Fellows

Aishwarya is a professional with three years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She holds an MBA in Marketing & Biotechnology from the University of Pune and currently works as a consultant with social enterprises and state governments. Her project themes range from education to environment, and her skills include program management, partnership building, training, and facilitation. In her previous role, Aishwarya led successful projects aimed at advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals through global mobility programs. She has also taught over 200 underprivileged children at a government school for two years as a Teach for India Fellow. Furthermore, she has spearheaded mindfulness programs in various organizations and is a Toastmasters International Ambassador, advocating for building leadership through public speaking. Aishwarya’s passion lies in nurturing leadership and empowering individuals towards a more inclusive society.

Host Organization: Northwestern University, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Role at Host Organization: As a Global Engagement Programs Fellow, Aishwarya will play a role in managing global engagement programs at GLO. The Fellowship will have some flexibility based on the Fellows interest and experience—possibilities include assessment, event planning, program/partnership management and development, marketing and recruitment, curriculum development, and alum engagement.

Apsara Prabhakar has four years of experience in the social sector, and has earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology, Sociology, English in 2016 from CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in India. Apsara has also completed a Master of Social Work (Clinical and Community Practice) in 2018 from the same University. She was the recipient of the “Best Youth Social Worker” Award by the Institute of Person Centered Approaches in India, 2017. While working as a Senior Program Manager at ShARE, she was involved in implementing and monitoring a leadership program across top universities in Europe, America and Africa. Her role also involved alumni management and communications. Apsara previously worked in Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness as a Program Associate in the Private School Program team. Her responsibilities involved volunteer management, school relationship management, documentation, and being an educator for citizenship values and life skills. Apsara has extensively worked as an intern with Operation Smile (OS) and KAARMIC Education. With OS, she has helped coordinate three medical missions that provided free cleft lip/palate surgeries. She also formed an OS student club at her university in 2017 and was selected to participate in the International Student Leadership Conference in Italy. With KAARMIC, she worked on promotions, recruitment, partnerships and as a trainer imparting learning tools, conversational English and art skills to students. Apsara has also interned and volunteered with various other social sector organizations including United Way, Smileys India, CRY, Make a Wish Foundation, Healing Dove Foundation, NIMHANS, Spastics Society of Karnataka and Centre for Social Action. These experiences have helped Apsara acquire and enhance her program management and implementation skills. She enjoys organizing events and working with youth, and is passionate about leadership and the field of education.

Host Organization: Atlas Corps

Role at Host Organization: At Atlas Corps, Apsara will be serving as the American Express Leadership Fellow. Apsara will support the overall strengthening of leadership development in the nonprofit sector by helping to expand the American Express Leadership Academy franchise. Building on the American Express role in supporting best-in-class leadership practices and capacity building, the anticipation is that Apsara will serve to coordinate and grow the alumni network; manage and coordinate the global Alumni Summit, help develop and improve communication and dissemination of best practice and provide overall project support for the American Express Leadership website.

Indrias has a total of seven years of experience in the development and humanitarian sectors. She recently worked as a Social and Behavior Change Officer at UNICEF Indonesia where she managed a total budget of US$ 190,000 for four Risk Communications and Community Engagement (RCCE) projects in South Sulawesi and Maluku, Indonesia, to implement behavior change communications strategies and demand creation for COVID-19 vaccination through capacity building for healthcare workers, teachers, parents/caregivers, community and religious leaders, journalists, and youth. Finda earned her Master’s degree in Children, Youth and International Development from Brunel University London and her Bachelor’s of Science in Physics from the University of Indonesia. During her studies in London, Finda did an internship at StreetInvest, a nonprofit working on the issues of street children in West Africa, East Africa and India, where she supported the production of Impact Reports for StreetInvest for 2019/2020 term by reviewing and analyzing data collected at projects in Kenya. Prior coming to the UK, Finda worked as an Advocacy and Partnership Officer at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Center for Early Childhood Care and Education and Parenting (SEAMEO CECCEP), where she designed, planned, and implemented advocacy and partnership strategies on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). She also liaised and built partnerships with 11 Ministries of Education in Southeast Asia and a range of other organizations such as UNESCO, Plan International, and Aide et Action. Finda is passionate in the topics of children education and women empowerment.

