Makam is a media activist from Chicago using video as a tool for change. She is the U.S. Program Coordinator at WITNESS, a human rights nonprofit based in Brooklyn that trains activists, organizers and community members to film human rights abuses and use the footage as evidence and advocacy around the world. Her work focuses on how video documentation, data and storytelling can be used to hold law enforcement accountable, fight deportations, and protect the rights of the marginalized, immigrant, and communities of color around the country.
 
Makam is also the cofounder of The Babel Project – a nonprofit partnering with youth activists around the world to teach the use of storytelling and documentary film to advocate for themselves and their communities. She has worked with over 400 young people from Ferguson and Standing Rock to South Africa and Palestine. Films created with youth activists have been used in advocacy campaigns, as evidence in court cases, and screened everywhere from The United Nations to high school classrooms.
 
She believes that visual documentation and counter narratives are integral to creating systemic change, and hopes to equip more people with the skills and support necessary to bear witness and help create justice.
 
Makam is an Emerging Activist Fellow with The Social Change Initiative. She holds a BA in Journalism and Social and Cultural Analysis from NYU, and a MA in International Affairs, concentrating in human rights and media from The New School.