Geetanjali Misra is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of CREA and has closely worked at the activist, grant-making, and policy levels on issues of sexuality, reproductive health, gender, human rights, and violence against women. She holds Master’s degrees in International Affairs from Columbia University, US, and in Economics from Syracuse University, US.

Previously, she has worked as a Program Officer at Ford Foundation, taught as an adjunct professor on the intersection of LGBT issues, sexual rights and public health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and supported non-governmental organizations in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. She is also a co-founder SAKHI for South Asian Women in 1989, a non-profit organization in New York, committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin. Formerly, she has been Chair of the Boards of Reproductive Health Matters (UK), a global peer reviewed journal on sexual and reproductive health and rights and Mama Cash (the Netherlands).

She was a Board Member of FHI 360 (USA) and also served as President of the Board of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) where she led a strategic planning and organizational development process leading to changes in leadership roles and structure. In the past, she held several key advisory roles such as being a Member of Cordaid’s Expert Advisory Group (the Netherlands), served as a core member of the Action Plus Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV/AIDS (India), was regional and Global Advisor for Global Fund for Women (USA) among others.

She writes on issues of sexuality, gender, and rights, and has co-edited ‘Sexuality, Gender, and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia’ from SAGE. She is also author of ‘The Power of Movements’ published by AWID.

Aarushi is a New Delhi based lawyer and legal researcher. In 2017, she graduated with B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from National Law University Delhi, following which she pursued her LL.M. from the University of California Berkeley.

As a Legal Officer for the NGO Lawyers Collective, she has done litigation and research on criminalization and legal recognition of identity, anti-discrimination, and access to legal justice of gender and sexual minorities. At CREA, Aarushi engages with advocacy relating to sexual and gender diversity and sex workers’ rights, and challenging criminalization of expression and identities.

Aarushi is passionate about studying the relationship between a State and its citizens and learning about intersectional gender politics. She loves reading fiction, watching Korean dramas, and exploring new places to eat.

Aditi Gogia provides executive support and works closely with the Executive Director, CREA.

She holds a Masters degree in Commerce, with a specialization in Accountancy.

Prior to joining CREA, Aditi was working an as Executive Assistant to the Team Leader at UNFPA. She has also worked with India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) as an assistant to Team Leader (NACP-III Programme). Aditi loves playing and spending time with her little daughter.

As a Manager, Programs and Innovations, Agnieszka works on Disability and Sexuality Program. Her role is to amplify voices of women, trans and non-binary persons with disabilities. She is working to advance advocacy and leadership by diverse persons with disabilities and attempts to catalyze dialogue between feminist, queer and disability rights perspectives to dismantle ableism and create access. She is also closely involved in Disability, Sexuality and Rights Online Institute.

She is a sociologist, graduated from the Jagiellonian University, Poland. Her academic research focuses on disability, reproductive justice and LGBT+ rights. In 2020 she earned PhD in social sciences researching reproductive autonomy and motherhood experiences of women with disabilities. She has also served on ANED – European academic network strengthening development of public policies in compliance with the UN CRPD. Since 2012, she is a part of feminist and queer disability rights initiatives and collectives fighting to advance rights of women and queer persons with disabilities.

Her published works include –

• Król A., Pustułka P. (2018). Women on strike: Mobilizing against reproductive injustice in Poland, International Journal of Feminist Politics, Vol 20, No 3.
• Król A. (2018), Niepełnosprawność i sprawiedliwość reprodukcyjna. Zarys wybranych zagadnień dotyczących kobiet z niepełnosprawnościami, Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis, Studia de Cultura. [Disability and reproductive justice. Outline of selected issues concerning women with disabilities]
• Król A., (2019), Living independently and being included in the community – on article 19 UN CRPD in Poland. Report for Academic Network of European Disability Experts 
• Mizielińska J., Struzik J., Król A., (2017), Różnym głosem. Rodziny z wyboru w Polsce, PWN, Warszawa. [In different voice. Families of choice in Poland] 
• Król A., Bilnicka A., Godzisz P., Rodzinka M., Makuchowska M. (2018), Intersections between disabilities and sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics: The situation in Poland. (CRPD Alternative Report)

Amit works closely with the Advisor – Programs Operation to assist in day-to-day program operations. They support budgets, work plans, subgrant agreements, and consultancy contracts in coordination with the program team. They have vast experience of 16 years and immense knowledge of finance, accounting, taxation, auditing, preparing budgets for projects, and executing professionals, and individual contracts.

