Surina works in philanthropy, currently as the CEO of the Women’s Foundation of California. She has worked at a number of organizations including the Ford Foundation, Metro Publications Inc., Political Research Associates, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Her writing has been widely published in numerous magazines, newspapers, anthologies, and blogs.

Her blog is an autobiographical, humorous story of growing up in a large family, of a life lived traveling back and forth between Pakistan and Connecticut, of homosexuality, activism, philanthropy, migration, education, her status on the No-Fly Watch List, and life in California with her partner Jennifer Terry and their dog Rosie.