A K Shiva Kumar is a development economist and professor who teaches at Harvard University, Indian School of Business and the Young India Fellowship. He was also an advisor to UNICEF India and was a member of India's National Advisory Council. His research has focused on poverty and human development, social sector analysis, and the impact of development policies on children and women. He studied at IIM Ahmedabad, has an MA in Economics from Bangalore University, and a Masters in Public Administration and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard.
Senior Manager - Communication and Engagement
For the past 9 years, Adil has worked in education with The Elite’s Co-ed School, Oxford University Press India and the Young India Fellowship - Ashoka University. Prior to joining ISDM, Adil headed admissions at Vedica Scholars Programme for Women. He has made a couple of short films - one of which won the best film award at the Verite Film festival held at the Islamic University- Kashmir. Adil lives in Delhi and loves to travel, cook, and play the guitar. He is a Masters in Mass communication and Journalism and specializes in film making and photography.
Administration Executive
Afsar started his first job in 2009 with a BPO for inbound and outbound sales processes. He then worked with Wyra Knowledge Solutions as a Customer Care Executive and education counselor, also handling a team for education processes. Afsar has a B.Com. from Delhi University.
Senior Research Fellow and Faculty - ISDM
Aruna comes with deep engagement in domains of Natural Resource Governance, Institution Building and Sustainable Livelihoods. In her 14 years of experiencing and co-creating social change with communities, Aruna has worked with institutions like BRLF, an autonomous society of Ministry of Rural Development - Government of India, TISS (Mumbai), SOAS - University of London, IIM - Ahmedabad, ISAP (New Delhi). Her domain of expertise and interest are environmental governance, social research, education, innovation and Institution Building. She has received the Young Analyst Award by EU and DPG, the prestigious M. K. Tata Prize and the NTPC gold medal for her Masters dissertation and the Felix Scholarship Trust award for her PhD at SOAS on ‘Solidarity Economy: Negotiating claims, solidarity and dissent in India’, amongst others. Aruna also is a board member of Swechha - We for Change Foundation. At ISDM, Aruna leads the Knowledge and Research Centre. As faculty for ISDM’s post-graduate programme in Development Leadership, Aruna also co-leads and supports learning modules on Environment and Development, Systems Design for Social Interventions and Radical Transformation Leadership amongst many others.
Priti has worked as a clinician and a researcher for over 7 years. She has led a number of outreach programmes and research studies in oral health. While working in public health, she felt the need to understand the development sector to be able to think and design in systems for ethical and sustainable social change. She began this exploration at ISDM as a student and now as a part of the research team. She feels strongly about issues around the ‘child-parent eco-system and volunteers for the same. She completed her PGP in Development Leadership from ISDM, and Post-Graduate Diploma in Health Economics, Health Care Financing and Policy. She is a qualified Dentist having studied BDS and MDS (in Public Health Dentistry)
Gaurav has experience of working in the private sector and the development space (microfinance, health, impact investment, education), largely as a management consultant with P&G, American Express, Azim Premji Foundation, Lok Capital etc. His areas of experience include program management and implementation, strategic and business planning, organization restructuring and design and sales & distribution management. Gaurav has an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.E. and an M.Sc. from BITS Pilani.
Gayatri has been a part of the corporate and entrepreneurial culture for the past 6 years having been involved with three startups and her own social enterprise. She completed her bachelors in Business (Legal Studies) and Earth and Environmental Sciences. She holds a certificate in Development Studies from Azim Premji University and an MBA from the Indian School of Business.
Bricoleur
Jahnvi is Program Director for the Post Graduate Program in Development Leadership at ISDM. Jahnvi has worked for nearly 30 years in rural communities on women's leadership and gender equality. She was part of the team that setup ANANDI, an organisation that has worked for more than two decades on women’s empowerment. She worked with Mahila Samakhya and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and completed her PhD in Social Work in 2018. She has worked with teams that have diverse skill sets and professional backgrounds to ensure effective program delivery.
Over the last 20 years, Kamini has worked with a number of social purpose organizations, including Care India, Hope Project, Pravah and WSSCC. Social inclusion and non-discrimination have been recurring themes in her work. As Executive Director of the Hope Project, Kamini learnt first-hand the challenges of organisation building, and also gained an in-depth view of the myriad ways in which social exclusion impacts the lives of the poor. Her tenure at Pravah helped her build expertise in designing and implementing youth development programs, as well as leading research and impact evaluations of youth programs. Kamini has a Masters in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics. She is co-author of “The Ocean in a Drop: Inside – Out Youth Leadership” (SAGE Publications).
