Born in Pakistan and raised in California, Dr. Shaikh now calls Connecticut home. An expert in organizational theory and behavior, she completed her dissertation on the intersection of racial identity and relationships in developing culturally responsive classrooms. She holds two bachelor’s from the University of California, Berkeley in Political Science and Near Eastern Studies – Islamic Civilizations with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. She has two masters, one in Urban Studies from Johns Hopkins and one in Social Policy and Management from Brandeis University. Her PhD is in Social Policy and Management from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management. She is passionate about anti-racism and equity and is completing her certification for Diversity and Inclusion through eCornell.

Dr. Shaikh has over ten years of experience working in education policy, research and program management and operations. She was a 2011 Teach for America corps member where she taught high school in east Baltimore for two years. Teach for America is an organization dear to her. She has served within staff as a Manager, Teacher Leadership Development and continued to provide contract support in various capacities to the admissions and operations team. At Brandeis University, she worked in higher education as an Assistant Area Coordinator, writing tutor and a teaching facilitator for the Leader Scholar Community, a course geared for high-achieving freshman students.

Dr. Shaikh has received numerous fellowships throughout her professional career. She was a fellow at the Aspen Institute, the Harvard Kennedy School Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, Achievement First, Leadership for Educational Equity and more recently, serves as an InSPIRE fellow through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

She is currently the Director of School Operations in Springfield Public Schools and is thrilled to be part of the 50CAN family.

Her life’s biggest accomplishment is being a wife and mother. She is mother to twin 2.5-year-olds, Amal & Amin, who are smart, articulate and empathetic beings. Her husband, Dr. Rayhan Shaikh, is a grounding force in her life and works for Pfizer.