Shahanaz is a passionate educator, facilitator and cat mother. She is an idealist who believes in the ethical obligation of every human to do good and help their fellow human and the rest of existence thrive. She grew up in 6 different states in northeast India and is a proud representative of the culture and values of northeast India. She holds a Masters in Biotechnology. Being a first generation, she observed the impact of educational inequity very closely, and this motivated her to work in the development sector.

She started her journey as a Teaching Fellow with Teach for India and taught 60 amazing students. During her second year of fellowship, the pandemic hit, and schools closed down. In order to make education accessible to students and support community development, she started Panaah Community Centers and worked with children, youth, and parents of 2 low-income communities. To support further work in Community Development and education she moved on to work as a Consultant with Teach for India and Yojak.

Being a believer in system transformation to be the long term solution to inequity and poverty she restarted her work with school development in conflict regions and is now working with SEF

As a child Shahanaz spent many hours aimlessly wandering around forests and collecting leaves. She loves capturing nature through her lens and cooking regional food passed down to her from different cultures.