Zobia Akhtar

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.

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.

MA in Counseling – Wake Forest University

BA in Sociology/Anthropology; Minor in Psychology – Lahore University of Management Sciences