Our Team
A passionate team dedicated to expanding gender equality in India and around the world
Ankita Jhaveri, Interim Executive Director
Ankita (she/her) is: a mom, wife, aunty, sister, and daughter; a peer, colleague, friend, leader, learner, and neighbor; an aspiring writer; a yoga enthusiast; a (reluctant) runner; a reader; a lover of laughter; and a daydreamer. Born and raised in India, Ankita is the younger daughter of immigrant parents. She was raised to thrive across boundaries – age, gender, language, race, socioeconomic status, and culture among others. Her passion for driving change that supports young people to lead meaningful lives, especially those who are underrepresented, underserved, and overlooked in our communities, threads through her professional journey.
Upasana Saha, Director of Programs, India Consultant
Upasana holds an MA in Human Rights and a BA in Political Science from Presidency College, Calcutta University. She is an enthusiastic social development practitioner and a striving feminist with a rich professional experience of designing, scaling gender justice, and community-centric programs with marginalized and at-risk populations in India especially adolescents and young women and men. Prior to Shadhika, Upasana worked with nonprofit organizations such as Raleigh International (Karnataka), Child in Need Institute ( Jharkhand), CREA (Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh), and Equal Community Foundation (Maharashtra).
Sunil Gangavane, Program Officer, India Consultant
Sunil is a facilitator and development practitioner with a rich experience in working with grassroots organisations and marginalised communities, especially girls, Dalit and LGBT youth. He has extensive experience in facilitating youth-led participatory action research projects. Sunil has a postgraduate diploma in development education from Maynooth University as well as an MA in Psychology from the University of Mumbai. He enjoys gardening and travelling in his spare time.
Jenna Sweig, Development Officer
Jenna has extensive experience working with organizations in the international development sector, and particularly enjoys building partnerships between value-aligned organizations to catalyze sustainable change. In 2023 she completed her MS in Nonprofit Management, Fundraising, and Development from Northeastern University. In her spare time Jenna enjoys aerial arts, skiing, climbing, arts and crafts, and spending time with her pup outdoors in Colorado.
Urmila Reghunath, Communications Manager, India Consultant
Urmila works at the intersection of communications and development practice and strives to deliver ethical and meaningful ways of communicating the scope of social work. With an academic background in Development Studies and Media Practice for Social Change, Urmila has experience of supporting governmental and nonprofit entities working towards equity in access to education in Tamil Nadu. In her free time, she enjoys painting and creating comic strips.
Staff
Chandre Sarkar Singhal, Board Member
Chandre is a passionate and dedicated professional who brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit management, fueled by a genuine dedication to community service. Her journey has been defined by a steadfast commitment to ensuring a legacy of empowerment, growth, and positive transformation. Chandre brings with her a proven track record in strategic planning, fundraising, and governance to Shadhika. She was born in Kolkata and grew up in the SF Bay Area where she currently resides with her husband, two kids and two dogs.
Diane Sigel, Board Emeritus
For 30+ years, Diane served as CEO for the family business, Duffle Bag, Inc., and knows the challenges of a woman working in a man’s world and has succeeded in establishing herself as a leader in a male-dominated field. Diane is dedicated to sharing her skills and her knowledge as a mentor, advisor, and sounding board for local, regional and national nonprofits from Hadassah to arts organizations and academic councils.
Shaheen Lokhandwala, Board Co-Chair
Shaheen currently works in the nonprofit space building programs and opportunities for Black entrepreneurs to build wealth and create jobs in their community. Shaheen comes from the world of higher education, having spent 10 years working at universities helping researchers and students turn their ideas into successful startup companies. Her passion for generating equality in entrepreneurship is unmatched, creating access to resources and opportunities for traditionally underserved populations. Shaheen's family is originally from India and she is a Houston native currently residing in Northwest Arkansas with her two dogs.
Tara Risser, Board Member
Tara Risser is a senior executive in the technology sector who for nearly 20 years has led teams and spearheaded transformations to deliver a simpler, better way to do business. Currently President, Americas, Tara is responsible for management, strategy and growth in the Americas region, including operations in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico and the U.S. at Equinix, the world’s digital infrastructure company. A champion of diversity and inclusion, Tara is deeply engaged in efforts both within her company and externally. Tara holds an M.S. in business from University of Colorado, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire. She lives in Golden, Colorado with her husband, their two sons and an energetic dog.
Thresia "Teena" Sebastian, Board Co-Chair
Thresia (Teena) Sebastian is a pediatrician with a specialization in public health. Currently she practices clinical medicine in an urgent care while also overseeing pediatric research studies in infectious diseases. Prior to this current position, Teena and her family lived in southern Africa (Mozambique and Eswatini) for 9 years focusing on HIV care, treatment and prevention for children and their families. Originally from Kerala, India, Teena has lived in many places throughout the US and the world. She currently resides in Denver, Colorado with her family.
Board members
Dipta Bhog
Dipta has worked on gender and education for close to three decades. She has worked as a journalist and women’s rights activist. She co-founded Nirantar, a centre for gender and education in Delhi, and has extensive experience working on women’s literacy, adult and girls education and rural journalism in areas of program design, implementation, policy, and impact.
Japleen Pasricha
She is the founder-director & editor-in-chief of Feminism in India (FII), an award-winning digital feminist media platform. She has been felicitated by Indian Ministry of Women & Child Development, GoI as Web Wonder Woman. She has also been recognized by the Swedish Foreign Minister for her work on the gender gap on Wikipedia.
Manjula Pradeep
Manjula brings experience and perspective on community work and advocacy within the Dalit community and other marginalized populations. This knowledge base and resource will be a fresh and new asset for Shadhika from a programming and networking standpoint.
Priya Chotalal
Priya currently works in the health care sector as a dietician. She is looking forward to working with the members and sharing opinions to help make better decisions and to using her voice to help other girls and build a community that encourages girls to become self-dependent.
Razia
Razia is currently an intern under Shadhika’s Girls Write Program. Razia is looking forward to helping make plans, with the fundraising efforts, and to help achieve our equality goal. She is also looking to grow under the guidance and care of this experience and also become a good leader.
Ritambhara Mehta
Ritambhara is an accomplished queer feminist professional with over a decade of experience in gender, sexuality, and education. She is the co-founder of Nazariya: A Queer Feminist Resource Group. Presently serving the board of Nazairya with a deep interest to build linkages between health, violence, livelihoods, education and queer issues through trainings, research, evaluations and advocacy.
Saba Rehmani
Saba is a Shadhika Scholar graduate and a climate change intern. Being associated with many NGOs, Saba’s contribution to the Advisory Council will be through her experience, her work, ideas, and thoughts. Saba also hopes to learn new things through this advisory group and get a chance to share her thoughts.
Sagar Gangurde
Sagar’s background in education and professional career prior to and post his pivot to work in the non-profit sector speaks to the quality of engagement in programming that he brings to the Council. Additionally, his current organization Seeds for Peace and its global network would create new opportunities for Shadhika.
Shipra Jha
Shipra was most recently the Head of Asia Engagement at Girls Not Brides, with decades of experience in program design and coalition building to advance gender equity in India.
Advisory Council
Click here to read updates from the Executive Director’s Desk.
Join Our Team
We are always looking for passionate and creative individuals to join our team and help further our mission. Take a look at open roles.
Open roles