Sahar Shirazi is an immigrant, a feminist, and a pragmatic activist. Professionally, she serves as a senior planning advisor at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in Sacramento. With a systems thinking approach and a goal of policy implementation, she focuses on the intersections of ...
Read moreSahar Shirazi is an immigrant, a feminist, and a pragmatic activist. Professionally, she serves as a senior planning advisor at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in Sacramento. With a systems thinking approach and a goal of policy implementation, she focuses on the intersections of sustainability, land use, transportation, and equity at the local, state, and international level. Previously, Sahar was a policy analyst for the Office of the Secretary at USDOT and a policy lead at the Office of Management and Budget at the White House during the Obama Administration. Sahar received her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and her Master’s in Public Policy from Mills College in Oakland, CA. She moved to DC as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2011 and moved back to CA in 2015. Despite the excitement of her experiences in DC, Sahar was ecstatic to return to California, where she had lived since immigrating to the US at age 5. Her early childhood in Iran during a war, families prolonged escape to the United States, and the challenges faced through her adolescence helped shape her passion for public service.
Sahar currently lives in Oakland, where she dedicates her free time to local, national, and international causes through groups she serves on such as Solidarity Sundays, Bike East Bay, and various advisory committees, and independent benefits she throws with her extended community.
To keep herself sane, she cooks giant meals for friends, plays with her 2 cats, and goes on lazy bike rides.