Zakiya Sankara-Jabar
Community Fellow, October - November 2025
Zakiya Sankara-Jabar leads the movement for educational justice in the United States by advocating for students and empowering parents. Zakiya’s tenacious spirit, insatiable curiosity and organizing acumen have elevated her from Ohio’s leading voice eradicating educational inequities to a national leading voice equipping Black parents with tools to drive sustainable change on a local, state, and national level.
Zakiya came to organizing, advocacy, and policy work organically as a parent shining a light on harmful school discipline policies that disproportionately impact Black students and their families in Ohio and now has worked in communities of all sizes across the country sharing tools, strategies and her story for working class
parents. She combined both her personal story, professional skills and network to found and lead Racial Justice NOW!, an organization that exists to eliminate anti-Black racism by transforming communities through organizing, advocacy and systemic policy & practices change.
Zakiya was named to the inaugural #Power50 Leadership Fellowship for women of color with Community Change, formerly The Center for Community Change. She has received many national recognitions, and her work has been featured in the HBO series, Wyatt Cenac Problem Areas. When not organizing parents or advocating for students, you will find Zakiya on conference stages across North America equipping audiences with her strategic frameworks for change. Outside of work Zakiya enjoys traveling and spending quality time with her husband & life partner Hashim Jabar and their five children.