Zakir Parpia

Zakir Parpia grew up in Washington State playing sports, biking endlessly around his neighborhood and building forts with his siblings. "Play" is a big part of how he engages with the world and thus youth work has been a natural fit for him. His college part-time job coaching t-ball and boys’ lacrosse opened his eyes to the world of youth development. Teaching “Pee-Wee Sports and Movement” to preschoolers, his first assignment as a full-time Youth Athletics Coordinator, ignited a passion deep within his soul that continues to fuel him today. Zak’s love of youth work quickly evolved into an aptitude for developing high-quality youth development professionals and programming.

He brings these strengths and skills to his work at the California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC), a statewide intermediary working to build a future where every child in California – regardless of income, race or zip code – has access to high quality, affordable out-of-school time programs. Through his study of Sociology, Gender & Sexuality and Business at the University of San Francisco, and his intersecting identities as a person of color and a man of trans experience, Zak is committed to maintaining a sharp equity analysis and an unwavering commitment to self-awareness and reflection.

Zak is currently the Director of Fiscal Partnerships at CalSAC, overseeing the fiscal administration of Quality Counts funding for Alameda County’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and supporting grant recipients in their quest for quality. He sits on the Superintendent of Public Instruction Early Learning and Educational Support Stakeholder Group and previously on the California Department of Education’s Expanded Learning Division SEL Planning Team. In his 8 years with CalSAC, Zak has been instrumental in building agile, people-centered systems to support the Expanded Learning workforce across California.

When he’s not administering millions of grant funds to Alameda County Child Development Centers, you can find him biking to the gym, cooking up something tasty for his partner while listening to podcasts, or hunkered down with his dog Athena, cat Owl, enjoying a great book or an episode of America’s Next Top Model