Amit loves to explore new destinations and play cricket.

As Advisor, Programs Operation, Amit works with directors and their teams on planning and implementation of processes in accordance with the organization’s vision, mission, and strategies. He works with CREA team members to support budget tracking and utilization. He also ensures timely submission of work plans and facilitates partner management. Amit has vast experience of 24 years as an Operations professional in both the corporate and development sector.

In his free time, Amit loves to travel with family and friends to hilly areas. He also has a passion for singing and poetry in his free time.

As the Consultant – Women Gaining Ground, Anjaly closely works with the Program Manager – Women Gaining Ground | Feminist Leadership and Mentoring. She supports external relationship management, networking, documentation, communication and represents CREA on different fora.

She has a master’s degree in Promotional Media from Goldsmiths, University of London and bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. Before joining CREA, she worked with United Nation, Pravah and Manthan Sasthan where they worked closely on gender, youth empowerment and disability projects.

She loves to spend her spare time taking care of plants.

As Programs & External Communications Coordinator – Executive Director’s Office, Athira will a crucial role in supporting various functions related to communication, program management, and external engagement for CREA. This position involves a diverse set of responsibilities that contribute to the organization’s mission and overall visibility. Athira will work closely with the Executive Director and other team members to ensure the effective delivery of CREA’s programs and campaigns.

Athira is a passionate sexual and reproductive health and rights activist based in Bangalore. With a rich background of 5 years at Hidden Pockets Collective Trust, she dedicated herself to advocating for safe abortion rights. Athira’s fervour extends to digital media advocacy and content creation in local languages, breaking linguistic barriers for accurate information dissemination. In her extensive speaking engagements at local, national, and international panels, she addresses topics like SRHR, DV, GBV, and Adolescent sexuality. Athira believes in the transformative power of social media and is excited to contribute to change.

Outside her impactful work, she enjoys chess and shares her life with her cat.

As the Program Coordinator, Audrey will work with the SO3 team, working closely with local partners, guiding activity planning and execution, while also offering support in capacity building and feminist program implementation. Her pivotal role extends to organizing internal and cross-movement dialogues, coordinating global and regional events, and engaging marginalized communities. Additionally, she will contribute to the development of analytical tools, engage in advocacy efforts across various levels, manage logistics, and support organizational functions. Her role will help showcase the impact of East Africa programs through data collection and storytelling.

Audrey possesses a Social Work degree from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), and a Master’s in gender and Development from Kenyatta University (KU), and a strong track record in Gender-Based Violence program management, leadership development, grant management, program planning, safeguarding practices, and monitoring and evaluation.

Audrey brings over 12 years of dedicated experience in working with young women and girls from rural and peri-urban communities in Kenya and across Africa. She has collaborated with numerous national and international organizations(Women for Women International at the Grant Management and Program Planning Team at Akili Dada as the Young Change Makers Program Lead), focusing on underserved women and adolescent girls who have faced war and violence. Her current work has centred on safeguarding, gender equality diversity and inclusivity (GEDI), and grant and program management. Her daily efforts revolve around creating enabling environments for girls and women to flourish, grow, and become leaders who contribute to making the world a better place.

While pursuing her career goals, Audrey has a deep passion for various interests, including yoga, reading, and travelling. She also holds a strong enthusiasm for football and F1 races.

Anu Verma works as an Administrative Coordinator at CREA.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science (Hons.) from University of Delhi and has more than twenty-two years of working experience in the field of logistics arrangement, office administration & procurement.

Previously she worked as an Operations Associate in an international organization as well as for an airlines company for twelve years.

She likes to travel, play badminton and listen to music.

Arkina is a Program Associate – Meri Panchayat, Meri Shakti (India) at CREA, and works closely to assist in feminist leadership and movement building programs in India. They support partnership management, networking, local and state-level advocacy and community mobilization.

Arkina obtained a master’s degree in Gender Studies and previously worked at Jagori Grameen where they worked closely on capacity building of adolescent girls in rural areas of Himachal Pradesh on the thematic issues of gender, menstrual, reproductive health and violence.

