Saud Anwar

State Senator Saud Anwar was first elected to the Senate in February 2019 to represent the residents of the 3rd State Senate District towns of East Hartford, East Windsor, Ellington and South Windsor.

Saud was first elected to public office in 2011 as a member of South Windsor’s Town Council. He has served two terms as South Windsor mayor, once from 2013 to 2015 and once from 2017 to 2019.

Saud is a medical doctor with specializations in treating lung diseases and critical care medicine, occupational and environmental medicine. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Saud was trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine at, and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from, Yale University.

Saud also works with humanitarian and peace initiatives on a local, national and global scale. He has organized medical missions for disaster relief, receiving citations for doing so from former Governor Jodi Rell, United States Senator Richard Blumenthal and Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz.

In South Windsor, Saud is a founding member of the South Windsor Hunger Action Team, Zero Waste South Windsor and the South Windsor Alliance for Progress. He is also the founder of South Windsor Haiti School Inc., a board member of the South Windsor Community Foundation and is a former chair of the South Windsor Human Relations Commission.

In Connecticut, Saud is the former commissioner of Asian Pacific American Affairs and served on the Health Equity Leadership Council of Connecticut, CT Health Foundation, and State Emergency Response Commission.

Nationally, Saud has testified to the 109th Congress’s Committee on Homeland Security, coordinated volunteer response to September 11, served as a consultant to the FBI’s Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee and spoke at conferences for the Department of Homeland Security and the office of former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Internationally, Saud served on peace missions to Israel and the Middle East, as well as medical missions to Haiti and Pakistan after natural disasters in those countries. He has spoken at conferences for Friends of Europe – Brussels and the United States Mission to the European Union, served as a consultant for the British Department of Communities and Local Government, and was Chief Coordinator for the Conference on Understanding Radicalization and De-Radicalization Strategies, which was broadcast live throughout the world.

Saud has been recognized by the American Red Cross for his response to September 11 and received the FBI Director Robert Mueller Award for Community Leadership and Alliance Building, the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, the National Council of Community and Justice’s Human Relations Award, the Manchester Community College Leadership Award, the Department of Justice Attorney’s Office Community Service Award, the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut’s Trailblazer Award, the Eastern Connecticut Health Network member physicians’ Community Service Recognition Award and the Connecticut Bar Association’s Citizen for the Law Award.

Saud and his family, including wife Dr. Yusra Anis-Anwar, sons Taha and Taseen and his mother Zia Anwar, all live in South Windsor.