National Arab American Heritage Month celebrates the Arab American heritage and culture and pays tribute to the contributions of Arab Americans and Arabic-speaking Americans. 

Featured:

• Ameen Rihani “is considered the Founding Father of Arab-American Literature. Born in Freike, Lebanon, on November 24, 1876, Rihani moved to the U.S. at the age of 12. In 1910 he published Al-Rihaniyat, the book that established him as a forward thinker and a visionary. The Book of Khalid was published in 1911 and is considered a pioneering literary work that paved the way for Arab-American literature.”
• Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha “a pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center and professor at Michigan State University, skyrocketed to star status when she blew the whistle on the environmental disaster. The Flint Water Crisis exposed its residents to dangerous levels of lead, and still hasn’t completely resolved. Today, Hanna-Attisha advocates for children, immigrants, and women in STEM.”
• Dr. Farouk El-Baz “is director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University and research professor. From 1967 to 1972, he joined NASA’s Apollo program as supervisor of Lunar Science Planning and served as secretary of the Lunar Landing Site Selection Committee, chair of the Astronaut Training Group, and principal investigator for Visual Observations and Photography.”
• Candy Lightner “founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) after her 13-year-old daughter Cari was struck and killed by a drunk driver on May 3, 1980. The sentence given to the repeat offender of driving while intoxicated outraged Lightner, who had to do something. Today, MADD is the largest crime victims’ assistance organization in the world, with more than 3 million members and supporters.”
• Mohammed Omar Khalil “was educated in Khartoum, where he studied and taught at the School of Fine and Applied Arts until 1963. He later pursued his studies in fresco painting and printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Florence. Khalil’s work comprises paintings, prints, and livres d’artiste. Khalil has received several awards, among them First Prize at the International Biennial, Cairo, 1993, and First Prize in Printmaking, National Academy Award, New York, 2003.”
• Kathy Najimy “is an award-winning actor, director, writer, producer, and activist known for her memorable performances in over twenty-five films and over one-hundred television projects. For her over forty years of AIDS activism, she has been honored with the GMHC Howard Ashman Lifetime achievement award, the LA
  Shanti’s Founder award, as well as the LA Gay and Lesbian Center’s Distinguished Achievement award.”