Muir Award Recipients

Hunayn Anwar

2023 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Hunayn Anwar was born and raised in Southeastern Minnesota. She is double majoring in Political Science, with an emphasis in Comparative Politics, and Arabic.

At Cal, she has been heavily involved in leading faith-based and cultural organizations. She served as president of the Association for Muslim Professional Development (AMPD). In this role, she organized workshops to help Muslim students learn skills such as resume writing, interview performance, and personal finance management. She also created mentorship and cohort programs that...

Mahshad Badii

2020 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Mahshad Badii (’20) is a Bay Area native pursuing a double major in Political Science and Near Eastern Studies. She is a two-year Phi Beta Kappa member, a Cal-in-Sacramento alumna, and a 2020 FLAS Scholar in Arabic. She is passionate about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, atrocity prevention, and international human rights law.

On campus, Mahshad has served as President, External Vice President, and Financial Vice President of Delta Phi Epsilon, Berkeley’s premier professional foreign service fraternity. During her tenure, she led a chapter of 80...

Ryen Bani-Hashemi

2018 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Ryen is a Bay Area native graduating from Cal in May 2018. On campus, Ryen has worked for the ASUC as both a videographer and as the Local Affairs Director. He has also worked for the Daily Californian as a writer for the Weekender blog, and for CalSERVE as a student mobilizer following the announcement of tuition hikes in late-2014.

Outside of campus, Ryen worked centrally at the Berkeley Student Cooperative housing system as a consent education educator and he currently teaches health education to high school students across the Bay Area as part of Peer Health Exchange....

Madison Chapman

2016 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Madison Chapman is a fourth year Political Science major and Public Policy minor at the University of California, Berkeley, with a concentration in International Relations. Originally from a small suburb just outside of San Diego, California, Madison was inspired to work on immigrant rights and get involved in public service after witnessing injustices in her hometown. At Berkeley, Madison has pursued her academic and public service passions in order to make a difference for immigrants, women, victims of abuse, and public health.

On campus she has been honored to serve as Co-...

Megan Cistulli

2022 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Megan Cistulli graduated with highest distinction and earned a B.A. in Political Science with a specialization in international relations and American politics while minoring in human rights.

Working as a Civil Rights Research Fellow at the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law (BCCE), Megan has led and participated in numerous research and fellowship projects including:

Amicus brief for the Harvard/UNC affirmative action case; Maintained BCCE global membership and partnership network of over 825 activists, advocates, and academics; Islamophobia...

Grayson Dimick

2017 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Grayson Dimick ('17) is a double major in Political Science and History, with a minor in Public Policy, from Sebastopol, California. Grayson is passionate about fostering dialogue, increasing access to affordable health care, and expanding opportunities for women and children, and has immersed herself in academic and public service opportunities surrounding these issues during her time at Berkeley.

On campus, Grayson serves as the president of UC Berkeley Model United Nations. In this role, she trains 110 students from 24 nationalities and 38 majors in public speaking and...

Yasmin Ebrat

2022 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Yasmine Ebrat is a native of the East Bay, pursuing a degree in Political Science, with a focus in International Relations. She is a recipient of the Cal Leadership Award, the Afghan American Community Award, and is a Cal in the Capital alumna. Yasmine is passionate about immigration rights and reform as well as providing marginalized communities with the necessary resources for success and provision of fair representation at the state and national levels.

Yasmine has extensive research experience, working with professors in the UC Berkeley Department of History...

Sandra Farzam

2015 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Sandra Farzam graduated Summa Cum Laude with Highest Honors from the Political Science department in May, 2015. She is currently in law school at the USC Gould School of Law. While at Cal, Sandra served in campus leadership positions with the Berkeley chapter of the Model United Nations and founded a new campus club, called Peace Talks, which serves as a debating society for students to find common ground on national and international affairs. She worked for several professors in the Berkeley Law School as a research assistant investigating employment...

Madhumitha (Madhu) Krishnan

2021 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Madhumitha (Madhu) Krishnan, a native of the East Bay, studied Political Science and History at UC Berkeley with a focus on comparative politics and the history of law and government. Madhu wrote her History senior honors thesis on the Madras Torture Commissioner’s Report and the origins of colonial policing in South Asia.

Madhu has extensive research experience, working with professors in the Political Science Department, the Center for Politics and Development, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the UC Hastings School of Law, and most recently with the Indian Police...

Alex Mabanta

2016 William K. (Sandy) Muir, Jr. Leadership Award Recipient

Alex Mabanta is a double major in Political Science and Rhetoric and minor in Human Rights from Saratoga, California. With a huge passion for Berkeley, both the university and the city, he splits his time between class and City Hall on a mission to "bring human rights home."

At age nineteen Alex was appointed to the Peace and Justice Commission, a legislative body charged with crafting human rights ordinances for the city of Berkeley. As the youngest commissioner in the city’s history, together with law professors and disability stakeholders he crafted a law to enable Berkeley to...