Zakiya joined MVP in August of 2020. Amidst a global pandemic; online school; and a country in turmoil, she was buoyed by her desire to build community, and the opportunity to mobilize resources. Whilst her primary focus is the north-eastern region, she proudly led the donor-team’s efforts to mobilize $10M to Georgia-based organizations, in the two months following the November election.
Over her 20-year career, Zakiya led teams and projects across Alabama, Chicago, Bermuda and NYC and her work spanned the nonprofit sector; private entities; local governments; as well as for quasi-non-governmental organizations. Guided by her training as a clinical therapist, her years working in fundraising, centered around advancing LGBTQI protections, through the lens of race and gender, and has included the Astraea Lesbian Foundation, and Lambda Legal. Zakiya is a founding board member of OUTBermuda, and she served on BYP100’s inaugural C3 board. When not working, you can find Zakiya playing tennis, writing snail mail, or looking for worthy Scrabble opponents.
Zakiya proudly hails from the tiny island of Bermuda, where she was born and raised. She presently resides in Washington DC with her wife, where they are raising their 7-year old son — who is Black boy joy, and magic.