Saira Salman is a Ph.D. student in Comparative and International Development Education at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and a research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for Global Change. Originally from Pakistan, she has studied at Harvard, MIT, and Kinnaird College for Women, bringing together training in education policy, data science, and literature. Her work spans South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, where she has partnered with communities to design evidence-based programs in education, gender equity, and youth development. She is deeply committed to interdisciplinary research that bridges education policy and public health to create lasting, equitable change in the Global South.