Anwar Khan

Anwar Khan, a distinguished humanitarian leader, holds a Master’s Degree in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University. As the co-founder and current president of Islamic Relief USA, he brings over 30 years of invaluable experience in the field of humanitarian and development assistance.

Khan, who is of Pakistani descent, grew up in England and has lived in the United States since 1994. Under Khan’s leadership, seven IRUSA offices opened across the country, with the headquarters originating in California before moving to Washington, DC.

Khan has extensive experience in conflict and disaster zones; he has traveled to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, Yemen, Pakistan, and Syria. He has also traveled for development work in Africa and South Asia, visiting locations including Timbuktu.

In the United States, he helped set up an extensive volunteer network that now consists of 25,000 people. On behalf of IRUSA, he served on the boards of InterAction and US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA). Along with other leaders in the international development field, Khan provides advice, analysis, and recommendations to USAID on the most pressing development issues in the world today. He has also served on the US State Department’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group, where he advised on humanitarian issues and the intersection of faith and development. Currently, he serves on the board of World Food Program USA, Joint Learning Initiative, and the Alliance to End Hunger. He is on the Advisory Council for Muslim Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University.

Khan represented and spoke on behalf of Islamic Relief on several of the UN Interagency Task Force’s stewarded initiatives over many years, including the “Special Session on Faith Engagement” at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey; the UN Commission on the Status of Women; and the Annual Symposia on the Role of Religion and Faith Based Organizations in International Affairs.

In recent years, Khan has focused on inspiring others at IRUSA as well as at other organizations to make positive change in the broader society. Anwar Khan has a Master’s Degree in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University.