WFO

The Washington Field Office (WFO) has selected Nawar Shora to receive the Director’s Community Leadership Award.

Nawar Shora serves as legal director and director of diversity education and law enforcement outreach at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American grassroots organization of its kind. He has delivered in-person training about Arab and Muslim cultures to more than 20,000 professionals, including employees at the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and other law enforcement, university, and corporate groups. Additionally, he has reached thousands of other employees by serving as the subject- matter expert on two federal government training videos about Arabs and Muslims.

Mr. Shora is a founding member of WFO's Arab, Muslim, Sikh Advisory Council (AMSAC). Six years ago, WFO formed AMSAC to create stronger communication between WFO and multiple religious communities. During these quarterly meetings, AMSAC and WFO executives share cultural, linguistic, and contextual expertise and work to prevent hate crimes by building relationships with community members so that they will be willing to work with law enforcement. Through the effort of Mr. Shora, AMSAC is now seen by the community as a positive example of WFO's outreach program.

Mr. Shora has maintained an uninterrupted and broad relationship with the FBI over the past eight years, including varied work with Headquarters, WFO, other field offices, and the FBI Academy. Of particular relevance, he collaborated with members of the FBI National Recruiting and Marketing Unit (NRMU) and Personnel Resources Unit to assist with recruiting efforts and education. In that capacity, he has regularly met with many employees in NRMU, and he has spoken at two other national conferences.

Six years ago, he suggested the concept of an FBI youth camp, and his consistent effort led to the creation of a summer camp for high school students known as the Future Agents in Training (FAIT) program. This year, the third year of FAIT, WFO received over 400 applications and accepted 45 students from 30 states and from as far away as Guam. Over the past seven years, he has organized community trips to the FBI Academy. He has worked across the spectrum of FBI missions with senior members of the Human Resources, Counterterrorism, and Training Divisions.

Most recently, Mr. Shora organized a panel of members from the AMSAC to be featured speakers at WFO's agent conference. This year's conference was a great success in large part because of Mr. Shora's participation.