Host Organization: Women’s World Banking

Role at Host Organization: As a Policy Advocacy Fellow, Indrias will help accelerate the policy advocacy process at the Women’s World Banking, assisting in delivering parts of the policy and advocacy strategy and goals set for the next five years. The Fellow will engage withpolicymakers and regulators in the area of women’s financial inclusion and encourage them to make changes where needed to improve the enabling policy environment for women’s economic empowerment. The Fellow will work on projects from different countries, particularly in the Women’s World Banking’s focus countries of Cambodia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam. The Fellow will also draw together from the organization’s existing work, build further the policy positions, and advocate to new audiences, which will be very beneficial to Women’s World Banking.

Pratyush has six years of work experience, including in a multi-national for profit, an India nonprofit, and a social enterprise. He earned an MBA specializing in Marketing from Osmania University in Hyderabad India. While working as an Assistant Manager for Business Development at Naandi Community Water Serivces (NCWS), a social enterprise in India, Pratyush specialized in fundraising and building corporate partnerships. He helped raise funds and build partnerships to ensure sustainable access to safe drinking water to over 180,000 individuals while creating over 60 jobs. He also launched the NCWS’ first crowdfunding and cause marketing partnership, cumulatively providing access to safe water to over 2500 children at schools and crèches in India. Prior to working with NCWS, Pratyush volunteered with Naandi Foundation, an Indian nonprofit, to promote a gourmet brand of coffee produced and processed by a cooperative of tribal farmers in South India. He started his career as a Process Associate at Deloitte Consulting India Private Limited, where he worked for two years enabling U.S. based hospitals reduce their accounts receivables from insurance firms. His work experiences have enhanced his strong abilities for collaboration, communication, ideation, and strategic thinking. He is passionate about making the opportunities to create social/environmental impact as worthwhile to businesses as are the opportunities to create business value. He seeks to broaden his perspective through diverse experiences and build his capacity to enable partnerships in areas of public health and wildlife conservation.

Host Organization: National Academy of Public Administration

Role at National Academy of Public Administration At the National Academy of Public Administration, Pratyush will serve as the Fundraising and Development Fellow: coordinating daily priorities of NAPA’s fundraising campaign, including donor engagement, stewardship and recognition, and operations management.

Rukmani has a deep passion for education equity. She has worked relentlessly for six years in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector developing sustainable and scalable solutions that have an impact at the systemic level. She has a Diploma in Engineering Business Management from University of Warwick in United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Instrumentation from Cummins College of Engineering in Pune, India. In her most recent role as Project Head at Civic Response Team in Aurangabad, she served as the liaison with the local government to create and execute a professional teacher training plan for teachers working in the public schools. She was responsible for building partnerships with government officials and nonprofits, fundraising, and building a strong team. Prior to this, Rukmani worked with a nonprofit and a social enterprise. At the nonprofit, Learning Links Foundation, she managed a STEM training project which was funded by IBM. She traveled across rural India training 2000 teachers, an experience that gave her a deep insight into the gaps of India’s educational curriculum. With the social enterprise, Varthana, she researched the needs of low-income private schools and developed a school transformation program that was linked to monetary benefits for the school. Through these experiences that fuels her passion for education equity, she has developed a strong skill set in project management, implementation, and building partnerships.

Host Organization: Dalai Lama Fellows

Role at Host Organization: Rukmani’s role will include Fellow coordination, curriculum support and marketing and selection support. She will work closely with team to ensure engagement with the Fellows on the online learning platform, provide ideas on how to improve engagement and review. She will also work closely with Director of Programs and Partnerships to prepare collateral and material, to research key areas, coordinate with external faculty, and continuously integrate key insights and expert guidance within the curriculum from the global network and expert faculty.

