Introducing Our First Wonderful Woman of WOC™: Khayriyyah MuhammadSmith
We have been teeming with excitement to announce our very first Wonderful Woman of WOC™ and now, we are pleased to present our first honoree of the WOC community — Khayriyyah MuhammadSmith!
Meet Khayriyyah MuhammadSmith, our first Wonderful Woman of WOC™
Khayriyyah is a passionate philanthropic professional focused on gender justice and the empowerment of girls and women of color across the globe. She has worked in the philanthropic and the nonprofit sector for the past 12 years (starting as a youth grantmaker in a participatory grantmaking program), with public foundations, family foundations, and funder collaboratives across the U.S. and in the U.K. with a thematic focus on youth empowerment, next-gen, gender justice, and education initiatives both domestically and abroad.
In addition to her professional experience, Khayriyyah earned a BA in International Relations and French. She is also a graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London, where she earned her MA in Human Rights, Culture, and Social Justice. There her research focused on girl’s education and the power dynamics that result from the neocolonial approach to cross-cultural exchange between girls in the global North and South.
Currently, Khayriyyah is working with Ashinaga USA as their Associate Director, Professional and Leadership Training. She supports the funding of scholarships for high-achieving, low-income students from sub-Saharan Africa attending university abroad.
