Fawzia Ahmed brings over 20 years of leadership in philanthropy, nonprofits, and strategic partnership-building.

At the Walton Family Foundation, she served as Senior Program Officer for 14 years, overseeing place‑based and national education grant portfolios totaling more than $200 million and leading efforts to align the Education Program’s operations and budgeting with a focus on impact. She convened diverse stakeholders—funders, government leaders, nonprofits, and advocates—to strengthen Washington, D.C.’s K-12 education ecosystem across charter and district sectors, helping to establish a common student lottery to better match students and schools, and supporting the creation of parent groups, advocacy coalitions, research and effective practices to make the system more responsive to student needs and outcomes. She also advanced impact and evaluation efforts for the Community Funding Accelerator, which has helped communities secure over $270 million in federal funding to strengthen cradle-to-career education and workforce pathways.

Before Walton, Fawzia was Senior Director at Arabella Advisors, where she led the family foundation practice, launched the firm’s education practice, and directed major projects including a Gates Foundation Race to the Top initiative. She also played a significant role at Achievement First, overseeing strategic initiatives during the charter school network’s initial phase of rapid growth.

Fawzia holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and a BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge.