I believe lasting change requires more than bold ideas. It requires leaders who can build trust, navigate complexity, cultivate collective leadership, and institutions capable of turning vision into reality.
Born in Iran into a lineage of activists, Azadeh Zohrabi is an abolitionist leader, executive director, institution builder, educator, certified coach, and strategic advisor devoted to helping people and organizations heal, grow, and transform in service of liberation. As the daughter of two formerly incarcerated Iranian political prisoners and a refugee whose life has been shaped by exile, immigration, undocumented status, and the intergenerational impacts of incarceration, Azadeh understands firsthand the profound harm systems can cause—and the extraordinary possibility of transforming them into pathways to opportunity, belonging, healing, and liberation. She has spent more than two decades building leaders, institutions, and movements that expand opportunity and create lasting systems change.
As Executive Director of Underground Scholars at UC Berkeley, Azadeh has led the growth of one of the nation’s leading prison-to-university initiatives, expanding a single-campus program into a statewide effort serving students across the University of California system. Under her leadership, the organization has strengthened access to higher education, pioneered healing-centered programming, advanced policy advocacy, expanded career development, and cultivated a new generation of formerly incarcerated leaders.
Alongside her executive leadership, Azadeh partners with nonprofit leaders, universities, public institutions, and mission-driven organizations navigating growth, transitions, and complexity. Throughout her career, Azadeh has built organizations and initiatives, raised and managed millions of dollars in philanthropic and public funding, shaped public policy, and developed cross-sector partnerships that created new pathways to education and economic opportunity. She advises leaders on organizational strategy, leadership development, systems change, philanthropy, partnerships, and institution building, helping them move from vision to implementation while remaining grounded in their values.
Azadeh is also a certified healing-centered coach and Birkman-certified coach who works with executives, emerging leaders, and teams seeking greater clarity, self-awareness, resilience, and effectiveness. Her coaching is informed by years of executive leadership, movement organizing, fundraising, public policy, and organizational development, allowing her to bridge personal growth with institutional transformation.
Whether coaching an executive, facilitating a strategic planning retreat, advising a philanthropic partnership, designing a leadership program, or speaking to audiences around the world, Azadeh is guided by a deeper purpose: to cultivate transformation, liberation, and healing at every level—from individuals and families to organizations, communities, and the systems that shape our lives. She believes lasting change is possible when people reconnect to their own agency, share leadership, and build the collective capacity to create a more just and thriving future.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Nation, Mother Jones, Ebony, and Al Jazeera. She earned her BA from UC Riverside and her JD from UC Law San Francisco. She is a Soros Justice Fellow and an alumna of the Women’s Policy Institute, Rockwood Leadership Institute, and New Leaders Council Oakland.