Meet Zo!
The first born child of immigrants, Zohaib (“Zo”) moved to Texas at the age of 12 with his parents and two younger sisters—a younger brother was born 5 years later. Upon moving to Victoria, Zo immediately fell in love with the state of Texas and has considered it his true home ever since.
After graduating from St. Joseph’s High School, with a mother who worked in a pathology lab and a father who was then an oncologist, Zo had always assumed he would follow in his parent’s footsteps and pursue an education in science. Having decided to stay in his beloved Texas, close to his tight-knit family, Zo enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. Later, having made the decision to switch paths and study the structures of political decision making that affect all of our daily lives, Zo received a Masters of Public Administration from Texas State and a second graduate degree from Rice in Global Affairs.
Since finishing his graduate studies, Zo’s worked in advocacy roles and on political campaigns here in Austin, throughout Texas, and across the country. He began his public service-oriented work with a position on Laura Moser’s campaign for Texas’s 7th Congressional District and worked on Beto O’Rourke’s race, helping to direct political outreach during his run for United States Senate. Zo later merged his academic knowledge with real-world experience in the legislative process during his time as a legislative assistant in the Texas House of Representatives. Zo’s leadership skills and love of coaching others on how to reach diverse voters led him to South Carolina during the 2020 Democratic Primary, where he helped lead Senator Elizabeth Warren’s campaign as a Regional Organizing Director.
Since coming back to Austin in early 2020 after his work in South Carolina, Zo has taken on a number of projects in his daily work life that range from advising activist groups and advocacy campaigns on how best to utilize technology to achieve their goals, to building strategic alliances to accomplish tangible results for progressive campaigns and issue-oriented organizations.
As a child of immigrants, serving back to the community and volunteerism is never far from his mind. Zo has worked with local community groups like Austin Needs Water, the Central Texas Food Bank and Del Valle Community Coalition to ensure underserved communities throughout Austin had their basic needs met when confronting both COVID-19 and the devastation to Texas’s power grid during last winter’s ice storm. In his drive to advocate for all of the people of Austin, Zo has centered activism with the Texas Homeless Network, Austin Latino Coalition, and No On Prop B. He also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Travis County Democratic Party.
In December of 2020, Zo married the love of his life, Wafa, in a small private ceremony reflective of the value they both place on their families and their close friends. Wafa works as a PA-C in family practice, and in her free time enjoys watercolor painting and sculpting clay jewelry. In his spare time, Zo can be seen out for a run around downtown Austin in the early mornings, spotted on a bench in Zilker Park with a book on a sunny weekend afternoon, or seen spending time with their cat, Daisy Mae.