Fourth Trimester Project

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Pegah Jalali

CEO/Executive Director Experience

Pegah Jalali is the founder and President of Fourth Trimester Project. She holds a PhD in Environmental Economics and has spent her career working at the intersection of research, policy, and community impact. Her professional background includes roles as a researcher and policy analyst at nonprofit organizations, where she developed expertise in translating complex problems into actionable programs and building coalitions around shared goals. Prior to her work in the United States, she led community-based environmental initiatives in Iran, giving her firsthand experience in grassroots organizing, volunteer coordination, and building organizations from the ground up in resource-limited environments. Pegah founded Fourth Trimester Project from a deeply personal place. As a mother of a young child who navigated early motherhood far from family and without a support network nearby, she experienced firsthand the isolation that so many new mothers face, and recognized that the community around her had no coordinated response to that need. She channeled her research training, policy experience, and community organizing background into building Fourth Trimester Project from scratch: developing the organizational structure, drafting all governing documents, assembling and leading a founding board of six women, navigating the full nonprofit formation process, and designing the programs and operational systems that will serve families across South Orange County. She leads this organization not only as an experienced nonprofit professional but as someone who lived the problem she is now working to solve.

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