Zobia Akhtar
Program Operations | Community & Customer Experience | Research & Communications
Hire this person
Send a job offer directly to this candidate
About
Multidisciplinary professional with 5+ years of experience across higher education, healthcare, technology, research, and entrepreneurship. Experienced in program coordination, stakeholder management, community and customer engagement, qualitative research, digital communications, event execution, and cross-functional operations. MA-trained counselor with a background in sociology, anthropology, and psychology, bringing a people-centered approach to understanding needs, managing complexity, and improving experiences.
Experience
Program Coordinator — Women's Center at Wake Forest University (2023-01 – 2025-12)
- Designed programs reaching 200+ students annually, supervised 8 interns, and coordinated events, stakeholder relationships, logistics, and shared-space operations.
Program Coordinator — LGBTQ+ Center at Wake Forest University (2024-01 – 2025-12)
- Planned 10+ annual programs, built 15+ partnerships, and managed multi-platform communications that contributed to a 50% increase in engagement and attendance.
Founder & Owner at Saaya Home (2025-01 – Present)
- Founded and operate a DTC e-commerce business, managing Shopify, vendors, inventory, fulfillment, customer experience, branding, and marketing.
ARCH Intern at Atrium Health (2022-01 – 2023-12)
- Provided trauma-informed support and coordinated psychosocial care for 100+ patients across multidisciplinary healthcare teams.
Digital Media Strategist at US Mobile (2020-01 – 2021-12)
- Coordinated digital marketing initiatives, analyzed customer feedback and performance, and contributed to approximately 20% growth in brand visibility and engagement.
Mental Health Intern at Interactive Research and Development (2019-01 – 2020-12)
- Conducted community-based qualitative research and supported mental-health programming for underserved populations.
Research Assistant — Systematic Review
- Contributed to literature review, data cleaning, coding, analysis, evidence synthesis, citation management, drafting, and editing for a published mental-health systematic review.
Education
MA in Counseling – Wake Forest University
BA in Sociology/Anthropology; Minor in Psychology – Lahore University of Management Sciences
