Zafreen (she/her) is Vice President of Research and Evaluation at Third Plateau. In this role, she oversees client engagement for research and evaluation projects to enhance our partners’ initiatives and strengthen Third Plateau’s overall impact. She specializes in building client capacity to make sense of their data and translating research to nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and funders. Drawing upon collaborative approaches to research and evaluation, Zafreen engages in client work with organizations such as the NDN Collective and Jim Joseph Foundation. She oversees a team of talented researchers to ensure we have evidence to inform program and policy decisions and tell the story of organizational and system-level change.

Zafreen is driven by a love of learning, evident in her two master’s degrees and a doctorate in Educational Leadership. Her dissertation research focused on educating children from low-income backgrounds. She has managed research supporting programs for mental health and substance use treatment and prevention, racial and gender equity, social-emotional learning for children, and early care and education systems for children from birth to five. Her teaching and research career spans the P-20 spectrum in Florida, the Pacific Northwest, and Pakistan. She has taught at Portland State University, Florida International University, Beaconhouse School System, and Lahore College for Women University. Originally from Pakistan, Zafreen is fluent in five languages.

Zafreen can be found volunteering at a shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness in historic Overtown in Miami. She and her husband, Iqbal, have two nephews and five nieces who are the love and joy of their lives. When she is not working and spending time with her family, she tries to keep up with Iqbal’s travels.