Safiya Khalid

Safiya Khalid

Biography

Safiya Khalid is the first Somali American Muslim woman and the youngest person to be elected for a seat in the Lewiston City Council. She won the election with almost 70 percent of the vote. As a member of the Lewiston City Council, Khalid serves in the Lewiston Finance Committee, Lewiston Housing Committee, and the Community Development Block Grant Committee.   Safiya arrived in the United States at the age of seven with her mother and siblings as refugees fleeing from violence in Somalia, which aimed her to advocate for immigrants' rights in the US. Apart from being a Council member, Khalid is an advocate for immigrants' rights, she works as a case manager for Gateway Community Services in Maine (GCSM), a non-profit which supports immigrants in America by offering management services to asylum seekers and refugees, and integrating them to the local communities.   Before running for the Council, she was part of the Maine Democratic Party as a field organizer in Lewiston, and later, Safiya acted as a clerk for the Maine Legislature's Committee on Housing and Labor. In 2017, Khalid was elected as vice-chair of the Lewiston Democratic Party, and in 2018, she won a seat to represent Androscoggin County on the Maine Democratic Party State Committee. Safiya earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Minor in Business Administration from the University of Southern Maine.