Dr. F. Zehra Allahverdi was born in New York. She completed her undergraduate degree at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany both in Psychology and English Literature and completed her minor in Education. She completed her master's degree (Educational Psychology and Methodology) in 2013 and her PhD (Educational Psychology) in 2018 at SUNY-Albany. Between 2013 and 2015, she worked as a Research Specialist at SUNY-Albany at the Child Research and Study Center. She was a part of the ISA-X intervention which addresses motivation, knowledge building, and comprehension. She also worked as a Research Analyst at SUNY- Schenectady for 1.5 years (2018-2019). While working in SUNY-Schenectady she was the Argos (Evisions) project manager and took part in the accreditation evaluation of SUNY-Schenectady.  Zehra Allahverdi provided support in defining data points, methods of statistical analysis, and benchmarks in support of strategic planning and institutional effectiveness. Moreover, she has experience working as an Adjunct Professor both at the State University of New York at Albany and at Siena College.