Ensights Magazine

Rashed Fakhruddin ’83

Alumni Profiles: Rashed Fakhruddin ’83 and Real Men Wear Pink

Editorial Staff
Three Ensworth Alumni share their experiences of working for non-profits.
Give us an overview of your journey since Ensworth.
Upon graduating from Ensworth, during the summer of 1983, I decided to choose electrical engineering as my career (thanks to Mr. Kautzman). I had gone from a C+/B average Math student to suddenly a straight-A student in Math. My elder cousin told me if I was good in Math, I should consider electrical engineering because it had been a great field the previous 30 years and would remain that way for the next 30 years.
 
I attended Vanderbilt University for undergrad and Georgia Tech for graduate studies, where I was a teaching assistant and also co-oped at IBM. In 1995, NES called me to see if I was interested in a job opening that fit my specialization in power. I ended up making my way back to Nashville, and that was THE BEST decision of my life! Through NES, I have been serving as a business partner with the Nashville Chamber’s Academies of Nashville Engineering Partnership Council since 2009. Our council helped launch the annual Career Exploration Fair for all the Freshmen in Metro Nashville Public Schools. I also have the opportunity to speak to the majority of freshmen in our district on professional and life skills, preparing students for success in high school, college, the workplace, and life. I gave the same presentation to the freshmen at Ensworth several years ago and hope to again.
 
I got married shortly after moving back to Nashville and now have three kids: Maryam, a trauma therapist, Yusuf, a senior at Belmont, and Imran, a junior at Valor Collegiate. I decided to get more involved with the community and started off with my mosque, the Islamic Center of Nashville. Over the last 25 years, my major role has been focused on the area of community partnerships. I have been working towards building bridges with the community and educating people about Islam and Muslims, helping break down the stereotypes and misconceptions that exist regarding our faith. Ensworth’s 7th graders have engaged with and visited our center every year since the early 2000s. 
 
In 2000, I was invited to serve on Nashville Public Television’s Community Advisory Board. Around the same time, I got involved with PENCIL (which links community resources with schools) by becoming a reading partner at an underserved school which was adopted by NES. From that time, my community involvement took a huge turn.
 
I have been serving on the board of You Have The Power since 2014. Founded by Andrea Conte, the former first lady to Governor/Mayor Phil Bredeson, its mission is to empower those victimized by crime (e.g. via domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, etc.) through education, advocacy, and understanding. I have also been serving on the board of the YWCA whose mission is to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. I am an ambassador of the YWCA’s AMEND Together initiative which is a primary prevention initiative dedicated to ending violence toward women and girls by engaging men and boys to help change the culture that supports it. 
 
I am currently an honorary co-chair of PENCIL’s endowment initiative while I co-chaired their annual Back to School Breakfast in 2020.  
 
Tell us about your current role and what it entails.
I was invited to serve as a Real Men Wear Pink candidate by the American Cancer Society’s Tennessee chapter in 2019.  I took on this task because my elder cousin, whom I deem as an older sister/mentor, was diagnosed with breast cancer. I saw her personally have to fight via chemo and radiation and felt like I needed to get engaged for her. Three years into this campaign, my cousin’s fight and all the other survivors keep my passion kindled to continue engaging in Real Men Wear Pink. The fact that over a quarter-million women detect breast cancer in the US every year and over 40,000 die from it is a reminder of the early stages of COVID, when we would hear such similar daunting statistics and freak out. But this happens to women every day, every year, and needs the same sense of urgency as was present during COVID!

Last year, I was asked to co-chair Real Men Wear Pink with NFL Hall of Fame candidate and Titans all-time leading receiver in yards Derrick Mason, who is also a parent of Ensworth alumni. I helped reach out to many friends to bring in more candidates. Police Chief John Drake, NBA great and Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball head coach Jerry Stackhouse and even former Ensworth football coach Ben Zoeller were among the 60 plus candidates. Together, the Nashville campaign raised over $175,000 through 48 candidates, finishing 13th out of 130 ACS chapters.
 
In 2020, as part of my Real Men Wear Pink campaign, I put together a Fitness Crawl to Fight Breast Cancer, and during the 2nd year of the crawl, we engaged 17 fitness studios with 34 pink events. The intent was not only to help bring awareness and funds towards the fight against breast cancer, but also to get people to stay physically and emotionally healthy via exercise and, at the same time, help support the fitness studios which had challenges as small businesses due to COVID.  The crawl created an opportunity to try out different types of workouts and possibly discover a workout that suits one’s interests to stay healthy, as a healthy lifestyle is a big part of cancer prevention. Barre3 Brentwood, co-owned by Ensworth alumni Francie Fisher, was among the studios that participated. I have always had a passion for fitness and sports. In 7th grade, I broke the Physical Fitness record at Ensworth (to only have it broken by Mr. Inman’s son Matt the following year).
 
How did your Ensworth experience help inspire or cultivate an interest in service/ non-profits?
What has helped me in my journey to engage with the community are some of the foundations that I can attribute to my time at Ensworth. Ensworth was like a mini-college with lots of pressure when I first arrived in fifth grade. My four rigorous years, balancing academics and sports (I played football, basketball, soccer, baseball, and track), really set the stage for being able to balance an incredibly busy lifestyle including family life and my profession and non-profit/service work. I have also been able to stay in touch with many friends from Ensworth who are engaged in the community, as well. It all feeds off each other.
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Ensworth is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade, independent day school.