Our Team

Aaron Lobel

Aaron Lobel is the founder and president of the Washington, DC-based international media organization America Abroad Media (AAM). Under his leadership, AAM has partnered with some of the world’s leading broadcasters, journalists, writers and directors to develop and produce a range of media programming, including public affairs shows, drama and entertainment content, and feature length documentaries. Lobel conceived and produced the award winning documentary series America Abroad,which was hosted by Garrick Utley, Marvin Kalb, Margaret Warner and other leading journalists and aired on public radio stations across the United States for more than a decade. In 2016, Lobel spearheaded the launch of SCREEN BUZZ, an innovative initiative bringing top Hollywood writers and directors to the Middle East to build the capacity of local storytellers to create compelling, original Arabic drama and entertainment content. Lobel also established AAM’s annual Awards Dinner, which recognizes leading creatives from the US and the Middle East and brings together the policymaking community in Washington with media leaders and the creative community from the Muslim World.

Lobel received his Ph.D. in International Affairs from Harvard University's Department of Government, where he was awarded Harvard's top teaching award, the Joseph Levenson Prize. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the Murrow Center for a Digital World at Tufts University, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Precious Rasheeda Muhammad

Precious Rasheeda Muhammad, a.k.a. “The History Detective,” is an independent scholar, author, lecturer, and researcher widely recognized for her original research contributions to the study of Islam in America, including her discovery of a forgotten 224-page autobiography of an African of Muslim heritage who served in the American Civil War; her “Presidential Engagement with Muslim Communities” exhibit for the U.S. Department of State; and her “Muslims and the Making of America” special report published by the Muslim Public Affairs Council and widely-distributed to hundreds of policymakers and change-makers in Washington, D.C., including members of Congress and White House officials. Though a lot of Precious’s contributions also happen behind the scenes, consulting and advising, her public contributions can be found in academic journals, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, exhibits, award-winning books; on CNN.Com and NPR; at the Smithsonian; and more. Precious also brings decades of commitment to interfaith work, including chaplaincy work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a 770-bed hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and significant roles in planning and implementing the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions program held in Melbourne, Australia. Her personal and professional motto is “Building community through History.” For her community-building work, in the academic community and beyond, Coe College awarded Precious an honorary doctorate in 2010. For those contributions and helping change the way that Harvard looks at Islam, as an area of study, Precious earned the special honor of becoming a Harvard Divinity School Bicentennial Peter J. Gomes STB '68 Honoree in 2017. In 2019, the governor of Virginia appointed her to serve on the inaugural Virginia African American Advisory Board and renewed her service a year later to a four-year term. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and is particularly drawn to the part of its mission that is dedicated to being of “Service to All Mankind". She lives in Virginia with her husband and two daughters.

Maggi Van Dorn

Maggi Van Dorn holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. She has produced several podcasts including Deliver Us with America Media, Vital Signs from SiriusXM, Spilling Royal Tea with TMZ, Interfaith Matters from the Interfaith Center of NY, and is the current audio producer at America Media, a Jesuit Catholic magazine based in NYC. She lives in North Carolina with her two pups, Millie & Toots.

Our Team

Ahmed Ali Akbar

Ahmed Ali Akbar is an audio journalist and culture writer who hosts the award-winning podcast “See Something Say Something.” He reports and makes shows about American Muslims, food, culture, and more. Ahmed holds a Master's in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Follow him @radbrowndads.

Rosalind Tordesillas

Rosalind Tordesillas (she/her) is an independent producer in New York City. She was born in the Philippines, trained and worked as a social scientist, and now explores human experience through audio storytelling. She produces and edits podcasts on immigrant life for Feet in 2 Worlds and her stories have been featured on PRI's The World and Studio 360 and the podcast Self Evident. She has a graduate degree in social psychology from New York University.

Sandra Lopez-Monsalve

Sandra Lopez-Monsalve is a bilingual producer, audio engineer and educator. She fell in love with radio while cutting actual tape for a local station in her native Bogota (Colombia) in the late 90s. Since then, Sandra has produced and engineered stories for news programs, magazine shows, and podcasts for a variety of media outlets, including radio stations (KCRW, WNYC, WBAI), national magazines (The Atlantic, Slate), and television (PBS, CUNY TV). Currently Sandra is creating content for the Production Unit at PRX and teaching radio production at Brooklyn College. Before that she was a multimedia producer and technical director for the Peabody Award-winning show Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen. Sandra loves history, radio dramas, movies, and black cats.