Saffet Abid Catovic is an American Muslim of Bosnian-Anglo descent. He has an MBA and worked for a major New York-based US corporation as budget director until 1992, when he left his career to help free the people of his ancestral Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this regard, he served in several senior level capacities in the Bosnian government. After completing his tenure of service to the people of Bosnia in 2001, he continued to work to alleviate the suffering of people victimized by war, poverty, and natural disasters by working as a director for an international humanitarian organization. Currently, he is a management consultant in the area of commercial real estate management and investment.

He also serves on the boards of several institutions including: The Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University; Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop #114 (New Jersey's First Official Muslim Boy Scout Troop); and executive board member and religious emblems chair of the National Committee on Islamic Scouting (NCIS). He is also a contributing scholar to the MAPS (Muslims in the American Public Square) project of The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has worked in the area of religious education including as an adjunct teacher of Religious Studies in Noor-Ul-Iman School for over 15 years (a position he left in June 2012 to complete his course work towards his PhD). He along with his wife and two other community members from the Islamic Society of Central Jersey (ISCJ) co-authored the weekend school's Islamic studies textbook series I am a Muslim.   

"Education is the greatest tool which one can use to change the world. So I deeply thank ISNA and the Aziz Jamaluddin family for believing in me by extending the scholarship for this academic year. "