Haniya Shariff graduated with Summa Cum Laude from the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University in May 2020.  

 

Haniya joined Temple PRSSA her junior year and earned her way up to the executive board as the first Director of Diversity & Inclusion for the organization. In this position, she educated members about the importance of diversity and inclusion, particularly in PR, and provided guidance on how to navigate the field as a diverse PR practitioner. On a regional level, Haniya now serves as the Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion on the 2020-2021 National Committee. 

 

In this leadership role, Haniya provides educational resources on D&I for Chapters while providing strategies for national and international PRSSA chapters’ D&I efforts and expanding the professional pipeline for multicultural students. She has published articles for PR Daily and PRSA’s Strategies and Tactics newsletter.

 

Haniya is also on the Diversity Advisory Council for Slice Communications in Philadelphia. With her passion for diversity and inclusion and an eye toward developing human potential, Haniya aims to foster an inclusive environment within PRSSA and Slice Communications, where every person can share their unique stories and thrive because of their differences. 

Haniya has also held various internship positions, the most recent being a PR intern for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). At CHOP, Haniya's responsibilities included writing and editing engaging patient and employee feature stories for several media platforms, performing and analyzing research, and attending and assisting at events like the Black Tie Tailgate Event for the Philadelphia Auto Show. She hopes to work in the hospital or healthcare industries using her gifts of communication to build interpersonal networks and create diversity and inclusion initiatives.