Benish Shah

Benish Shah passed away on December 7th, 2023, at 41. She died unexpectedly of natural causes while traveling for work to Boston. Benish was born in Islamabad, Pakistan to Adeel and Musarrat Shah. At a very young age, she moved to the US where she graduated with a bachelor's from George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate from Emory University. After graduating, she moved to New York, which she called "home". In 2020, during the pandemic, Benish moved to Texas to spend time with her first niece.

While she was a lawyer by education, Benish found her calling as an award-winning marketer and strategist. She worked in several industries from media to a reproductive-health non-profit. She served on the board of Greyston and the advisory board of Hello Neighbor. Benish was also a thought leader and avid advocate for powerless or disenfranchised communities. She regularly donated her time and resources to help make the world a better place. She was a mentor and confidant to many because of her unwavering commitment to uplifting people around her, providing them with the skills, opportunities, and confidence to succeed in life.

Despite her many accolades and accomplishments in the professional world, Benish's greatest talent was her ability to tell stories, and to allow others to take part in them. She loved deeply and dedicated self-published books to the children in her life, in hopes that they would see themselves in books and fall in love with themselves at an early age.

Benish was known for her intelligence, empathy, generosity, and kind spirit. Her sense of wonder was contagious to all those lucky enough to be close to her. She was a one-in-a-millennia type of person. Benish is survived by her parents, sister, brother, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and her nieces and nephew whom she loved endlessly.

A funeral service was held on Monday, December 11th in Maryland, where Benish was surrounded by the love of her family and friends who traveled from around the world to bid her farewell.