Arab America Foundation's 2026 '40 Under 40' Class Spotlights Rising Arab American Leaders Ahead of November Summit
A software engineer who lost his sight but became an accessibility advocate at Google. A trial attorney who represented Lebanon in a beauty pageant before turning her energy toward the courtroom and community organizing. A Syrian-born poet in Brooklyn whose debut collection confronts Western narratives about the Middle East. These are among the 40 honorees the Arab America Foundation named this year to its 2026 class of "40 Under 40," an annual program that has, since 2020, become one of the most closely watched showcases of rising Arab American talent.
The Washington, DC-based nonprofit announced the full list in June, drawing from a pool of self-submitted applications judged by a review panel on career achievement and community engagement. Candidates must be between 30 and 40 years old, work or live in the United States, and be of Arab descent. This year's roster reflects the program's usual breadth: attorneys, nurses, engineers, entrepreneurs, journalists, athletes and artists, based in states from Florida and Michigan to Colorado and California.
Among the names: Amr Abozaid, who directs small business services for the Yemeni American Merchants Association in New York and has worked to keep immigrant-owned storefronts from being squeezed out by policy and zoning fights; Ameer Armaly, a blind Palestinian American software engineer who spent six years at Google improving Android's accessibility tools and now performs Arabic oud music at venues like Symphony Space in New York; and Kassem Doghman, a Lebanese American journalist and Henry Ford College Arabic instructor who anchored live 2024 U.S. election coverage for Arab-world audiences while also teaching in Michigan public schools.
The class also includes healthcare and advocacy figures such as Zahraa Al Adeeb, a gastroenterology nurse in Northeast Ohio who founded Al Bait Al Iraqi to preserve Iraqi American cultural heritage, and Christeen Badie, a clinical social worker whose consulting practice focuses on immigrant and SWANA (South West Asian and North African) communities. Writers and performers named this year include Brooklyn-based poet Nour Al Ghraowi, whose 2025 debut collection "there are bodies here" examines migration and identity, and actress-musician Sophia Alawi, whose stage and television credits include "We Live in Cairo" and "Law & Order: SVU."
"The 2026 class of 40 Under 40 represents the talent, vision, and leadership shaping the future of Arab America," Warren David, co-founder of the Arab America Foundation and president of its affiliated media outlet Arab America, said in the organization's announcement. "From business and education to technology and the arts, these outstanding young professionals are making meaningful contributions in their communities and beyond."
The 40 Under 40 program, now coordinated by Nabelah Ghareeb and Elias J. Khalil, sits alongside the Foundation's companion initiatives — 20 Under 20 for teenagers and 30 Under 30 for young adults — as part of a broader effort to build a pipeline of recognized Arab American leadership across generations. The Foundation, a 501(c)(3) educational and cultural organization, says the program is meant to counter stereotypes by publicly celebrating professional achievement alongside cultural engagement.
This year's honorees will be formally recognized at the Arab America Foundation's Connect Empowerment Summit, scheduled for November 6-7 in the Washington, DC area — an event that typically draws past honorees, community organizers and national Arab American advocacy groups. For a community that has spent much of 2026 navigating heightened political scrutiny and polarized national debate, the summit offers an alternative, if smaller-scale, spotlight: one built around individual achievement rather than politics.