Laili is passionate about equity and access to transformative opportunities for people who have been excluded or marginalized. As a fundraiser and grants panelist, she encourages funders to acknowledge and dismantle white supremacy in philanthropy. Laili is on the board of the Berkeley Arts Center, a 2022 Periplus Fellow, and a Western States Arts Federation Emerging Leader of color in 2018 and advisor through 2022.

Laili is a baker, artist, and writer with a Bachelor of Music in clarinet performance and a Master of Arts in English with a creative nonfiction focus. Laili considers Jurassic Park the greatest film of all time, once posed as a press photographer in hopes of meeting Ta-Nehisi Coates (she didn’t,) loves EDM and grows African violets.