Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Summer Lee
Improving Communities through Policy
As chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, Wasi Mohamed (HNZ 2021) is the most senior legislative aide managing operations and staffing for the first Black woman from Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives.
“It continues the work that I’ve been doing in communities to better understand problems and ways that society fails people, then crafting policy change solutions. I started locally, but now I’m working at the federal level to help improve people's lives,” he says.
Since taking the role at the start of the congresswoman’s first term in 2023, Wasi is proud of what his team has been able to accomplish in a divisive and seniority-driven system.
“We were one of the very few freshman congressional teams who were able to get something passed in the house,” he says. “We passed a bipartisan bill to address abandoned wells, which is a serious environmental justice problem. There are oil and gas wells that were tapped all over Pennsylvania for prospecting. People didn’t cap them so they’re leaking toxic gas. Folks may not expect our team to be able to do something bipartisan in a Republican-led congress, but we worked across the aisle because the wells are harmful to people, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Wasi came to the role with plenty of experience in policymaking, including a master’s degree in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon. He was a senior policy officer at the Pittsburgh Foundation, where he worked on equity issues that align with the foundation’s mission. He also has a track record of community advocacy as the former executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and as the lead of the Pittsburgh office of Forward Cities, a national nonprofit focused on communities and entrepreneurship.
“It’s all in service of trying to make the world a little bit better,” he says.
Story by Elizabeth Speed