Arkina believes in creating inclusive spaces and wants to travel the world.

Anuradha is responsible for contributing to the CREA team’s resource development and donor management efforts through preparation of concept notes, proposals and reports.

Anuradha holds a Ph.D in Biophysics from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Anuradha has a total work experience of 19 years out of which 15 years has been on resource mobilization, donor relations and project management.

Before joining CREA she has worked with the Centre for Science and Environment, Plan International (India), Shastri Indo Canadian Institute and has consulted for CARE (India), UNICEF (India) and CREA.

Anuradha tries to be socially and environmentally responsible and travel, read, listen to good music and have friends around.

Babita works closely on community based programs with the Director, Programs and Innovation.

She holds a Masters in Social Work and diploma in mass communication and journalism.

With an experience of more than 12 years in the development sector, she has previously worked in the State Social Audit Unit of Jharkhand, with Alliance for Immunization and Health as a State Project Coordinator, with Pravah as a Project Coordinator and Program Manager.

Diksha heads the Finance and administration team and is responsible for the financial and administrative coordination for the entire organization. Her responsibilities include developing CREA’s annual budget, tracking program expenditures against approved budgets, investments, and implementation of financial policies and managing the annual audits.

Diksha holds a Master’s degree in Commerce and in Business Administration with a specialization in finance. She has previously worked with an international reproductive health NGO, INTRAHealth International Inc. etc.

Dipa works closely with the Organization Management Team for program operations at CREA and supervises the Program Operations team. She supports development, rollout and the functioning of annual work plans and budget. She is an independent consultant with more than three decades of experience of working on issues related to reproductive health and rights, and gender.

Between 2019-2022, Dipa was the Director Programs at the Population Foundation of India, an NGO headquartered in New Delhi, India that works on population and sexual and reproductive health. Previously, she was associated with the MacArthur Foundation for almost two decades, with her last role being Deputy Director at the Foundation’s India office. At the Foundation, she managed various programs and projects with a focus on reproductive and sexual health, maternal health, adolescent and sexual and reproductive health and girls’ secondary education.

She serves on the boards of the NGOs-Centre for Catalyzing Change and the Institute for Health Management Pachod. She has master’s degrees in Public Administration from Syracuse University and a master’s in Political Science from Mumbai University.

Dulal Das, joined CREA in 2008 as the office assistant and has been one of our oldest staff members. Apart from taking care of the entire office, he provides essential logistical and administrative support to various program teams.

Gayathri works closely with Program Director – Gender Based Violence, Well-being and Rights. Her work focuses on creating, planning and directing grant-making activities, carrying out grantee program development, offering technical assistance, supporting initiatives to increase partners’ capacities and providing additional learning opportunities.

She attained her Master’s degree in International Peace Studies from United Nations Mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica, and Master’s degree in Political Science from Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She has 13 years’ of rich working experience in development sector and worked on women’s rights and conflict transformation in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan for over a decade.

She is passionate about reading and journaling.

Elena researches, documents and narrates the impact of and the learnings that emerged from the work of the organization across programs with a feminist approach.

Elena has a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a master’s degree in human rights law. Elena’s background is grounded in feminist programs, organizing to transform power, feminist popular education, research, and writing, and has been part of different non-profit organizations for the past 10 years.

Elena is the co-founder of the Feminist Hiking Collective.

As the Senior Consultant – MEL Advisor, Harsh Mandlik works closely with Director – Resources, Learning, and Impact to strengthen CREA’s organization-wide MEL system for learning and accountability. He leads MEL activities, including developing effective and feasible methodologies for assessing CREA’s diverse programs, ensuring data relevance and quality, and analyzing and presenting MEL findings to diverse stakeholders and audiences in order to advance CREA’s mission.

Harsh has a post-graduate certificate in Research Methodology from TISS and he brings over 15 years of rich experience in the field of project monitoring and evaluation. His expertise lies in designing project monitoring and evaluation plan, developing and rolling out project monitoring systems, establishing data quality assurance systems, conducting effectiveness studies, monitoring and evaluating research projects, and capacity building.

Harsh likes listening to good music, singing, and playing flute, along with being passionate about exercise and fitness.

