After receiving her Bachelor's degree in mathematics from Mount Holyoke College, Shahd officially started her career in teaching as a math teaching fellow at King's Academy in Jordan, where she attended high school and had been working as a teacher at the Summer Enrichment Program since her first year of college. Part of her decision to move to Portland is to refamiliarize herself with where she lived as a young child, and where her mother was raised. Shahd spends most of her free time baking; she loves working with dough and has recently started practicing baking and decorating cakes. Shahd also likes working on 1000-piece puzzles, and plans to take on bigger puzzles.