About Maryam

In 2023, Maryam helped her fellow residents organize and raise their voices in support of freedom, safety, and opportunity for all. This work led to her being named one of the “Nashvillians of the Year” by the Nashville Scene. 

Maryam began on this path at age 24, when she traveled to Afghanistan to work for the United Nations and assist the Afghan government in rebuilding its war-damaged water infrastructure. Upon returning to the U.S., she obtained her master's degree in Public Administration with a focus on Public Economic Policy Management at Columbia University, and began work at the World Bank, researching the best ways to equitably develop economies. 

Maryam next ventured into international development, creating online schools for entrepreneurship and business development for women, civic education for teachers, and social entrepreneurship for disability, climate, and housing advocates to gain skills and impact their communities in the Middle East. She worked for the U.S. government-funded Eurasia Foundation and traveled throughout the region to assist in building democracies and civil societies. 

While her work out in the world focused on building strong programs to improve individual lives and communities, she also developed her ability to run organizations, manage teams, ensure compliance, create plans, manage finances, create internal controls and fundraise. She has hired over 100 people in her career and developed many of those hires into leaders. As Chief Operating Officer of a small tech start up, she was in charge of making sure the personnel and tasks were aligned to achieve ultimate impact and results. In her career, she’s raised over $15M in funding. An early adopter, Maryam quickly incorporates new technology and efficiency processes into workflow to ensure success. Her career has been marked by innovative vision and solid back-end financial and organizational management.

A strong and compassionate leader, Maryam has served in a variety of executive roles with nonprofit organizations, including Project Return, Brave New Software, Millions of Conversations, and Atlas Project. At the same time, she delved into her work at the city and state level in Tennessee, as Board Chair of AWAKE and Chair of the Metro Human Relations Commission.

In the spring of 2023, three days after the tragic Covenant School shooting, Maryam, along with AWAKE, students, musicians, neighbors, family, and friends, organized a rally for gun safety that changed the trajectory of TN politics. After the rally, she harnessed the collective energy for change in Tennessee by starting a nonprofit organization, Rise and Shine TN, to increase civic engagement and to work towards freedom, safety, and opportunity for all Tennesseans. 

After spending every week in the legislature organizing volunteers, observing committee proceedings, testifying on legislation, and analyzing hundreds of bills, Maryam felt she had to step up for Tennessee in a different way. She needed to run for Congress.

Maryam will bring sacrifice, hard work, authenticity, and family values to the job—qualities she was instilled with as a Tennessee native. She lives in Bellevue, TN with her son, Auden, and their rescue cat, Sabine.