Welcome to Community Care
A support service offering by Center DC
About Community Care
Because of Center DC’s unique focus on relationships as spiritual practice, supporting the whole individual is an essential part of creating the conditions where community can thrive. To do this, we have built out a multi-disciplinary team to support the spiritual and mental health of the Muslim community. Care may occur in 1:1 or group settings. As part of our offerings, this care is offered free of charge or at a seriously subsidized rate to make it accessible to all.
What is a chaplain?
A chaplain is a spiritual professional with unique skillsets, connected to spiritual and emotional care. Professional Muslim chaplains have a unique combination of seminary education, clinical pastoral education (CPE) with clinical supervision, and training in Islamic studies. They often work in hospitals, prisons, and universities. Lately, more and more Muslim communities are expanding their team to include chaplains as well! In January 2021, Center DC launched our very own community chaplaincy practice, thanks to a partnership with Hartford Seminary. In 2026, our team expanded to include a broader span of spiritual care providers: professional chaplains, social workers, coaches, scholars, and those trained in Islamic psychology and other healing modalities. We’ve also established partnerships with Ella Collins Institute to offer scholarly consultation and religious support and various mental health care providers for deeply subsidized referrals when required, so that when the need is beyond our scope, there’s still continuity of care Under the supervision of Center DC leadership, our care team will provide online support groups, in-person programing and 1:1 sessions for those seeking a wide range of spiritual support, God-willing! All of our care team members are members of the Association of Muslim Chaplains (AMC) and abide by their professional code of ethics. Read on to get to know our care team professionals and find out how you can take advantage of these offerings.
Meet Our Care Team
Center DC is excited to offer spiritual care, scholarly consultation, pastoral care sessions, support group facilitations, and forthcoming programming centering spiritual care and spiritual growth!
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Lauren Schreiber is the co-founder and executive director of Center DC, and is excited to expand her role and to serve as the resident chaplain for our community.
Lauren has a Masters of Arts in Chaplaincy with a focus on Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary, and completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at MedStar Washington Hospital Center under the mentorship of Ch. Tahara Akmal. Prior to that, she studied the personal obligations (Fard al Ayn) according to the Shafi'i school of thought under Shaykha Ieasha Prime and Usted Athman Jilo. She is on the Ethics Committee at the Association of Muslim Chaplains (AMC). She lives for strategic planning & culture creation in community spaces. Her most important (and favorite!) job is being a mom. You can often find her facilitating groups, talking about restorative justice and/or grief/death/dying, reading a Brene Brown book, building systems, writing music and making pupusas. She is a convert to Islam and especially loves learning about the paths others take in their respective faith journeys. Lauren lives in P.G. County, Maryland with her spunky daughter (Najia), her amazing husband (Muhammad Oda), and mom.
NOTE: Lauren’s 1:1 schedule is on a VERY limited availability after returning from maternity leave + caring for her new baby!
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Najiba is a chaplain and life coach who has been serving the Greater Boston Muslim community in various capacities for the past 20 years. She received her B.A. in Peace and Justice Studies from Wellesley College and her Masters in Social Work from Boston College. She holds a coaching certification at the associate level with Integral Coaching Canada. She has also studied under teachers from Boston Islamic Seminary and Fawakih Arabic Institute. She formerly served as Youth Director at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) and as the Muslim Chaplain at Wellesley College, Northeastern University, and Tufts University.
Najiba's passion is to facilitate pathways for people to discover and develop their whole selves - spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, intuitively and more. She believes that we each have our own unique path to forge when it comes to our journey to know ourselves and ultimately to know God. She also co-hosts the Muslim Enneagram podcast, which explores the connection between Islam and the ancient Enneagram symbol, which is said to be a roadmap for the journey of the soul towards the Divine essence.
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Chaplain Usama Malik is an Austin area native, having resided within the 512 for his whole life. Usama completed his undergraduate studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015. After graduation, Usama attended Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary for study as a chaplain, and graduated in May 2020 earning his Master of Divinity along with completing a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). He is completed a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary in 2021 and also serves as a chaplain for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Trinity University in San Antonio. Usama currently serves as the Program Coordinator for the Office of Student Affairs and Vocation at Austin Seminary, serving students from all backgrounds and helping them find their footing during seminary. Usama also currently serves as Secretary for the Association of Muslim Chaplains (AMC). Alongside his work and school, Usama specializes in the areas of organizational development and management, marketing, graphic design, and digital media. Outside of work and school, Usama has a passion for photography, traveling, hiking, and walking and is a proud parent along with his wife Sara to three rabbits: Raja, Quinn, and Truffles.