Bakhtawer Abbasi is the Program Manager of Communications at the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions. She provides programmatic and communications support for our programs and is committed to activities that build positive team and organizational culture. She has served as the Aspen Institute DEIC Co-Chair, and currently serves as the Collective Care & Culture Co-Chair for the Forum for Community Solutions. Her expertise include: cross-sectional strategic communications, creative design, multi-channel digital strategy, narrative change driven storytelling, and social impact.
Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, she worked as a Youth Trainer in Pakistan, leading trainings on conflict resolution, critical thinking skills and inclusion. She has also worked at Brandeis University to coordinate community development and youth engagement programs in the Greater Boston Area and most recently worked at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy here in Washington, D.C. Bakhtawer was also selected to represent the Aspen Institute US at the Aspen Young Leaders Seminar in Czech Republic in 2021.
Bakhtawer earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Marketing from SZABIST University in Karachi, Pakistan, and a Master’s in Conflict Resolution & Coexistence from Brandeis University. She is also an alumna of National University of Singapore’s Enterprise Program. Her professional and personal intersectional experiences in Pakistan and the United States, spark her passion and interest of working with diverse communities for community building, social cohesion, narrative change story-telling and social justice causes.