Zahra Kanji is named November CEO (Boston)

Zahra is a product engineer at the Perkins School for the Blind, where she is designing a smart next generation brailler, a typewriter for the blind. Through social entrepreneurship, she combines her engineering background to build feasible and evidence-based solutions for public health concerns in resource-poor communities. Prior to joining Perkins, Zahra was a medical researcher in anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital. She also worked with E-Ink, the electronic ink technology behind the Amazon Kindle, as a product and research engineer. Zahra also works as a volunteer program manager for the Prajnopaya Foundation, which leads teams in finding cost effective solutions for communities in need of help. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, with a minor in biomedical engineering from MIT. Zahra was a finalist at MIT's 100K competition in 2006, and a five time winner of the IDEAS competition on innovative solutions for communities in need. Outside of work, she enjoys an active lifestyle of cycling, martial arts and skiing with the YESKids, a program that takes inner urban children to the outdoors.