Zainab Azim, Milton’s Citizen of the Year who started the “Meet Milton” initiative, is a graduate and Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, teaching policy analysis, economics, and organizing people-powered movements.
As an educator and in her organizing work, which involves Leadership Development trainings she is bringing to her hometown of Milton for all ages through Learn to Lead, she understands the power of storytelling, which she is demonstrating through Meet Milton.
“There is a reason that we teach our children lessons about life through stories, and even across faiths, we don’t give a list of instructions. Stories allow us to show, not just tell, the values, morals and lessons we aspire to live by,” says Zainab.
“By sharing the stories of our neighbors who are trying to make this world a bit of a better place, not only are we able to show what makes Milton home the people – but also bring others into the conversation so that they may see themselves in each other. They may not be sitting right there in our signature
green chairs with us, but by inviting others into a public conversation, we hope to show our common humanity, our collective hopes, cares, and dreams, that we have more in common than we do apart when we sit down and build a real human relationship. Relationships based on values, not transactions, are
the foundation of people-power in organizing. Stories enable us to build relationships across time and space by understanding each others shared values.”
Why does this matter? “At a time that requires unity and community rather than division and despair, the lesson we are trying to show is that the hope we seek in this world where there is so much hurt and harm happening, it does not live somewhere out there. Hope is built right here – starting at home, in ourselves, with our neighbors, in this town. Because hope, organizing and people-power first and foremost start with: Who are our People? Not with some consultants or ‘experts’ in suits strategizing in a boardroom, but with everyday people in the streets having conversations with their neighbors.”
Her hope? “That this moves people to meet with their own neighbors and build real relationships based on values not just through a screen, to create hope not as something we feel but as something we do, something we build, something we practice, together.”
More about Zainab:
Having most recently been on the Zohran Mamdani campaign in New York, her experience spans academia in developmental Neuroscience, government through the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance’s Office of Canada, the United Nations Space4Women in STEM program, and nonprofits like the Urban Alliance for Race Relations and the National Education Policy Centre.
She is a published researcher and author of three books on education, including an upcoming book with
her team at the Harvard Kennedy School on people-based politics in the Mamdani campaign. Zainab was raised in Milton by her grandmother, a fellow educator, where she was recognized as Milton’s Citizen of the Year. She first learned the power of organizing at her local Montessori school and playing for Milton United’s soccer team.
She is committed to building people’s collective capacity and leadership to create change in their communities through Learn to Lead – offering workshops based on the Harvard pedagogy and learnings from the field, starting in her hometown of Milton to give forward.
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