Vice President/Chair, ASI Board of Directors
Leen Almahdi
Leen Almahdi is a fourth year student pursuing a degree in dietetics and food administration with a nutrition and dietetics concentration and a sociology minor. Leen was born and raised in Los Angeles to Syrian immigrant parents and attended Palisades Charter High School. In her last years there, Leen became heavily involved in student organizations due to the hostile environment she experienced fueled by the political climate at the time. Almahdi went on to become president and founder of the Muslim Student Association at her high school and served as the vice president and founder of the environmental healing club. She has always believed in the power that community building, student organizing, and solidarity efforts has to reduce bigotry and hate towards members of underrepresented communities.
This background and philosophy led Leen to get involved in cultural organizations and student government early on in her college career. She wanted to ensure that the voices of her community and people of color all around were acknowledged and heard. As a freshman, Leen was elected as Senator for the College of Health and Human Services and was reelected the following year, all while serving as vice president for CSULB’s Muslim Student Association. Leen then went on to be elected as the 2018-2019 student body vice president with her best-friend and running mate Genesis Jara, and created long-lasting institutional progress including the mascot change and disassociation from the Gold Rush era.
Since her adolescence, it has been Leen’s goal to attend California State University, Long Beach and get accepted into the nutrition and dietetics program. With the degree, Leen hopes to become a registered dietician and work at the community level to help treat and bring awareness to eating disorders, especially for marginalized communities, where mental health issues are rarely given direct attention and are often stigmatized.
Leen ran to be the 2019-2020 ASI Vice President with the goal of creating transparency within the university and advocating alongside, and on behalf of people of disempowered communities. Vice President Almahdi encourages students to reach out to her if they have any concerns at Leen.Almahdi@csulb.edu.
