Sara Zia Ebrahimi

Sara Zia Ebrahimi learned to talk in Iran and press the record button in the United States. Her professional and creative practice has focused on questioning power structures and how to shift the narratives that enable them to perpetuate. For over 20 years she has worked as a resource mobilizer, connecting artists and community organizers to the resources they need to move their work forward. She does this through fundraising, building administrative and operations processes, and weaving strong webs of relationships between individuals and organizations for the collective thriving of historically marginalized communities. Her previous positions have included working as the Program Director at the Leeway Foundation, a Community Engagement Coordinator for Independent Television Service's (ITVS) Community Cinema program and as the Development and Communications Director at Bread & Roses Community Fund. She has worked as a producer on several short films and webseries, written and directed her own short films, and served on dozens of review panels for arts funders and festivals. She holds an MFA in Film & Media Arts and BA in Film & Media Studies both from Temple University. She credits her accomplishments to the larger community of friends, chosen family, coworkers and social change movements that have guided her thinking and actions and is honored to join a strong legacy of cultural workers in the Philadelphia area by leading BlackStar's fundraising and planning. When not working, she can be found in the kitchen cooking too much food, reading and watching science fiction stories, or battling monsters with her partner and a young warrior princess.