Zala Zia

Zala Zia is currently writing a series of self-improvement books on happiness and blogs about the ills of society and how to put them right. She lived and studied in Oxford shortly before becoming the UK Director for one of the world's largest international Public Relations companies, overseeing political and public sector campaigns across Europe.

She recently relocated to sunny California from the UK after successfully launching a government-backed online school for local communities with her brother. Zala’s pro bono work has included consulting Ambassadors from developing countries with their nation branding strategies in the UK and rallying public figures and celebrities to support her projects for victims of natural disasters in the third world.

Zala is Partner and Director of Communications at the Centre for Professional and Academic Development, London, UK since July 2011. The Centre of Professional and Academic Development (CentrePAD) is a revolutionary approach to online learning. It is the largest community-oriented online learning network in the UK, where students of any age, or level of qualification and tutors of any discipline, teach and learn via secure, state-of-the-art online classrooms.

The Centre of Professional and Academic Development raises the aspirations of our community, removes the barriers in the way of education (cost, time, distance, intimidation and confidence), gives citizens the skills that can change their lives and give them opportunities and support students in school and people outside school who want to teach themselves or learn something new.

The Centre of Professional and Academic Development is a virtual school that teaches through online classrooms with live teachers from across the country and teaches people of any academic ability, of any age, and from any background, delivers foundation to advanced lessons for the whole community, provides private tuition for students in school and deliver vocational and recreational subjects for the whole community.

Zala is also in the process of creating a fundraising project that will bring together high profile individuals to show solidarity for Pakistan in its time of need and maximise their ability to reach out to a wider audience. In a creative and unusual way, she is trying to encourage people, who may not be aware of the crisis situation, to support those suffering.

She decided to make a high profile book (Zala's Celebrity Cook Book: A flood relief project for Pakistan), containing the favourite recipes of well-respected celebrities and public figures; a book that the wider public would genuinely want to own, while supporting a humanitarian crisis with its purchase.

She has many people pledging their commitment to the project already, including labour politicians Nick Clegg and Tony Benn, the boxing champ Amir Khan, the legendary George Galloway, the fearless entrepreneur James Caan, the inspirational Baroness Warsi and the innovative Heston Blumenthal.

The book in its entirety is being created with people and organisations willing to work pro bono, with all proceeds from the sale of the book going to charity. Whether it is contacting celebrities, attracting publishers, or convincing media to support the project, it all takes a lot of research, dedication and damn hard work - and she admits it is extraordinarily difficult to do on her own.