I'm Zakareya Hamed, a Virginia-based student leader, policy analyst, and civic strategist at Carnegie Mellon University. I actively analyze how resource distribution occurs in state education, targeting funding allocations and the political incentives acting on key public stakeholders.

I frequently provide commentary on critical public issues—authoring pieces for Watch Us Rise and Edisco on topics spanning the preservation of public education, Title I funding, voting rights, and the complex intersections of public policy and technology.

Currently, I serve as a Europe Studies Fellow at the Babel Institute researching European AI governance, and as a 2026 Summer Analyst at Mezoui Consulting Group focusing on philanthropic and nonprofit management advisory for charities, foundations, and DAFs.

My analytical rigor is informed by my time at the Enterprise Digitalization Office of the IRS—working on AI tools as a modernization intern—and my current pursuit of an economics and political science degree at Carnegie Mellon University. As a chief architect of the Saphron Initiative, I continue to drive systemic education reform through policy expansion across multiple states, and I proudly serve on the editorial board of the CMU Policy & Law Review.