquely qualified to speak on the topic of diversity. Aside from her personal background, Afreen has been a spokesperson on behalf of public school children for religious holidays on the local, state and the national levels.

To help citizens understand the importance of diversity within their own communities, Afreen has spoken to many churches and civic organizations to help them understand other religions, predominantly the Islamic religion, especially after 911. Afreen explained the importance of accepting other people for who they are, not for how the media depicts particular groups.

Being a highly-skilled trainer by the Virginia Education Association has empowered her to instruct current and future educators on a plethora of topics. Afreen has provided career development conferences to thousands of educators in various school systems throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Afreen has addressed crowds of over 10,000 at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assemblies to speak on categories of ethnicities on NEA forms, to religious holidays to marching for social justice.

She also spent years working with students affected by stress and trauma while teaching at an alternative education center. She worked closely with students and formed special bonds with them that she still maintains. She was a “second mom” to many students who needed a positive role model in their lives. Helping children deal with stress and trauma while still providing an education was quite a balancing act. She also won the NEA Foundation Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence (2018) and the VEA Award for Teaching Excellence (2017)

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