Meet Dr. Abdulbari Musa Ansari, JD a 1964 Alumnus from Elizabeth, NJ. Abdulbari currently lives in Buckingham, Va. and was inducted into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.
Abdulbari has been many things in life, those of which he has listed here:
1960-64 NMU Student-Athlete and Undergraduate,
1964 Husband,
1964 NMU Alumnus, Secondary School Math Teacher,
1966 First-Time-Father, Assistant Bank Manager, Deputy Director-New Careers, Assistant to Director-Labor Relations Bureau, Administrative Hearing Officer, Deputy Director-Central Data Processing, Attorney-At-Law, CMU Adjunct Professor- Business Law and Political Policy, Director–Central Data Processing,
1997 Retiree -Early Retirement, CMU Attorney for Charter Schools, CMU Assistant Director- Charter School Board of Directors Training and Compliance, Migration to Virginia Community-of-Birth, Senior Public Policy Analyst, Senior Human Rights Advocate, Assistant Director-State Human Rights, Supervisor-Workforce Investment Act Services, Social Services Adverse Enforcement Consultant, Regional Human Rights Manager,
2006 Retiree, Director - Community Support Services,
2012 Retiree, Chairperson – Hillsboro Community Center,
2022 NMU Sports Hall of Fame Inductee.
Brief Description of What You Do
What do I do? I try to remain conscious of what is important as I balance the interplay of Time, Place and Message. Messages are invitations to act or refrain from acting. The Message may have been received as a child, adolescent, adult, student, employee, competitor, friend, significant other, etc. The Messages are like seeds planted in your memory waiting to inspire your decision to act, at-any-point-in-time, at-any-place, during-any-interaction, during-any-event.
So, what do I do? I try to understand and - Listen to the Messages that Encourage me to do better today than I did yesterday, and to do better tomorrow than I did today.
What at NMU helped you most in your current role?
The aspiring nurture of NMU’s ethos and community culture: NMU provided the academic opportunities for me to discover within myself how to acquire knowledge independently as well as with instruction, and how to recognize and use the personal skills needed to apply that knowledge in a manner that creatively contributes towards an organizational group’s mission to the full extent of my acquired abilities.
What advice would you give current students?
My Advice: Know what is Important -Time, Place and Messages. Time is important. Place is important. Messages are important. Understand and then remain conscious of the interplay of Time, Place and Message.
The interplay of these three factors can determine where you go and what you do when you get there.
We measure our life within segments of time. We record private memories within segments of time and the place of the recording may not be as important as the event remembered.
We and others record public memories (group memories) within segments of time and the place of the event may be as important as the event remembered. These memories contain messages.
Messages given and received occur within segments of time. The messages are like seeds planted within your memory, each waiting for its opportunity to inspire future actions in a place that is different from the place in which the messages was given and received.
My advice to current and future NMU students is this: Listen to the Messages that Encourage you to do better today than you did yesterday, and to do better tomorrow than you did today.
These Messages are the Seeds that will continue to Inspire-you and Empower-you the rest of your life.
For example, my uncle said, “Learn everything you can, you never know how you might have to earn your livelihood”. I became a seeker of knowledge. My father said, “If you have the money you can go any place you want, just let me know where you are going and when you will be back.” I started earning and saving money from that moment until now.
Are there personal interests and/or activities you care to share?
I am always interested in activities that offer individuals a beneficial learning experience along their journey in life. Those activities include, but are not limited to family gatherings, group celebrations, teaching, writing messages of support and encouragement, reading about scientific discoveries, traveling within and outside the USA to experience what The Creator has created and what human beings have accomplished.