Saket Mani is an entrepreneur, global youth activist, community mobilizer and a strategist focusing on advocacy, partnership, grassroots program implementation & communications. He is focused on driving advocacy and policy on sustainable development, skill development, education, youth & human rights, climate change, and gender justice. A natural leader and globally recognized activist, he is powerfully equipped with superior communication and interpersonal skills and has a refined understanding of multicultural & multilingual partnerships to maximize strategic benefit. Mindful of the need for inclusive advocacy, Saket’s outreach engages change makers from rural, semi-urban, and urban areas. A committed champion for gender rights, Saket currently serves as the UN Women’s Youth Planet 50/50 Champion for Gender Equality. Highlighting the power of volunteerism, he mobilized 200,000+ people to commit and pledge support for ‘HeForShe’, the UN Women’s Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality. Saket is the founding member of 1M1B (1 Million for 1 Billion) Foundation, which is a 501c3 leadership, entrepreneurship and an innovation initiative aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to his work on gender rights, he served as the Global Youth Advocate for the UN Secretary General’s My World 2015 Global Citizen Survey, which crowdsourced approx. 7 million young people to voice their perspectives and concerns regarding the development of the SDGs. Additionally, he is the founder of the ‘Youth Love Development’ Facebook group (25,000+ Members) and is a wannabe tech enthusiast, a feminist, voracious reader, gastronome, and cultural explorer.

Host Organization: American India Foundation

Role at American India Foundation At the American India Foundation (AIF), Saket will support the CEO and strategically assess progress, evaluate opportunities and determine fit within the organization’s priorities. He will create and update organizational dashboards and annual business calendars to review KPI’s and manage a variety of long term projects.

Silvy has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector and journalism. She earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from The Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, India and a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Delhi University, India. She is currently working with The American India Foundation (AIF) as a Communications Manager and implements the communication strategies across AIF’s programs to include both internal and external communications. Before AIF, she worked as a Media Officer with Nobel Peace laureate led Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF) in India for two years. In this role, she devised media strategy for various national campaigns to curb child sexual abuse, child labor, and child trafficking in her country. While working with KSCF, she participated in raid operations to rescue children involved in hazardous activities. Silvy started her nonprofit initiative FightHer in October 2018 to teach women, and domestic workers basic self-defense techniques free of cost. Previously, Silvy worked with media houses like India Today Television, The Quint, and Vagabomb as a news reporter. She is also a contributor for media publications like India Today, DailyO, Zee News, and The Quint. Through these experiences, she developed strong media management, storytelling, and social entrepreneurial skills. Silvy enjoys focusing on the topics of child rights and youth development and has a strong passion for women empowerment.

Host Organization: Open Road Alliance

Role at Open Road Alliance At Open Road Alliance, Silvy will serve as the Marketing & Communications Fellow: supporting the marketing, communications, and advocacy goals and objectives of Open Road Alliance.

Tabish Bilal is a development sector professional with experience across domains such as education, curriculum and fellowship design, community work and mobilization, prison reformation/ rehabilitation/ reintegration, gender-based violence, and disaster management. He has completed both his Bachelor’s in Economics and Master’s in Human Resource Management from Jamia Millia Islamia University (New Delhi). After a short stint in the corporate HR sector, Tabish quickly moved to the social space. His work experiences range from working in remote villages of Satpura Forests with tribes in Central India, setting up a school inside Delhi Prisons and working with schools in the lower Himalayas in Northern India. As a Global Engagement Programs Fellow with Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Tabish’s current responsibilities incorporate program management at GLO. His portfolio also includes COVID relief emergency services in the first and second waves of the pandemic, where he and his teammates worked to provide essential services like the Auto-Ambulances in Delhi, boosting vaccinations among slum-dwellers in Delhi-NCR region through e-rickshaws operating as vaccine express, supporting understaffed government hospitals with manpower to combat the overflow of patients, transportation support to migrants going back home and a direct cash support pilot program to COVID-affected families across India. Through these experiences, Tabish has developed a strong niche for program management, partnerships, analytical and operations skills. Tabish is enthusiastic about youth empowerment, alternate education, and human rights within the social sector domain.

Host Organization: Northwestern University, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Role at Host Organization: As the Global Engagement Programs Fellow, Tabish will play a role in managing global engagement programs at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. The Fellow will be working within different fields, including assessment, event planning, program/partnership management and development, marketing and recruitment, curriculum development, and alumni engagement.