Rizwaan Akhtar is a facilitator, trainer, and civic leadership development professional with over fifteen years of experience helping individuals unlock their potential to create positive social change and foster inclusive communities. He is the Senior Director of Learning, Development, & Inclusion at Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE) where he designs experiences that support leaders to engage politically and build more just and liberatory systems. Based in Chicago, Rizwaan is a Board Member of the Chicago Community Bond Fund and a former Local School Council member of Reilly Elementary School. Before LEE, he led an international team at World Learning, overseeing an initiative that trained over 2,500 young people in civic leadership and peacebuilding efforts in Iraq and the U.S. His expertise includes dialogue facilitation, conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, and people management. Rizwaan is a Fellow of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, is proficient in Arabic, Spanish, and Urdu, and holds an Executive Nonprofit Management Certificate from Georgetown University, an M.A. in International Education from the SIT Graduate Institute, and a B.A. in Psychology and Middle East Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.