Tengku Nur Qistina is the program officer for policy at The Asia Foundation in Malaysia. Her areas are care economy and upskilling women.
Before joining The Asia Foundation in 2023, Qistina was a management consultant in the corporate industry, focusing on the public sector and government-related projects and institutions. Before that, the bulk of her career was spent on women’s issues and gender policies, as well as youth and human rights in Malaysia, regionally and internationally, as part of her work for a national Malaysian think tank. She initiated the think tank’s focus on gender in Malaysia. Qistina has also been contributing her thoughts and research interests to local Malaysian newspapers, such as New Straits Times, The Star, Berita Harian, and Sin Chew Daily since 2016 and has appeared on local Malaysian TV (Astro Awani and BERNAMA) and radio (BFM Malaysia), where she speaks on nation-building, women, family and gender issues, and history.
She is also active in volunteering, where she is a student mentor for organizations such as Closing the Gap Malaysia and Girls4Girls Malaysia. To further pursue her passion for the development of youth, women, and girls, she founded her own podcast focusing on inspiring Malaysian women by speaking to other Malaysian women through Cik Malaysia.
Education: Her education includes a bachelor’s degree in Law from The University of Manchester and a master’s degree in National Security Studies (with theses on Terrorism and Cybersecurity) at King’s College, London. She also has qualifications in Gender Budgeting and Ocean Law and Governance.