Safa Syed is a Program Associate at Democracy Fund, an independent foundation working to ensure that our political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. In her role in the Governance Program, Safa supports the mission of preventing authoritarian abuses of power and ensuring that governmental institutions on the federal, state, and local levels are being held accountable to the public.
Prior to joining Democracy Fund, Safa served as a Legislative Aide in the United States Senate, where she worked on the Appropriations process for a senior member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Safa also led on issues related to tribal affairs, wildlife, and animal welfare issues. Before her time on Capitol Hill, she served as Special Assistant for Public Integrity in the New York State Executive Chamber, where she created recommendations for ethics reform policy for the state executive branch and maintained transparency tools to ensure ethics compliance by key members of staff.
Safa graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in History.