Samia is a conservation specialist with over 15 years of experience in biodiversity management, combating illegal wildlife trade, and tiger conservation in Bangladesh. Her PhD research at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, UK was the first in-depth research on tiger poaching in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, documenting organized poaching, trade networks, and the drivers of tiger killing. This research received the Future For Nature Award and contributed to national and international conservation and law-enforcement efforts.

She later served as Counter Wildlife Trafficking Programme Lead for the U.S. Department of Justice’s ICITAP programme in Bangladesh, strengthening multi-agency capacity to combat wildlife crime and advocating for stronger policies and legislation to protect wildlife from poaching and trafficking. Earlier, she worked on community-based human–tiger conflict mitigation in the Sundarbans. She is also an assessor contributing to Bangladesh’s Red List update, with a focus on assessing cat species.