Hamid Khan - Biography

Hamid Khan was a founding member and the Executive Director of the South Asian Network (SAN). A first generation immigrant from Pakistan, Hamid came to the United States in 1979.

In 1990, Hamid gathered a group of fellow South Asians and colleagues to explore the idea of creating an organization that would address a broad array of social, economic and political issues affecting persons of South Asian origin living in southern California. The first meeting, and those that followed, generated discussion on issues of mutual concern including worker’s rights, immigration, civil rights, healthcare, domestic violence, identity, gender and sexuality.

Hamid Khan’s vision of a progressive South Asian American community had led SAN to turn the very issues that have traditionally divided the South Asian community into the agency’s driving force. Embracing the model of shared leadership, board and staff members, who reflect the community’s ethnic and linguistic diversity, have created multilingual, culturally appropriate approaches to community organizing encompassing community education, services and policy advocacy. Such internal diversity has enabled SAN to reach out more effectively to the broad South Asian American community - positively affecting the lives of thousands of people.

In addition to his role at SAN, Hamid also participates as a spokesperson on community issues at numerous town halls, meetings, interfaith forums, university seminars, nonprofit conferences, local media programs, and Federal Congressional and California Assembly hearings. He was selected for the 2003, LA Stories: The Power of One by the Facing History and Ourselves, an organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice and anti-Semitism. He has been a leading advocate for the peace movement, speaking up against the current wave of occupation and violence.