As Coordinator – Resources, Impact and Learning, Jaisy will work with the MEL Team. Jaisy will play a pivotal role in supporting the organization’s efforts to secure funding and resources for its programs and initiatives. She will be responsible for coordinating fundraising activities, donor relations, grant writing, and other resource development efforts. Her role extends to support the Resources, Impact and Learning Team’s efforts to secure funding and resources for CREA’s programs and initiatives. She will coordinate fundraising activities, donor relations, grant writing, and other resource development efforts.

Jaisy completed her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Calicut, Kerala in 2007. She is currently pursuing an 11-month Certificate Programme on Management of Social Initiatives at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode.

Before joining CREA, she was associated with NGOs working among the poor and marginalised communities in the states of Delhi, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and also in East Africa where she was in charge of Resource Mobilisation, Donor Relations and Reporting and Documentation.

Jaisy is a people person and she is committed to advocating for the rights of people in low-resource settings, ensuring their access to basic human rights.

Dr. Jannat Fatima Farooqui has been a German Chancellor Fellow (2022-23) at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Dr. Farooqui holds a PhD in Social Work from the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi. Previously, She has completed her Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

She has more than twelve years of work experience in the field of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation in development sector organizations like UNICEF, University of Delaware – USA, Pratham Education Foundation, India Vision Foundation and Room to Read.

Dr. Farooqui has published and presented her extensive work on child rights, education, minority and racial affairs at several international conferences like Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development, Conference on Child Rights & Sight, Yale University, Asia-Pacific Joint Regional Social Work Conference.

As Senior Coordinator – Impact & Learning, Jannat will work with the MEL Team. Her pivotal role extends to support the development of program and project-specific MEL strategies, plans and indicators to capture performance and results and linked these to the organisation-wide MEL framework and system. She will Play a key role in monitoring and evaluation of program activities, to generate data for programmatic learning and decision-making, and to interpret and report results. She will support in implementation of results based management system and processes to track core indicators, implementation progress, outputs and outcomes, enabling ease of data collection, ensuring rigour and timeliness, using appropriate technologies.

Jyoti is a seasoned Human Resources (HR) professional with over a decade of rich experience in the development sector. She has an MBA in HR and is a science graduate from Delhi University. She has worked as HR lead in various international non-governmental organization’s from The Nature Conservancy to Medecins Sans Frontieres to Project Concern International. She has a rich experience of managing different facets of HR – strategic planning, recruitment, on boarding, organizational development, PMS, Payroll, internal and external communication. At a personal level, she is more of a sports person and loves to play badminton.

Mageda is impassioned by women and girls’ health, in particular sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), development and equality in society. Professionally, she has been able to work with various organizations and individuals from different cultures, countries and various networks (Right here: Right now, Kenya, SHE-ACTs Alliance, Men Engage Alliance, Regional SRHR fund) in Sub-Saharan Africa on movement-building work around sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has been part of developing campaigns with a feminist lens and creating synergy amongst various networks around current and emerging issues.

Mageda has previously provided counselling to survivors of gender-based violence in Kenya through hotline 1195, managed mobile health technology that gives out information on sexual and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, helped set up and strengthen hotlines in Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and Rwanda that ensure girls and women can access unbiased sexual and reproductive health information, and led teams on key communication campaigns in Kenya for advocacy on comprehensive sexual and reproductive rights. She has been involved in national and regional advocacy campaigns at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, the African SDG forum and using the UN mechanisms through research- based advocacy.

She’s a member of the African Young Women’s Leadership and Advocacy Alliance (AYWLAA) and has served on the Safe Abortion Initiative Global South Engagement (SAIGE) advisory team. She believes that we are more alike than we are different and art and expression are important in all facets of life.

As Manager, Grant Management & Proposal Writer, Kaainaat will be responsible for writing grant proposals, managing donor relationships, conducting donor research, and ensuring compliance with organizational and donor requirements. Kaainaat will work under the guidance of the Director – Resources Learning and Impact and other team members to ensure the effective delivery of CREA’s programs and campaigns.

