Terry Ahwal was born in Ramallah and immigrated to Detroit, Michigan, in 1972. A graduate of the University of Michigan, her extensive career includes being the first Palestinian-American to be appointed as an Assistant County Executive in the largest county in the state of Michigan, serving as a vice president of the Detroit Medical Center and on numerous nonprofit and governmental boards, as well as being elected president of the American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine. She helps local and national nonprofits with their business plans and has been banned from entering Palestine for ten years.