Leila is a queer Muslim immigrant, community organizer and resource mobilizer living on occupied Pocomtuc and Nipmuc lands in the Connecticut River Valley. Their 12+ years of movement work resides at the intersections of reproductive justice, racial justice, gender equity, arts-based activism, philanthropy & grantmaking, leadership development, transformative & healing justice. Most recently, Leila provided development, grantmaking & fundraising consulting to The Art Angels, Medicine Bowl Giving Circle, PRBB Foundation, ARC- SE, and Jane Doe, Inc. They are the current Board Co-Chair of Mirror Memoirs, and former Director and Leadership Team Member of Survivor Theatre Project.

Leila has experience in designing and facilitating innovative, QTBIPOC-led participatory grantmaking projects, and has advised private foundations in the redistribution of over $3.5M to community-based organizations and movement leaders across the globe, to date. They have a knack for assessing systems, and offering visionary recommendations to deepen synergy and expand organizational capacity. Their work is informed by their academic research on transnational solidarity, abolitionist interventions to the carceral state, intergenerational trauma & healing, systemic sexual violence, critical race, gender & queer theories. Leila is a seasoned full-spectrum doula, having attended over 50 births in the U.S, Honduras, Haiti, and Bangladesh. 

Leila holds an MS in Law from Western New England University School of Law, a MA in Gender/Cultural Studies from Simmons University, & a BA from Clark University in Sociology and Gender Studies.