Zara Safiullah is a Senior Associate at Tusk Strategies focused on the Transportation and Infrastructure Innovation Practice.

Prior to joining Tusk, Zara served as a Lead Consultant for UN Migration (IOM) on a good governance design and environmental security project and led research initiatives into AI-based systems for counter-terrorism tracking and deterrence. She is a former Regional Caucus Director for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and most notably secured Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and led racial health disparity mechanisms for Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 response.

With extensive experience across policy and communications, she helped flip Pennsylvania blue while working on a rapid-response campaign focusing on multimedia content to energize the American Muslim youth vote during the 2020 Presidential Election.

Zara holds an M.A in International Affairs focusing on Global Governance, Politics, and International Security from American University School of International Service, where she served as Senior Editor on the Journal of International Service and received the Dean’s List Award. During her program, she won Washington DC’s Model G20 Best Delegate and Best Delegation Award. She also holds former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s Civic Engagement Award for her work leading youth racial equity programming and a Citation of Recognition from the City of Philadelphia for her work on City Council. She also holds a B.A in Political Science from Temple University.

Zara is also an avid reader, poet, artist, and pianist. She is based out of the New York City office.