A Brooklyn-based writer and urban planner, Nadia has deep experience directing learning experiences and leading complex company, sectoral, and cultural change efforts. Nadia is the Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions. 

Before this, Nadia was Associate Director for Learning and Equity at Living Cities. In this role, she led Living Cities' communications work, focused on harnessing the power of story, information, and technology to foster experimentation, co-creation, and adoption of promising approaches to address poverty and inequality in US cities. In support of this, she developed and implemented digital, content,community management, and event strategies to share what Living Cities is learning, and to learn from the work of others.

Nadia graduated from Pace University with a BA in Political Science and holds an MS from Hunter College’s Department of Urban Affairs and Planning. In addition to serving on the board of ioby, she is on the Millennial Advisory Committee of the Andrew Goodman Foundation, and on the Advisory Board of Fund Good Jobs. She believes that stories can change the world and loves working with organizations and individuals to create stories that engage, inspire, and spark action for a better world. Nadia is the author of the chapbook So Devilish a Fire and the award-winning and bestselling memoir Aftershocks, recognized by Malala Yousafzai and Barack Obama.

Her writing appears in The New York Times, The Paris Review Daily, Bon Appétit, The Washington Post’s The Lily, Epiphany, PBS NewsHour, The Rumpus, Gulf Coast, Orion, The Wall Street Journal, and Catapult. Nadia grew up in Rome, Addis Ababa, Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Kumasi, and London. She lives in Brooklyn where she can often be found writing at her favorite coffee shop.