Akron Life December 2023

thoughtful, systematic change looks like … building a downtown people want to come to and feel safe. … If people feel safe, we can be more of a destination than Cuyahoga Falls, Kent and other places. They’re eating our lunch now.” After decades of status quo leadership in Akron, it needs innovative ideas. Malik is determined to lead the city to its full potential as a place where everyone feels like they belong. “My entire life Akron has lost population, and we’ve struggled. There’s a lot of bright spots, but we don’t have a common vision,” Malik says. “I can put forward a vision — no matter what part of town you’re from, no matter what brings you to the table, you could be a part of Akron’s future.” MALIK AND HIS BROTHER, NAJJAM , grew up visiting The University of Akron, where their mom, Helen Killory Qammar, taught chemical engineering. At her office, Malik often saw her locked in conversation with colleagues, gestur ing and smiling. “Her life was about service,” he says. “Her life was about doing some thing you loved and using it to give back to other people. That made a huge impression on me.” Growing up as a biracial Muslim kid with a white Irish mom who con verted to being Muslim and a Pakistani immigrant father, Malik felt like he didn’t fit in. “I felt different because I was a different religion,” he recalls. “Then when I go to the mosque, I have a white mom, and most people’s par ents are both immigrants.” When he was 10, terrorists attacked the U.S. on 9/11. “I was trying to understand the terrible thing that happened,” Malik says. “It caused me to learn more about international relations and foreign policy.” That drive deepened on a freezing March day during high school. He waited around the block of the John S. Knight Center for hours to see then-presidential candidate Barack Obama speak, and his words inspired Malik. “He called people to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” he says. “Government can be a force for good.” At Firestone High School, Malik was a standout student involved in the pre-engineering program, mock trial, academic challenge, tennis and the debate team on which he showed off his budding speaking skills. “He was able to cut to the heart of any argument or discussion,” recalls Judith Harrison, his former teacher and International Baccalaureate diploma program coordinator. “Shammas was one of the quieter stu dents but was still able to have his voice heard. He garnered the respect of his classmates as well as his teachers.” While he was excelling, his world was crashing down. During his junior year, his mother — who had been raising him and Najjam alone since separating from their father about seven years back — was battling cancer. And it hurt when it came to light that his dad had a double life. His dad was arrested by the FBI for wire fraud charges that involved blackmail, and he had other children.

In a stunning moment of vulnerability, Malik spoke about his dad, who he doesn’t have a relationship with anymore, during the second mayoral debate in April and was shaken when answering a question about integrity. “I have a father who is a very dishonest guy. This impacted me a lot as a kid. I talked to my dad through prison glass,” he said. “It has guided my life to live every day with honesty.” Malik focused on his schoolwork and graduated as a valedictorian and National Honor Society member, and earned the rigorous International Baccalaureate diploma, which requires 150 hours of community service. “That’s where he probably learned to give back,” says Robert Zupke, former Firestone assistant principal. His growing interest in politics spurred him to major in political science and international studies at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Malik was an Undergraduate Student Government senator, International Studies Honors Society president and intern for former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s unsuccessful reelection campaign. But trag edy struck again his senior year — his mother died when he was only 21. “That deeply changed him,” says Meghan Meeker, friend and Ward 8 constituent. “She was everything — an example of a brilliant, academic mind but also civic-minded and a teacher.” He threw himself back into his studies and had a bright turn, graduat ing cum laude from Harvard Law School and interning in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Defense Department at the Pentagon, Center for American Progress and Muslim Public Affairs Council. But he wanted to make an impact in his hometown, so he returned to Akron. In 2016, he became a lawyer and assistant director of law for the Akron law department. “In college and law school, I thought I would work in Washington. … But ultimately I thought, Why don’t I do it back home? ” he recalls. “I could have more of a happy, thriving life here than in D.C.” Losing his role model factored into his decision to carry on his moth er’s legacy here. “I’m sure that’s part of him coming back to Akron,” says Meeker, “to honor her and help build up the city that she loved and he loves.” ON A BONE - CHILLING DAY IN 2019 , Malik and Meeker bundled up and knocked on doors in her Northwest Akron neighborhood, canvassing for his Ward 8 council campaign. Residents were inviting them in to share hot chocolate. But he already had so many connections. “He knew every house, every person, what their interests were. It was like a ‘Rain Man’ level of knowledge,” she says. “I love watching people drop their defenses in front of him once they see his genuine interest in them and the city.” Ever since Meeker met him in 2017 while they were in the Torchbearers young professionals leadership group, Malik has been

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DECEMBER 2023 | akronlife.com