Meet Mussab

Born in Pakistan in 1997, Mussab came to Jersey City with his family in 2000. His parents, both union workers, his mother an educator and his father a postal worker, taught him the values of service, resilience, and commitment to community.

Mussab attended Public School 23, the Mahatma K Gandhi School, and completed elementary school at J W Wakeman Public School 6. He went on to Academy One for middle school and Dr Ronald E McNair Academic High School. His experiences in Jersey City’s public schools shaped his dedication to equity and opportunity for all students.

At twenty years old, while studying at Rutgers University in Newark, Mussab became the youngest elected official in Jersey City’s history and at the time the youngest Muslim elected official in the United States. As a member and later President of the Jersey City Board of Education, he led initiatives to raise teacher salaries, eliminate student lunch debt, establish a student board seat, and introduce participatory budgeting to give students a direct voice in improving their schools. He also worked with community groups to address lead contamination and advocated for fiscal transparency during statewide education funding challenges.

Mussab graduated from Rutgers in three years as a Truman Scholar. He earned a master’s degree from Tsinghua University in China as a Schwarzman Scholar and completed his Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School, where he served as co-president of the student body and was named a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. He also worked at Rutgers Law School researching housing inequality, gaining deeper insight into issues that affect Jersey City residents.

During his final year on the Board of Education and while beginning his first year at Harvard Law School, he was diagnosed with Stage Four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He continued serving as Board President while undergoing chemotherapy. He overcame cancer and has since completed three marathons, showing his determination and hope for the future.

Today, Mussab co-leads the Ali Leadership Institute, which is dedicated to training the next generation of community leaders.

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