Leila is a queer Muslim immigrant, community organizer and resource mobilizer living on occupied Eno, Saponi, Occaneechi and Tuscarora lands. Their 13+ 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. In recent years, Leila has provided development, grantmaking & fundraising consulting to The Art Angels, Medicine Bowl Giving Circle, PRBB Foundation, ARC- SE, Jane Doe, Inc, Persimmon Collective Fund, and Open Architecture Collaborative. They are a Board Member 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 $10M 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.