Najah Bazzy

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Zaman International

Najah Bazzy, RN, is an internationally recognized healer, humanitarian, and interfaith leader who left a six-figure salary as a critical-care nurse to build Zaman International. The Metro-Detroit-based nonprofit empowers marginalized women and children to break the cycle of extreme poverty. In 2019, she was recognized as a Top Ten CNN Hero.

Born and raised in Southeast Michigan, Bazzy earned her nursing degree from Madonna University and holds a Doctor of Humanities Honoris Causa degree from Oakland University. She has specialized over the past three decades in critical care and transcultural nursing. The Chief Executive Officer of Diversity Specialists, Bazzy has implemented a national model of transcultural clinical care and hosted workshops for health care institutions across the country. She also had served as an adjunct professor at Michigan State University’s Institute of International Health and currently teaches graduate courses at Bayan Claremont Theological School in affiliation with the Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1997, she co-founded the Young Muslim Association, now known as the Muslim Youth Connection, and serves as Senior Advisor providing leadership training to youth.

In 2020, she was recognized in People Magazine’s Women Changing the World issue, featured in the Smile with Lay’s campaign, named a Detroit News Michiganian of the Year, and inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Bazzy has been profiled on CBS 62’s “Eye On The Future: The Power of Women” along with Suzanne Shank, Mary Barra, Gretchen Valade, and Andra Rush. She was featured on a United Way of Southeast Michigan billboard as a source of inspiration to Detroit-area youth. She and her family appeared in the PBS film “Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet,” which was viewed by over 15 million people when it premiered in the U.S. and has been seen by hundreds of millions worldwide since.