Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson

Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson

Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson is a Southern California–based community leader and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist whose work is rooted in compassion, service, and collective care. With more than 16 years in the mental health field, she brings a healing-centered approach to supporting children, youth, and families within nonprofit systems of care.

Kameelah serves as Board President of the Altadena Library District, where she helps steward resources that foster learning, access, and community connection. Her commitment to service is also shaped by years of faith-based leadership at Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Altadena, whose loss in the recent fire deepened her dedication to resilience, remembrance, and communal healing.

Across all she does, Kameelah leads with a grounded spirit, guided by faith, clinical wisdom, and a deep belief in the power of community to heal and renew.

Speaker: Take Heart Now Stories

 

Michael Trice: Take Heart Now

Michael Trice: Take Heart Now

In this Take Heart Now recording, Michael Trice offers a thoughtful reflection on two forces shaping our lives and our world right now: cruelty and beauty.

Michael explores how cruelty shows up not only in overt harm, but in systems, language, and indifference—and how it erodes our shared humanity when left unnamed. Alongside this, he lifts up beauty as a counterweight: not as escapism, but as a practice of attention, care, and moral imagination that helps us stay human in the face of suffering.

Together, these reflections invite us to consider what it means to take heart—not by ignoring what is painful, but by choosing how we respond, what we notice, and what we nurture.

This conversation is part of Take Heart Now, The Guibord Center’s ongoing series creating space for reflection, courage, and connection in challenging times.

 

Marium Mohiuddin: Take Heart Now

Marium Mohiuddin: Take Heart Now

In this reflection, Marium Mohiuddin speaks about how Islam—and the way she was raised within it—has shaped who she is at her core. In moments of uncertainty or fracture, it is this grounding—rooted in faith, values, and community—that continues to steady her. Islam offers her a language for compassion, a rhythm for reflection, and a sense of belonging that helps her remain anchored, even when the world feels unsettled.

 

Emely Rauda

Emely Rauda

Emely Rauda is a Community Education Specialist at the UCLA Labor Center, where she leads the Nonviolence Education Project (NVEP), named in honor of Rev. James Lawson Jr. and Dolores Huerta. She previously spent three years as a teaching associate for UCLA’s Labor Studies courses, including ‘Nonviolence & Social Movements’ with Kent Wong and Rev. James Lawson Jr. Activities of the NVEP include promoting nonviolence education, hosting fellowships, conducting research, and supporting student-led movement building. 

Emely holds a Master’s of Public Health in Community Health Sciences from UCLA, and she earned her BA in Chicana/o Studies with double minors in Global Health and Labor & Workplace Studies.

Panelist: “The Transformative Power of Love”

Pamela Tom

Pamela Tom

Pamela Tom is a 5th-generation Chinese-American and Emmy award-winning filmmaker dedicated to creating thought-provoking stories that challenge and expand prevailing narratives of marginalized communities. Pam’s films have aired and streamed on PBS, the Criterion Channel, Amazon, and Showtime Networks and have screened in theaters and film festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Telluride, and New Directors/New Films at Lincoln Center.

Her award-winning feature documentary, TYRUS, about Chinese American artist and Disney Legend, Tyrus Wong, premiered on PBS’s American Masters series, and her film, Finding Home: A Foster Youth Story, won a 2019 Los Angeles Emmy and LA Press Club award.

Pam received her MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television and her BA from Brown University. She’s a member of the 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre Memorial Steering Committee.

Panelist: “The Transformative Power of Love”