Sakeenah Shabazz (she/her) is the Policy Director at the Berkeley Food Institute. In this capacity, she leads BFI’s local, state, and federal policy engagement, manages coalition partnerships, and supports BFI’s faculty directors and affiliate faculty with research, writing, and policy trainings. Sakeenah also facilitates access to food system policy opportunities and events for undergraduate and graduate students and engages in teaching and guest lecturing on the farm bill and BFI’s work across their different mission areas. 

From 2016-2017, Sakeenah was in the 23rd class of the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship where she completed her field work researching SNAP in New Orleans, LA at the Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) and her policy placement with the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), supporting their bipartisan Hunger Partnership. In the District of Columbia after her fellowship, Sakeenah was deeply involved in anti-hunger and anti-poverty research and advocacy with D.C. Hunger Solutions and the Congressional Hunger Center, where she returned to help manage the Emerson Fellowship. While completing her degree in public policy, Sakeenah supported BFI’s policy, research, and educational advocacy efforts as a policy assistant for two years and completed graduate internships with the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) and the San Francisco Human Services Agency (SFHSA). She is also a 2015-2016 AmeriCorps Alum of City Year – Seattle/King County.

Sakeenah earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Policy degree from the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.