Ilhan Omar
(1982 – )
US Congresswoman
Rep. Ilhan Omar represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which includes Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs.
Born in Somalia, Rep. Omar and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.
In 2016 she was elected as the Minnesota House Representative for District 60B, making her the highest-elected Somali-American public official in the United States. She is one of the first two Muslim women in Congress.
Congresswoman Omar is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She serves as the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations and the Subcommittee on International Development, International Organizations, and Global Corporate Social Impact.
Motivational Quote:
I was born in, the gender I was born in, the religion I was born in, the country I was born in and the cultural context in which I was born — and to have an alertness to what representative democracy meant and the power it could hold in creating positive change for people.
5 Success Lesson
to learn from Ilhan Omar
- Always show up unapologetically.
- Fight for what you believe in.
- Always stand up to bullies.
- Believe in your own strength — even if when you know that isn’t really the case.
- No barrier is too great to break.
Sources: omar.house.gov nytimes.com