Lopamudra has been working in different domains within the development sector for the last 11 years. Her experience lies primarily in Communications, Advocacy and Dissemination in the domains of Environment, Child Rights and Protection and Public Health. Before joining ISDM, Lopamudra spent close to 4 years in the Public Health sector working on advocacy with government departments, elected representatives and health influencers. She completed BA (Cons) English Literature from Miranda House, University of Delhi, and MSW from Department of Social Work, University of Delhi. Lopa (as she is addressed) loves to travel, cook, read and write.
Manish worked for 8 years in the education start up space and has contributed in several ways in accounts and administration of reputed organizations – handling MIS, maintaining all official records including invoicing and payments, controlling inventory, issuing of purchase requisitions, vouchers and bookkeeping. He is trained in Tally, Taxation, Company law and MS Office programs. Manish has a B.Com and a Diploma in Computer Application from NIFA.
Maroof Khan began his career as an Assistant Store Manager in New Zealand after pursuing B.com. from M.J.P. Rohilkhand University. He returned to India after 2 years with a vision to make Indian societies as ‘Just and Equitable’ as he has seen during his time abroad. He joined Department of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia to pursue Masters in Social Work and went on to work with PRADAN to live up to his dream of working at the grassroots with some of the most vulnerable Scheduled Tribes of Jharkhand. Managing flagship projects like NRLM and CFT-MGNREGA and simultaneously coordinating several other thematic projects, Maroof has developed proficiency in Project Management and identified Women Collectives and Governance & Citizenship as his areas of interest. At ISDM, Maroof is the Programme Associate for PGP DL.
Naghma has approximately 20 years of experience of working and consulting with Social Purpose Organisations and teaching at reputed institutions. Her field experience has strengthened her teaching both graduate and post graduate students in Delhi School of Social Work, School of Planning & Architecture, Ambedkar University and University of Pittsburgh. Her forte is designing and facilitating learning experiences. Through her work with Pravah, she has mentored many young people and youth led organisations across the nations. Currently, she is part of the founding team and board of Rubaroo, Hyderabad and Trustee of Had Anhad, Indore. Both organisations working with adolescents and young people to empower them to be active citizens. Naghma is pursuing her PhD from Ambedkar University, Delhi and holds degrees in Clinical Psychology and Applied Development Psychology.
A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector. After leading small CSR volunteering projects in her company, she realized she wanted to contribute to more meaningful work. Since then, she then worked with Teach For India and Care India leading their Partnerships and Fundraising efforts. She is an alum from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) is currently leading our Fundraising and Alumni Engagement efforts. Nitisha feels strongly about the issue of Sustainable Menstruation and Climate Crisis and is relentlessly working to take concrete action steps on both the issues. She is a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow and is leading the Let's Talk, Period Project in the Global Shapers Community- Delhi which is an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
Priyanka graduated in English Literature from Indraprastha college For Women, University of Delhi; post which she entered the social sector with Teach For India joining them as a Fellow in 2011. The Fellowship turned out to be a great learning experience for her and she continued this journey as a Program Manager at TFI, coaching and mentoring more than 85 teachers and helping them undergo a personal transformation from college graduates to successful leaders. This Journey further continued as Priyanka joined the Akanksha Foundation as an Instructional Specialist coaching teachers and School Leaders. The desire to ground herself in a solid knowledge base and learning from experts and practitioners in the sector brought her to ISDM where she was a part of the first batch of PGPDL. Priyanka continues her journey at ISDM as a part of the Continuing Education Programme strategising and designing Leadership Development Programmes for Leadership in the sector.
Ravi worked for 24 years in the corporate sector, most of which was at HSBC where he was the Regional Marketing Head for Middle East and Africa, Head of Consumer Products for Asia Pacific, Consumer Banking Head of Indonesia, CEO and President Director of Bank Ekonomi (a local bank in Indonesia that was acquired by HSBC). He quit his corporate career and switched to the social sector in 2011, joining Azim Premji Foundation where he was the Head of Education Leadership & Management. Ravi has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B. Tech. from IIT-BHU.
Rohini has over 18 years of experience in the secretarial field. She worked for top management in the service and product sectors at Azim Premji Foundation, Gokak Textiles, Trident Infosol and Ocean Sparkle Ltd. Her areas of expertise include executive correspondence, calendar management, travel arrangements (domestic and international), report management, and coordination between various teams. She has an MBA (Tourism) and BA (Economics) and PGDCA.
