Afeefa Syeed is a cultural anthropologist who has worked for the past 30 years with nonprofits, government agencies, and international organizations to implement an understanding of cultural context and religious literacy in their programs and policies. She focuses on social-political identity and self-determination in women’s leadership, social entrepreneurship, educational innovation, engaging religious and traditional leaders, and religious freedom and expression. Afeefa served as Senior Advisor at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), was a Scholar Consultant for the Carter Center, and is presently Research Associate with Cambridge University’s Institute on Religion & Global Affairs, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, Advisory Council Member for Center for Women, Faith and Leadership and served as Board member for the UN Association of the National Capital Area where she focused on bringing the Sustainable Development Goals home to the US. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Ghazali Children’s Project at Fons Vitae. She founded a model independent school whose core curriculum for the past 25 years has included peace education, service-in-action, and place-based learning. The school has been an incubator for innovative practices in integrated learning and teaching, including creating a curriculum to teach religious studies in a holistic manner. In 2024, Afeefa established the Center for Innovative Religious Education (CIRE) as an incubation hub that creates dynamic curricula meeting the challenges and needs of our changing times, promotes engaged teaching, and cultivates an integrated worldview. Afeefa lives in the Washington, DC area with her family, which includes 3 grandchildren (so far).