Prior to formally starting her career, Kaainaat spearheaded the #PadsAgainstSexism campaign in 2015 at Jamia Milia Islamia University, advocating feminist messages through sanitary napkins. Her professional journey began at The Hans Foundation, one of India’s largest funding agencies, where she managed diverse cross-sectoral projects encompassing livelihoods and education. With a predominant background in program management, throughout her career, Kaainaat has developed expertise in gender equality, disability, and mental health. Delving deeper into her passion for mental health, she dedicated four years to The Live Love Laugh Foundation (Bangalore), advancing from a focused role to spearheading all program initiatives within the organization.

Outside her impactful work life, Kaainaat is a huge animal lover. With three lovely cats at home, her idea of relaxation is simply spending a quiet evening in their company.

Lavanya’s role in SAYWLM initiative involves working with 30 partner organizations in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

She holds an MPhil in Sociology from JNU and has over 15 years of work experience in areas of organizational development, understanding organizational systems and structures and is deeply interested in issues of gender equality, masculinities, feminist leadership and feminist mentorship.

Lavanya loves to read and finds it very hard to put down a good Agatha Christie or a P.G. Wodehouse!

Lukas provides support to CREA’s office administration and dissemination of CREA’s publications. He also supports the finance team along with assisting staff on IT related issues.

He is a graduate in bachelor of Arts and has more than 14 years’ of experience.

He is a hardworking, can multi-task and is a keen learner.

Mary holds a degree in Social Work from the University of Nairobi and currently working on her project for her Master of Science in Monitoring and Evaluation from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Before joining CREA, her work experience spans over 12 years working within the development sector with various local and international organizations. For the last close to 5 years, she has been working as a Programme Officer with ForumCiv, a Swedish member-based civil society organization. Prior to joining ForumCiv, she worked with Kakenya’s Dream, an organization advocating for the rights of girls and women in rural Kenya. Other roles have included working in different parts of the country to advance the rights of women and children to access quality maternal and nutritional health care.

As the Consortium Coordinator, Mary Sirengo will closely work with the OVOF team at CREA, Consortium members, partners, and donors. Her role will include leading and managing all functions of the consortium programme, ensuring the effective delivery and coordination of the consortium, and being accountable to MoFA as the donor. Overall, she will be in charge of all the aspects of this programme, from providing support to the secretariat to overseeing and monitoring the delivery of results and organizing regular meetings for learning among other roles.

She is passionate about cooking, spending family time and mentoring girls in rural Kenya.

Manmeet Bhatia is a bilingual professional with extensive experience in program management and technical support related to Gender, Sexuality, and SRHR. She currently supports CREA in organizing Hindi institutes by designing and planning annual events, conducting research on relevant articles, reviewing translated articles, corresponding with participants and resource persons, and managing budgets, payments, and reimbursements. Manmeet is also responsible for developing resource materials in both Hindi and English. Manmeet is highly organized and ensures that key monitoring and evaluation planning and execution documents are developed on time. She also develops and executes tools on time, ensures that data entry and reports are prepared on time, and prepares reports of institutes with reflections and learning.

Apart from her work with CREA, Manmeet provides technical support to other organizations by developing concept notes for all training, designing and conducting training with organizations on Gender, Sexuality, and SRHR, corresponding with organizations for follow-ups, and planning online and offline sessions. She works closely with the communication team for social media updates on institutes and training and designs training programs in Hindi for partner organizations. Manmeet organizes online meetings with partners and trainers and ensures that high-quality content is developed for podcasts and community radio on gender and gender-based violence issues.

In addition to her work as a development practitioner and researcher, Manmeet is also an entrepreneur and small business owner. Her business focuses on supporting local artisans by selling handmade home decor items. Through her business, Manmeet is able to promote sustainable livelihoods and celebrate the creativity and talent of local artisans.

Manmeet also has a passion for travel and photography. She enjoys exploring new places, immersing herself in different cultures, and capturing the beauty of the world through her camera lens. Her travels not only provide personal fulfillment but also allow her to gain new perspectives and insights that she brings back to her work.

As Program Director – Feminist Leadership and Movements, Piyumi works on programs focused on Feminist Leadership and Movements supporting the team delivering on the Women Gaining Ground consortium as well as the programmatic work focused on East Africa. Her role supports CREA as it promotes, protects, and advances human rights and the sexual rights of all people by building leadership capacities of activists, allies and organizations.

