Name: Zubair Merchant

Recipient Year: 2023

Major: Public Policy

Description: Zubair Merchant (he/him) is a current Masters in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. He attended the University of Chicago for college and then organized students around supporting progressive candidates and voter turnout as a campus organizer for the Bernie Sanders 2020 primary campaign and later the Youth Vote Director for Biden for Pennsylvania in the 2020 general election. He then worked as Chief of Staff to State Senator Cynthia Mendes of Rhode Island, later becaming the deputy campaign manager for her Lt. Governor bid in 2022. He was also managed New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s successful re-election bid in 2022. Zubair most recently took his public service back to the classroom as an AmeriCorps member with City Year New York where he worked closely with third graders in an elementary school in East Harlem to provide tutoring, emotional and social learning support, and classroom administration support. He enjoys watching the Yankees and the NBA in his free time.

School Name: Harvard Kennedy School

Sponsor: Alassar Family Scholarship

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zm291197/