Samad Agha is Project Development Coordinator at Manāra Policy & Practice, where he manages project pipelines, coordinates stakeholder engagement, and supports the firm's business development and partnership functions. He brings over eight years of experience spanning urban and regional planning, humanitarian programming, and development project management across Pakistan and the United States. Most recently, Samad served as Regional Planner with the Central Texas Council of Governments, where he developed planning toolkits, managed grant repositories, conducted comprehensive planning research, and provided urban planning services to local municipalities. Previously, he worked as Fellow Urban Planner at Ayres Associates in Tampa, Florida, contributing to community design projects and planning deliverables, and as Graduate Research Assistant at the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research, supporting data management and research initiatives. Earlier in his career, Samad spent four years with the UN International Organization for Migration in Pakistan as Shelter Program Officer, where he coordinated the ARUP Shelter Research Project, managed donor reporting for multi-year humanitarian programs funded by FCDO, and organized IOM's Shelter Working Group bringing together government agencies, UN counterparts, academia, and civil society organizations. He also worked with FCDO Pakistan as Business/Program Support Officer, reviewing technical reports and compiling project data for the National School Construction Program. His expertise includes comprehensive planning, zoning and ordinance development, land use analysis, community design, and coastal hazard mitigation. Samad holds a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor's degree in Architecture Design from Beaconhouse National University. At Manāra, he supports business development, coordinates multi-stakeholder engagements, and ensures smooth project pipeline management as the firm scales its advisory and research portfolio.