Being in love with helping others, Suad Mohamed has always worked in positions where she was serving the community. This proud Somali-American got her first job in her native country, Somalia as a Mental Health Psychosocial Support Case Worker after getting her BS in Biology and Chemistry at the Somali National University.

She came to America in 2000 as a Somali refugee to start her new life with her 2 children while pregnant with her son Omar soon to be 20 years old. She initially resettled in Ohio and relocated to St. Cloud, MN in 2001. There she met and worked with Geneva Cole as one of the first members of SASSO, advocating for the Somali women.

She pursued her dreams to continually serve and help others here in her new homeland. Suad is multilingual so she used her skills to become an interpreter to help others settle to the states and worked as a doula assisting pregnant women. In 2003, she opened her first store in Minneapolis, MN, where she provided modest clothing to her community since there were not many options available.

After opening the store, Suad saw that a lot of women in her community needed support and that caused her to start her own organization, the Somali Advocacy Literacy and Mentoring (SALAM) to provide education and to advocate for new immigrant families.

After the success of her store, she went back to teaching Arabic to high school students at a local school in Minneapolis. That is where Suad learned about a neighborhood food shelf and she worked there as a food shelf coordinator for two years. Currently, Suad is helping her community by practicing as a mental health practitioner and providing services to improve individual’s mental health.