Nishath Azad is a program specialist, writer, actor, drummer, and community advocate. She received her Bachelor of Arts in communications from SUNY Geneseo and returned to her hometown of Queens, New York to work as a community liaison for her home district with the New York City Council. In this role, she secured funding for hundreds of arts and advocacy organizations, and helped block Amazon’s attempt to create a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. She has experience in public service as a community organizer and program coordinator for various campaigns and nonprofits, including the LGBT Asylum Project, where she oversaw the fundraising of $20,000 routed to the South Asian queer and transgender community through a partnership with the LGBT Asylum Project and Parivar Bay Area. After traveling across the country,  she served as a substitute teacher in the Alameda K–12 public schools, where she saw that the education disparities in the Bay Area are as glaring as those in the public schools she attended in New York. Since relocating she has been writing for several theaters in San Francisco and Oakland. Nishath values her role as an educator and liaison for the Bengali, Muslim, and queer communities, and is eager to help all marginalized students get access to a resource-filled future.