Abed Elghouleh - Vice President

Mr. Ghouleh was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and has a Master of Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, both in Electrical Engineering.  Professionally, Mr. Ghouleh is currently an independent engineering consultant specializing in the fields of energy, power, distribution, automation and controls. Previously, he worked nearly 30 years at a municipal government agency, where he was Project Manager of multi-million dollar engineering projects. He also has been active in many professional engineering organizations.

Mr. Ghouleh is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the American Middle East Voters Alliance (AMVOTE) and is the Endorsement Committee Chair.  He previously served as Voter Empowerment Committee Chair helping promote voter registration, voter information and education.

He currently serves on a County Sheriff's Advisory Council where he assisted the Sheriff's Department in launching a "Discrimination and Hate Crime Hotline". He has previously served on the Illinois State Treasurer's Community Affairs Council.

Abder has served as the Chicago Chapter President of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) for two years and many other years as a board member.  His work there included fighting for an end to discrimination and profiling.

Mr. Ghouleh is a founding member and a Past President and Past Chairman of the Arab American Association Engineers and Architects (AAAEA) and held many other board positions within that organization, serving in some capacity since its inception in 1996. After 9 years on the Executive Board and completing two terms as President, he joined the Board of Trustees and served two years as its Chairman. He has worked on the establishment of AAAEA chapters and student chapters throughout the U.S. He currently serves as a National Director.

He is a past President of the Lifta Association-Chicago, a Palestinian social and cultural community organization in Chicago, and served on its Board for 14 years.  He also contributed as the English Editor for Al-Offok Al-Arabi Newspaper, an Arabic-English publication that reached a wide community audience.Abder is an independent activist for Palestinian rights; an original board member of the Coalition of Palestinian American Organizations (CPAO) and currently on the Executive Board.  Abder is married with four children.