Meet Our Founder

Hassanah Thomas is the Founder and Executive Director of IATP. She holds a B.S. degree in Mass Communications from Emerson College (Boston, MA) and a MA in Producing for Film & Video from American University (Washington, DC). From 1996 – 2004, Hassanah produced, “Islamic Perspectives,” Washington, DC’s first award-winning Islamic television series, and in that time produced 116 episodes. Under her leadership, “Islamic Perspectives” evolved from a simple community television program that educated people about Islam, into a sophisticated television series that tackled national and global issues and was distributed to eight markets throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area, including Southern Virginia and Baltimore, MD.

Between 2005 and 2006, as part of her master’s degree thesis, Hassanah developed several television pilot episodes of her then current series, “Living Islam in America.” IATP’s television series entitled “Living Islam in America,” was a thirty-minute, current affairs, magazine formatted program. The scope and variety of topics covered were reflective of our society and the events that are taking place in it as well as how global events impact us. The main goal of the series was to educate the viewing audience about Islam and the burgeoning Muslim communities throughout America. This focus was intended to help create an environment of understanding and tolerance and promote insightful and balanced discourses.