Luma Mufleh is the inspirational CEO and Founding Director of Fugees Family, Inc., a nonprofit organization that uses the power of soccer, education and community to empower refugee children to successfully integrate into the United States. Luma is a 2016 Top 10 CNN Hero whose story has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, ESPN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, Forbes and more. She speaks regularly at universities and conferences. According to Tom Brokaw, the Fugees are “a perfect example of what this nation is supposed to be about, which is to provide a refuge for the refugees.”

The Fugees’ story began in 2004, when Luma took a wrong turn while driving through the town of Clarkston, Georgia and noticed a group of boys playing soccer in the street. She learned that these children were refugees from war-town countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Burma, Somalia and Sudan. That summer, Luma made fliers announcing tryouts for the Fugees soccer team. In the years that followed, the soccer team grew into something much larger — a school, a tutoring program, a summer camp, a college prep program, and, most importantly, a community and support network. 

A lifelong social entrepreneur, Luma has created several programs and initiatives that have gainfully employed, educated and empowered refugees and immigrants in her community and beyond, with the Fugees Academy serving as a national model for refugee education. While only 20 percent of refugee students graduate from high school in Georgia’s DeKalb County, the Fugees Academy has a 100 percent graduation rate. These types of results helped earn Luma the 2016 Cournelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship from the Manhattan Institute.

A Jordanian immigrant and Muslim of Syrian descent, Luma received her U.S. citizenship in 2011. Her story – and the story of the Fugees – illustrates both the American dream and the very real challenges of integration and discrimination that so many face today. Luma received her B.A. in Anthropology from Smith College and recently completed the Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  

Select Awards and Honors

• CNN Heroes Top Ten 2016
• Manhattan Institute Award in Social Entrepreneurship 2016
• National Council of Jewish Women, Hannah G. Solomon Award 2017
• Honorary Law Degree, Agnes Scott College, 2014
• Groundbreakers Award, 2014
• Smith College Rally Day Medal, 2009
• Hank’s Heroes, 2011
• Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award, 2008
• Common Ground Award, 2009