Sajit has been actively involved with various 'Social Purpose Organisations' in the field of Education, Disability, Livelihood and Healthcare over the last 12 years. Prior to being part of ISDM, Sajit was involved with 'Yuva Parivartan' and was responsible for Resource Mobilization, Grants & Proposals Management, Donor Relationships and Program management for livelihood projects across 17 states in India. He is passionate about building capacities & capabilities of small Community based organisations and actively supports them in various capacities. Currently @ ISDM, his role as a 'Senior Academic Associate' includes building the Knowledge Infrastructure in collaboration with other teams, ensuring lack of bottlenecks in transfer of knowledge to the students and maintaining & evolving a functional 'Learning Management System'. He has completed his Post-Graduation in Voluntary Service Organisation from NMIMS and B.Sc. Physics from Mumbai University
Sandeep has extensive experience in Marketing and Communications with a specialization in Digital Marketing. In his 10+ years of experience, he has worked with Times of India, Percept, Ignitee-To The New, SOIL, Medicover and Great Lakes Institute of Management. Sandeep has handled marketing and communication strategy for both national and international brands. Sandeep lives in Delhi and loves to travel and watch movies. He has a PGDMM from Times School of Marketingand a B.Sc.(IT) from Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi.
Sangita is a commerce postgraduate from Panjab University with specialization in Marketing and Human Resource Management. She is working in ISDM as a marketing executive and is a part of Communications and Engagement team. She is an ardent animal-lover, she enjoys spending time with nature, reading books and listening to poetry.
Counselor
Satjyot is a trained rehabilitation psychologist with an M. Sc in Psychology and PG Diploma in Rehabilitation Psychology with 11+ years of experience. She is a trained and certified expert in modalities like psychotherapy, hypnosis and NLP. Satyjot specializes in addiction problems, marriage and relationship counselling and started her individual practice at "The Mind Vriksha". She is also associated with Felix Hospital in Noida as a consultant, and an online portal providing online counselling support.
Sharad has worked extensively in the automotive industry working for global OEMs from different parts of the world. Besides building a solid business, Sharad has also travelled widely around the world. In addition to this, he has been working with schools driving scale and quality. Sharad is on the Board and actively supports IIMPACT which has established 2000 centres, working with over 55,000 out-of-school-girls to educate and mainstream them. Sharad has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur.
Growing up in the temple town of Varanasi, my childhood witnessed an amalgamation of the traditional cultures of both UP and Karnataka. My diverse interests led me to indulge in creative pursuits ranging from sketching, dancing, drama and especially sports. A national sports person I became the youngest captain for the state level ball badminton team and won many accolades in other national athletic events as well. A conscious choice to work towards the upliftment of Indian agrarian society led me to the Institute of Agriculture Sciences, BHU. To put the final touch to my education in rural development, I accepted an offer from PRADAN known for its brilliant work in the livelihood sector. This decision took me to far-flung villages of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh where I closely experienced lives of tribal communities and their settlement, culture, art, music, as well as taboos, the way they sustain their lives which is based mainly on agriculture as the livelihood option and how do they deal with it. Being with them in close proximity led me to think that only livelihood can change the status, we have to and need to intervene in a multidimensional way in order to bring the change for a better world. Hunger to learn more and explore more not only practically but also in theoretical terms led me to ISDM. After completion of the Postgraduate Programme in Development Leadership, I joined the academic team at the Indian School of Development Management to further explore and carve my learning journey.
Suparna has worked extensively in the development sector for more than 30 years, starting her career with MYRADA. She led and managed multiple projects at Adamya Chetana, Centre for Leadership and Management in Public Services, the Karnataka Department of Public Instruction and the Indian Institute of Science. Suparna also has experience in curriculum development, teaching, design, project development and implementation, corporate trainings and numerous collaborative projects with TISS, The Teacher Foundation, ABB, Azim Premji Foundation and UNICEF. She has also published papers on academic leadership, management and governance. Suparna has a PGDHRM from Symbiosis, an M.A. in Economics from Gokhale Institute and a B.Sc. from Bangalore University.
Zuha holds a degree in political science and social work. She was associated with social purpose organizations and has experience of working with children from vulnerable backgrounds, women and elderly from community and shelter home settings. She was a student of second batch of ISDM and is now a part of the ISDM family.