Yaza Sarieh
Yaza Sarieh is a nonprofit and food systems professional with more than six years of experience focused on sustainable agriculture, food justice, and community-centered philanthropy. She currently serves as a Program Associate at the Kinship Foundation, where she supports grantmaking operations, strengthens grantee relationships, and helps design systems that improve evaluation, consistency, and strategic decision-making across a multi-million-dollar portfolio. Alongside her professional role, she is a Master of Public Health candidate at the University of Chicago, where she is expanding her expertise in developing culturally responsive and evidence-based public health interventions.
Previously, Yazmina worked as a Community Collaborations Coordinator with Georgia Organics, where she led statewide farm-to-school initiatives that connected students to nutrition education and local food systems. In that role, she developed educational campaigns, managed grant-funded programs for under-resourced school districts, and secured funding to expand garden and nutrition programming across Georgia. She also contributed to broader food systems research through projects with Fresh Taste, including policy analysis, stakeholder interviews, and collaborative strategy development aimed at improving equitable food access in Chicago.
Yazmina’s work is deeply shaped by her Palestinian-American heritage and her family’s connection to an olive farm, which inspired her commitment to food sovereignty, heritage, and community resilience. A graduate of Emory University with a background in history and Arabic, she brings a multidisciplinary perspective to her work in public health and philanthropy. Across her career, she has focused on building trust between communities and institutions, advancing equity in food systems, and using research and storytelling to support more just and culturally grounded approaches to public health and agriculture.
• University of Chicago
• Emory University- B.A.
• Al Akhawayn University
• Oxford College of Emory University- A.A.
• Henry Luce Scholar
• Matthew A. Carter Citizens Award
• Marshall Scholarship Finalist
• Phi Alpha Theta
• Amy Johnson Award
• Gilman Scholarship
• Alpha Epsilon Upsilon
• Phi Eta Sigma
• Paper Airplanes, Inc.
• Behind the Glass
What do you attribute your success to?
Definitely mentorship. There have been probably 2 or 3 people who I can think of, both professionally and personally, who have been huge mentors for me and have just helped give me advice and helped guide me on the path that I'm on. So I think that they definitely would be who I would attribute to a lot of my success.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say take any opportunity that interests you, even if it might not necessarily be what you think you might want to do. If it's of interest, I think that anyone should explore it. With the nutrition education side for me, it was something that I was interested in at one point, but I didn't actually think I would have a career path that went in that direction, but it did, so I think that that's really important. And then also take quote-unquote failures as opportunities to learn and to grow. So give yourself grace if things don't necessarily work out, and kind of take that into a perspective of how have I grown because of this experience, and what have I learned from it.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think a big opportunity is thinking through how philanthropy can be a little bit more creative and innovative. The shifts in federal funding, I think, have revealed a lot of opportunities that philanthropy can become more involved. But we have to think about ways to be really creative with the smaller amount of resources that we have. So I think there's a lot of opportunity for pooled funding, or doing some potential capital-related projects, or things of that nature that aren't necessarily traditional grant-making, but could still have a really big impact.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty and transparency. I think especially in philanthropy, that's really important. And I would say also relationships, and really making sure the work that I do in my professional realm is very relationship-driven, as well as maintaining relationships personally.