Asha Farah, Pathwaves Fellow at Voice of Tomorrow (VoT), describes her path to the Fellowship as inevitable. “I’ve been surrounded by child care providers and immersed in early learning environments my entire life. Through my existing role at VoT, policy advocacy found me.” For Iftin Hagimohamed, Chief Financial Officer at VoT, partnership with Pathwaves is equally necessary to build capacity within the organization and existing staff. “Together with Pathwaves we are building a holistic model for policy advocacy. Partnership with Pathwaves allows us to intentionally build out our policy advocacy department.”
Key to Asha’s growth and development as a leader at VoT has been the community within the Pathwaves cohort. “I feel encouraged to be surrounded and supported by other BIPOC leaders. It builds my confidence to own my space as a leader of color and hijabi woman within the cohort, at my organization, and in other policy making spaces.” Beyond confidence, Asha has also built skills that directly support her work on the policy advocacy team at VoT. “The most useful tool I’ve been given so far is bill analysis. There is so much content that can be difficult to understand and synthesize, but I’ve learned what to look for and how to interpret what language means relative to our community. What’s been most exciting for me is that I’ve been able to take this skill and teach it to our providers and parents so that they can also track bills that will impact their communities.”
Asha facilitates trainings and engagement opportunities for VoT councils. These councils are made up of providers and parents from the Arabic, Somali, and Habesha communities committed to developing their policy advocacy leadership. Throughout the 2025 legislative session, Asha and her team delivered trainings on topics including: the life cycle of a bill, the legislative process, and storytelling through advocacy. These tools further empower council members to use their voices to advocate for themselves and their communities. Asha looks forward to building upon the trainings they facilitated during the 2025 legislative session and supporting council members as they deliver testimony in the coming year.
Another aspect of her work at VoT that most excites Asha is the opportunity to bridge gaps between providers within their network and government agencies like the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). “It’s important to us at VoT to create cultural understanding between our providers and agencies like DCYF so that collaboration can be effective and positively impact our communities. Using resources like the trainings our team has been facilitating, we are empowering our providers to advocate for themselves with more confidence.” Iftin continues, “The knowledge and tools that Asha is bringing to VoT through her work at Pathwaves is essential. Our partnership means that our network has a better grasp of how to engage in legislative session, participate in public hearings, track and analyze bills, etc. These skillsets are essential for Asha’s development and she is bringing those tools home to our organization in ways that benefit our whole community.”
Focus on the collective is a central value at VoT. Iftin explains, “Our success is Pathwaves’ success, and the other way around. Pathwaves is building a powerful and empowering space for the BIPOC community in Washington state.” The work isn’t finished yet, but hopes are high in the face of the challenging political moment. “There is still a lot of building that needs to be done, and we will continue to leverage our relationship with Pathwaves and the strength of our policy advocacy team to grow our capacity as an organization. We are a Black owned, Black run, organization that supports the Black community, and we are so proud of the impact we are making together.” Asha shares Iftin’s enthusiasm for what lies ahead. “I hope that my participation in this Fellowship and the growth I am experiencing will encourage other developing leaders to consider applying for programs like Pathwaves. I will continue to develop as a member of the team at VoT, and more women of color will participate in the program, and our collective power will grow exponentially.”
