Meena has over 25 years of experience working across industry sectors specializing in public policy, strategy and programme design as well as marketing. She has worked closely with senior management in leading organizations around the world advising them on change management strategies and supporting the implementation. She has worked on several case studies at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and IMT, Dubai. She has a double Masters in Biotechnology and Management, and a certificate on Social Entrepreneurship from INSEAD.
Hobbies:
She is an accomplished vocalist and loves to travel and cook. Her favorite travel destinations are food and wine trails. I have done 13 major vineyards around the world so far.
Unique skills:
She believes in being a hands-on professional and switches easily between boardroom discussions and working on the field.
Fun fact:
Her fridge magnet collection was featured in the Hindustan times Sunday magazine Brunch in 2012.
Ruchi is a Chartered Accountant and diploma holder in Systems Design from NIIT. Her intrigue made her experiment with process design for cost optimization and efficiency in her corporate roles. A sabbatical led her to dabble with social work and eventually move to the development sector in her second career stint. Her experience in content development, M&E in niiti gave us the confidence to initiate program implementation with our non-profit organization – Questera Foundation. Presently she is engaged in running Questera and leading M&E projects at niiti.
Hobbies:
Shei loves to crochet, dance, swim and cook. Her love for thrill gets her to experiment with adventure sports.
Unique skills:
Her ability to be hands-on makes her a very resourceful person.
Fun fact:
She can entertain kids endlessly and competes with them at board games.
Vaishali is a Chartered Accountant turned Development Consultant, owing to her passion to do something meaningful for the society. She completed her graduation from Shri Ram College of Commerce and has worked with PwC for 3 years in Statutory and Social Audits. In the social sector, her areas of work have involved Project Management of development projects, Action Research, Impact Analysis, M&E, Report writing, Pilot study for technology platforms and so on. She has an inclination towards contributing to social issues like livelihoods, women empowerment and mental health. She has volunteered for youth-empowerment and COVID-relief programs with Art of Living.
Hobbies:
Vaishali enjoys dancing and talking to people- from friends to absolute strangers. If eating and meditating can be considered hobbies, then those are the most preferred ones (sometimes together). She considers herself as an old soul in an upbeat millennial body.
Unique skills:
Visually representing complex subjective data in simplified, logical & understandable form, Getting people to timely work towards a common goal, Empathetic & Appreciative.
Fun fact:
In school, she was recognized as “Student of the Year” in the year in which she gave her personal worst performance of all times.
Ramya is a typical MBA, who did her time in marketing and business consulting, before taking an unexpected route through magazine editing to the social sector. She is an Action-Research and content writing wizard, whose ability to synthesize patterns from data and putting them into appropriate words, make it easier for the decision makers to clearly understand the status quo and take the necessary next steps.
Hobbies:
She loves collecting Indian textiles and reading.
Unique skills:
Bringing clarity to chaos, dealing with ambiguity, bringing out the best in people
Fun fact:
She has two left feet.
Sudeshna uses her doctoral degree in Economics to analyze developmental problems by validating information and making a deep dive into data while being cognizant of all factors influencing them. She has more than 20 years of experience around adult education, evaluation and research.
Hobbies:
She enjoys gardening and loves to engage in DIY arts. Travelling to unknown territory makes her most happy and she gets intrigued by the strengths of simple living.
Unique skills:
Leading a team while making work a learning experience and not stressful for any in the team is her forte. For her clients, she begins to think of the projects she is engaged in as her own.
Fun fact:
Her social media presence is minimal and she hates waking up for early morning meetings.
Sonal is a post graduate in Psychology, P.G. diploma in NGO Management and possess bachelor degree in Law. She is a development professional with over 20 years of experience. She loves learning new skills and exploring new areas of work.
Hobbies:
She loves reading, listening to music and cooking.
Unique skills:
Effective trainer who develops audience centric content. Connect well with diverse range of stakeholders
Fun fact:
She is scared of lizards.
Shivangi completed her Masters in Economics from TERI School of Advanced Studies, Delhi, in the year 2019. She is strongly inclined towards qualitative/quantitative research. She did her master’s thesis on ‘Sustaining the Sugarcane Value Chain in India’ which aimed to ensure environmental sustainability of biofuels produced as a sugar by-product in India. She has worked with PRADAN for a few projects involving literature reviews and qualitative research. She has also worked as a part time research assistant for Ms. Devaki Jain- Padma Bhushan feminist economist and assisted her in writing papers majorly focused on gender studies and studies that throws light on United Nations since 1945.
Hobbies:
She loves to dance, listening to Linkin park and watching thriller shows.
Unique skills:
Graphic designing, data analysis and representation, working under pressure, work more efficiently when given multiple tasks
Fun fact:
12 am is her dancing hour and she can make a dead person laugh.
Aratrika entered the development sector for volunteering in a NGO in Kolkata to pass time after completing her bachelors, but later went on to do masters in Women Studies. She has worked with the government of Andhra Pradesh pertaining to issues regarding gender, livelihood, anti-human trafficking and menstrual hygiene. She also worked as a political consultant for the 2021 WB elections.
Hobbies:
She loves cooking, collecting books, exploring different genre of music
Unique skills:
Specializes in primary and secondary research, data collection, qualitative analysis and project monitoring
Fun fact:
She gets distracted by dogs while talking to humans
