Zahra Kanji

• Ran Sort dept with over 100 associates, assistants and three managers, producing over 200k units per week for shift. Partnered daily with inbound, outbound and central ops to match capacity and goals. Set, enforced, and optimized internal procedures maintaining responsiveness to new demands during on and off peak. Analyzed and reported on key performance metrics to senior management.
• Coordinated and consulted with cross-functional teams in inbound and outbound and cental ops daily to improve operational efficiency, resulting in improved overall building efficiency.
• Awarded safety award for the site for going above and beyond to find the barriers and close the loop to ensure personal protection equipment was accessible by all associate.
• Eliminated major safety hazard by removing downstacking, an unauthorized unsafe and ineffective practice, and decreasing waste (wait time) on the sorter. Shared best practices with other shifts and centers resulting in 33% improvement in productive time.
• Served as president of the mental health and well being affinity group and drove initiatives to reduce stress and burnout and foster encouraged a happy work environment.
• Supported and mentored associates, assistants and managers in their role as well as promotions internally and externally.
• Ran focus discussions with associates to identify key issues. Introduced method, practices, and systems to reduce safety issues and waste. Implemented fast start system pre-rostering system to decrease start of shift time and improve employee attendance and punctuality, decreasing repeat problems and shaped organizational culture, optimize procedures for higher efficiency.

• Recruited, trained, directed a team of 50+ undergrads, grads, medical fellows and professionals members on our systems and standards to become high contributors to the team to maintain and improve high productivity and performance metrics.
• Worked closely with MIT leadership and created a board of advisors to guide strategic and operational strategies and to define and propel organization's mission and vision.
• Implemented business strategies, increasing revenue and effectively targeting new markets. Formed partnerships and connected with potential clients to plan innovation events globally that generated $10-80K per event.
• Raised over $200K from 10+ sponsors for Grandhack. Lead the team to organize and execute Grandhack in Cambridge where over 300 participants, mentors and expert judges came together for our flagship event.
• Devised and implemented innovative design thinking material in healthtech to elevate HM services.
• Promoted to senior member and then director since 2022.

• Analyzed the trends in diabetes technology and the creation of new business forecasting models on tracking, analysis of healthcare trends, market and innovation data. Forecasted scenarios and opportunity areas of CGM devices, insulin pumps and innovative products to find levers of impact using the Step, Jump, Leap framework of innovation to break down the scope and evaluate solutions.
• Compiled research data and gave presentations highlighting key insights, trends and product positioning recommendations to SDG leadership & Kaleidoscope Medical Device group. Developed strategies for new products.

• Collaborated with sales, marketing, and support teams to propose an innovative product launch.
• Prioritized roadmap in order to achieve product goals and KPIs on growth metrics and cost. Proposed a new innovation strategy for operations with KPIs on 10% growth, achieving break-even within 1 year of launch.
• Reviewed sales, customer concerns, and new opportunities to drive business strategy at weekly planning sessions. Defined a geographical expansion plan for Shopee with specific service points within Thailand. Analyzed sellers' behaviors, market expansion, geographical and customer density area, and competitive landscape in Tabelau.
• Identified additional marketing revenue streams that increased profits by 16%.

• Lead the Women’s Affinity Group and created a network of researchers in academia, schools, startups, Miami Day County city officials and Jackson Hospital. Created frameworks, and methodologies to vet new projects.
• Evaluated and researched potential sponsors and clients around the healthcare space. Presented to Inditex, parent company of Zara for innovative bras and undergarments. Presented to Resilience 305 to work on making Miami more resilient and proposed at-home innovative healthcare projects for the urban housing projects buildings
• Started a Girls-Teaching-Girls program to create a pipeline of support and education for high school girls to learn about STEM topics. Over half of them got into top programs at colleges such as MIT and Harvard.

• Developed reliability testing including Mechanical Stress Tests, Shock/Drop/Vibration, Environmental Testing to identify the root cause of failures from flux in the watch dial
• Advised VP and cross-functional teams that over 1% of Apple Watches EKGs were adversely affected from root cause failure
• Developed new accelerated test models derived from global real-world data and Weibull modeling for EKG module using Tableau
• Member of relaunch initiative for work returnees

• Analyzed variations in tests, crafted clinical study experiment and procedures for BlindAid, a virtual environment for self planning at the Carroll Center on newly blinded subjects.
• Perform program evaluations for NIH grant. Adapted work process and methods based on findings and literature review.
• Oversaw and led IRB and NIH grant revisions. Analyzed data and forecasted trial results. Performed troubleshooting on Phantom virtual reality hardware and designed and programmed VR tests.
• Guided interdisciplinary team of teachers, researchers, orientation and navigation academics in research.

MILLER LAB – Anesthesia Molecular Biology

• Conducted wetlab research using recombinant DNA purification, E. Coli transformation for plasmid expression, colony selection, and plasma scale up for protein production. Maintained mammalian cell line, collected data Ussing chamber electrophysiology.
• Designed site-directed mutants of potassium channel using PCR. Automated data collection in LabVIEW.

THADHANI LAB – Nephrology Clinical Research

• Directed pilot clinical trial for noval treatment of IgA Nephropathy. Clinical trial management including IRB, recruiting patients, patient management through designed website, HIPPA compliant system for data management. Created retrospective dataset
• Authored first author paper on new gene found in African Americans using hospital data, data analysis STATA. Awarded Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) Poster of Clinical Research Distinction Award

• Led team of design consultants and Perkins technicians on new development of SmartBrailler, requiring mechanical, industrial, and EE design, from user studies through from user research to sketches, models, alpha, beta prototype, manufacturing. Drafted technical documentation, detailing product design specifications.
• Initiated design concepts incorporating KPIs on creating a smart, robust, cost-effective brailler that fit market demands. Tested completed projects for functionality and implemented changes to production methods to rectify issues in final products.
• Implemented product design for functionality, quality, cost, and schedule. Analyze risks of new design and process and provide support to manufacturing efforts.
• Drove continuous improvement culture in engineering to provide clear product design standards, improve manufacturability through enhanced documentation and reduce engineering cycle time.
• Launched customer-driven design review process to enhance customer experiences and efficiency.
• Identified new innovation features that improved customer satisfaction based on customer interview sessions.
• Directed and mentored 40 support engineers and technicians for new product assembly and operations.