Zakiya Summers begins her second term in 2024 as the Mississippi State Representative for House District 68, which includes West Jackson in Hinds County as well as Pearl and Richland in Rankin County.  During her first term, she sat on the following committees: Public Education, Elections and Apportionment, Public Health and Human Services, County Affairs, and Workforce Development. Zakiya also serves as the Public Information Officer for the House Democratic Caucus and Secretary of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus.

Zakiya has championed equitable legislation as a freshman legislator, including the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, computer science curriculum in all public K-12 schools, increased funding for early learning collaboratives, teacher loan repayment program for new teachers and teacher pay raises, and voter suffrage. She continues to fight for expanded access to the ballot box and for healthcare, an increase in the minimum wage increase and a state-earned income tax credit, protections for natural hair in the workplace, criminal justice reform, and funding to support the Capitol City’s water/sewer infrastructure.

In 2021, she completed the Center for the Advancement of Leadership Skills by the Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Government. This exclusive program trains state legislators on how to hone in on their leadership skills in order to become more effective leaders. Currently, Zakiya is expanding her leadership toolbox as an E Pluribus Unum fellow, Fair Fight National fellow, Women’s Democracy Lab fellow, and member of the 34th class of Leadership Greater Jackson. The White House invited her to be a part of a legislative briefing on child care in 2023, where she learned about critical Biden-Harris Administration actions and state-level reforms to improve access, affordability, and sustainability.

She is the former Director of Communications and Advocacy for the ACLU of Mississippi.  Prior to the ACLU, she served as Events and Communications Director for One Voice, a policy advocacy organization that works for the benefit of marginalized populations in partnership with community-based organizations, namely the Mississippi NAACP.  Zakiya also represented Mississippi’s backyard jewel – the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center – as Public Relations Manager and Internal Relations Coordinator after working as the morning news producer at the NBC affiliate, WLBT-TV 3.

At the ACLU of Mississippi, Zakiya led the advocacy and communications campaigns that supported the affiliate’s legislative priorities and litigation strategies and promoted equity and justice for all Mississippians. She worked to push the affiliate’s ambitious Equity Agenda, which elevated reforms that impact the criminal legal system, expand voter access, promote policies and practices that ensure equal treatment and protection, champion educational opportunities, and defend the civil liberties and civil rights of all Mississippians. She worked to develop coalitions, organized communities, created programs that provided education, and developed strategies with the intended purpose of supporting public policy that makes societal impacts for a better Mississippi. 

She has stood on the frontlines of public service. After serving as the appointed Hinds County District 3 Election Commissioner in 2015, Zakiya ran and won the seat for the full four-year term in November 2016, garnering 65% of the vote. As Election Commissioner, she ushered in a higher level of customer service, transparency, and accountability, better training for poll workers, increased voter education and engagement, and created opportunities for students with the development of the Hinds County Student Poll Worker Program and mock elections at all of the Jackson public high schools.  

An entrepreneur, Zakiya owns her own corporate event planning and public relations consulting company, Lady Godiva Productions. Mississippi Business Journal selected her as one of the top 50 Business Leading Women of the Year in 2018. She currently serves as a board member for the Amiable Arts Foundation and the Refill Jackson Initiative, a workforce development program in West Jackson, MS, as well as an advisory board member for the Warren & Ericka Martin Foundation and State Treasurer for the Mississippi Democratic Party. She is the immediate past co-chair of the Mississippi Sickle Cell Foundation, board member of the University Mississippi Medical Center Community Advisory Board, secretary for the Jayne Avenue Neighborhood Association, past member of United Way of the Capitol Area’s Young Professional Leaders Council, Women for Progress of Mississippi; NAACP – Jackson, MS Branch; Hinds County Federation of Democratic Women; Hinds County Health Department Family Planning Council; and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Her sorority chapter, Rho Iota Zeta, awarded her the Social Justice Award in 2018 and the Finer Womanhood Award in 2020.

Young Church Women United recognized Zakiya as the 2019 Human Rights Awardee, and Butterflies for Grace Defined by Faith awarded her with the 2021 SHERO Award as an advocate against domestic violence. Also, in 2021, Zakiya graduated from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellowship program. In 2022, the Jefferson County Hospital Partial Hospitalization Program, led by Lucas Watson, named her Public Citizen of the Year. She also received the Community Service Award from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Epsilon Lambda Chapter and, most recently, the Women Leading Change in Politics and Government Award from Women for Progress in Mississippi. 

Zakiya has been featured in publications such as the Clarion Ledger, Jackson Free Press, The Jackson Advocate, The Mississippi Link, Mississippi Today, and the Washington Post. 

Zakiya is a Broadcast Journalism graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and is pursuing a master of public policy and administration degree from Jackson State University.  She is married to husband, Andra Harlee, and they have three sons – Marvin, Mason, and Mathis. Mississippi Families for Kids awarded Zakiya and her family the “Family of the Year Award” in 2019. They attend Greater Mt. Bethel Church of Christ Holiness USA in West Jackson, MS.