{"id":4475,"date":"2026-01-07T21:30:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/awista-ayub\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:59:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T14:59:47","slug":"awista-ayub","status":"publish","type":"person","link":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/awista-ayub\/","title":{"rendered":"Awista Ayub"},"template":"","issue_tax":[],"topic_tax":[],"program_tax":[],"project_tax":[],"person_tax":[2518],"fellowship_tax":[101,51,97],"person_type":[70],"class_list":["post-4475","person","type-person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","person_type-staff"],"acf":{"details":{"headshot":4476,"first_name":"Awista","last_name":"Ayub","title":"Senior Director, New America Fellows Program","description":"","external_link":"","organization":"","helper_social_links":null,"helper_taxonomies":{"issue_tax":false,"topic_tax":false,"program_tax":false,"project_tax":false,"fellowship_tax":[51,101,97],"person_type":[70]}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"add_background_color":false,"content":"Awista Ayub is the Senior Director of New America\u2019s Fellows Program. She is the author of <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/kabul-girls-soccer-club-a-dream-eight-girls-and-a-journey-home-awista-ayub\/16394360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em data-start=\"313\" data-end=\"338\">Kabul Girls Soccer Club<\/em><\/a>.\r\n\r\n<span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Since 2016, Ayub has led the Fellows Program, managing the selection of nearly 150 Fellows who have gone on to produce over 60 books, 13 feature-length documentaries, more than 30 longform articles, and two narrative podcasts. <\/span>Works written and produced by New America Fellows during her tenure have received Pulitzer Prizes and National Magazine Awards, earned an Oscar nomination, become\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em> bestsellers, and garnered many other honors, including film premieres at Sundance, SXSW, and the Tribeca Film Festival, demonstrating the Fellows' and program\u2019s influence on the national storytelling landscape.\r\n\r\nWhile in this role, she developed and launched key program platforms\u2014including the <a href=\"https:\/\/fellowsarchive.newamerica.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fellows Archive<\/a>, a monthly program newsletter, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/resilience.newamerica.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">digital magazine on resilience<\/a>\u2014to expand the program\u2019s visibility and deepen engagement with Fellows\u2019 work. Ayub also led the development and execution of two international fellowships: the Afghanistan Observatory and the India-US Fellows Exchange.\r\n\r\nPrior to joining New America, Ayub worked as the Director of South Asia programs at Seeds of Peace and was based in Mumbai, India, with extensive travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan during her six-year tenure. She also served as the education and health officer at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC.\r\n\r\nIn 2004, Ayub founded Afghanistan\u2019s first girls\u2019 soccer team\u2014a program that was featured on ESPN and received the 2006 ESPY\u2019s Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Her media appearances include ABC News (\"Person of the Week\"), NPR, ESPN, <em>Glamour<\/em>\u00a0magazine, CNN,\u00a0<em>The New York Daily News<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Sports Illustrated<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Washingtonian<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>USA Today<\/em>.\r\n\r\nAyub has served as an advisory council member and contributor to espnw.com and has written extensively about issues related to Muslim women in sports. She was named one of 32 \u201cwomen who will change the way sports are played\u201d in\u00a0<em>ESPN the Magazine<\/em>\u2019s Title IX 40th-anniversary issue.\r\n\r\nAyub earned her BS in chemistry from the University of Rochester and her MPA from the University of Delaware.","":null,"drop_cap":false,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_taxonomies","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_taxonomies":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_person_latest","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_person_latest":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Awista Ayub - New America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/awista-ayub\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Awista Ayub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/awista-ayub\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewAmerica\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T14:59:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/images\/AwistaHeadshot.original.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"668\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NewAmerica\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/awista-ayub\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/awista-ayub\/\",\"name\":\"Awista Ayub - 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