Huma Zarif is a Staff Attorney at Northwest Health Law Advocates (NoHLA). She graduated from University of California, Hastings College of the Law with a concentration in Health Law. Prior to law school, Huma worked as a social worker for over eight years, including at Harborview and Swedish Medical Centers. She obtained both her Bachelor in Social Welfare and Master of Social Work from the University of Washington School of Social Work. Huma believes health care is a human right and is passionate about improved access to health care services.

Here are some of the important initiatives Huma participates in through her work at NoHLA:

• Huma has played a key role in securing seats for grassroots consumers on the governing board of the King County Accountable Community of Health, a regional decision-making body with the goal of improving health and health equity.
• Huma spearheaded the creation of a set of principles for ensuring that consumers are well-served as our state begins to integrate behavioral health services into Medicaid managed care plans. Consumer-Centric Considerations for Integration promotes a coordinated effort to keep the patient’s well-being in the forefront as the systems are integrated.
• Huma has been instrumental in providing client-focused input into Washington State’s groundbreaking Medicaid Transformation Waiver, leading advocates’ efforts to communicate concerns to the state and federal governments.
• Huma is the Regional Coordinator for Raising Women’s Voices, a national initiative working to ensure women’s health is addressed in policy discussions and decisions. She is working in Washington to ensure that insurers comply with the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate and that women can maintain access to prenatal care and family planning services in the face of threats to coverage on the Federal level.

Huma enjoys volunteering and previously served on the Board of Directors of Chaya (now API-Chaya), a Seattle based nonprofit working to end domestic violence in the South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Muslim communities. She also volunteered with Health Right International where she conducted mental health assessments for asylum applicants. Following college graduation, Huma’s interest in both local and global health issues led her to volunteer at an orphanage and maternity hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.