Mehlaqa Samdani is founder and director of the Community Alliance for Peace and Justice, an advocacy group based in Massachusetts that impacts policy and public opinion on issues related to South Asia and the Middle East.

Previously, she led Critical Connections, a non-profit organization in western Massachusetts that educated the larger public on issues related to Islamophobia, national security, civil rights and liberties, U.S. foreign policy, inter-communal relations, etc.

Samdani was also a peacebuilding associate with the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding where she spearheaded and implemented two projects in Islamabad and Lahore 2016-2018 that sought to address sectarian violence in Pakistan.

Previously, Samdani worked as an adjunct fellow with the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she researched the role of civil society actors in promoting stability and democratic governance in Pakistan (2008-2011)

Prior to her work with CSIS, Mehlaqa worked as research analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (2004-2006) where she focused on the role of women in effecting social, political, and economic change in the Muslim world. She has researched and worked in various conflict and transitional settings such as the Sudan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Israel/Palestine. She has also been involved with civil society-based peace initiatives between India and Pakistan.

Until recently, she was a faculty member at the School for International Training in Vermont, where she taught conflict transformation and peacebuilding at a low-residency graduate certificate program.

Samdani’s writings have been published in the Huffington Post, the New York Times, Foreign Policy (AfPak Channel), Foreign Policy in Focus, Christian Science Monitor, Daily Times (Pakistan) etc., and she has been invited as a guest on NPR, KCBS and news channels in Pakistan. She is a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Denver. She lives in Longmeadow, MA, with her husband and two children.