Piyumi holds a Master of Science in Politics and Communications from London School of Economics and Political Science and has over 15 years of rich experience in executing innovative community and gender development strategies/programs underpinned by robust rights-based approaches. In her previous organization, she played a critical role in developing strong and resilient relationships with Womankind’s partners based in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nepal, including through programme co-design, as well as programme and grant management. Most recently she led a team with delivering a FCDO funded land rights centric program in Uganda and authored this leaning paper: Solidarity through Sisterhood: Learning from the eco-feminist project, Participation and Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rights (POWER)

As a Sri Lankan-British feminist, and as someone who has lived, studied, and worked across Asia, the US, and the UK, Piyumi enjoys work that has a global outlook and is connected to women’s rights. Piyumi has a love for the arts and has starred as a lead in “Aksharaya”, a feature-length film that premiered at the San Sebastian film festival in 2005.

As the Program Coordinator – Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Nisha will work closely with the SO2 team and Program Director – Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights. Her key role extends to the implementation of programs in partnership with the thematic team. She will be engaging in designing activities, coordinating with internal and external members of the programs and facilitating resource requirements including knowledge resources, personnel and other logistics related to programs.

She has done Masters in Women’s Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has worked on the issue of women’s empowerment and adolescent rights and managed key programs in the area of gender and urban poverty. She worked on Monitoring and Evaluation studies (Research) in the areas of child marriage and women’s livelihood. Prior to joining CREA, she also worked with 3ie, Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS) and Advanced Centre for Women Studies – TISS.

She loves travelling and reading about psychology and spirituality.

As a Consultant, Nayantara works closely with CREA’s Executive Director to strengthen CREA’s organization-wide documenting processes, commission media articles, coordinate initiatives such as media fellowships, and conduct writing workshops. She also provides support to the Communications, and Resource, Learning and Impact teams for editing, proofreading and writing proposals.

Nayantara has over 25 years’ experience in media and publishing, built after she received degrees in Literature from the University of Delhi and Mount Holyoke College, USA.  Her most recent position was Managing Editor of the literary journal The Indian Quarterly. She has previously been Consulting Editor of Business Standard Weekend and Editor of Outlook Traveller magazine. She has edited several books in the field of culture and the arts.

Nayantara’s interests include books, dogs, plants, music, and food.

Srilatha Batliwala is a feminist activist-scholar and trainer and currently Senior Advisor, Knowledge Building at CREA. She is also a Senior Associate at Gender at Work, a global network of gender experts supporting organizations to build cultures of equality and inclusion, and Honorary Professor of Practice at SOAS, University of London. Her work focuses on building knowledge from practice, and capacity building of young activists and social justice organizations to advance feminist visions of social justice through feminist movement building and feminist leadership. 

Through the past four decades, Srilatha’s work has spanned grassroots activism, building movements of highly marginalized grassroots women, research and scholarly work, policy advocacy, grant-making, and capacity building of young women activists around the world. Up to the mid-90s, she was involved for over twenty years in grassroots work in India, where she helped build large-scale women’s movements that mobilized and empowered tens of thousands of the most socio-economically marginalized rural and urban women in slum communities in Mumbai (Bombay) and in the backward districts of Karnataka state in South India.

Thereafter, she worked internationally including as Civil Society Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, New York (1997-2000), Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations (2000 – 2007), and from 2008 – 2016 as Scholar Associate at AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development). She has also served on the boards of several International and national women’s rights and development organizations (WEDO, PLAN, AWID, ISTSR, Just Associates, Gender at Work) and currently serves on the International Advisory Board of IHRB (Institute for Human Rights and Business), the Advisory Council of the Population Foundation of India, the Governing Council of the Srishti Institute for Art, Design and Technology, and chairs the Board of IT for Change.

Srilatha has written and published extensively on a range of gender issues, and is best known for her work on women’s empowerment, women’s movements, feminist leadership, and feminist approaches to monitoring and evaluation. Her most recent publications are (i) “Feminist Mentoring for Feminist Futures”, “All About Power” and “All About Movements”, primers for activists; and (ii) “Engaging with Empowerment – An Intellectual and Experiential Journey” (Women Unlimited, 2014, and eBook version 2015), a collection of her writings of the past twenty years.  

Srilatha commutes between homes in Bangalore and the Nilgiri Hills of South India and is an active feminist grandmother to her four grandchildren!  

Favourite quotes: A dream is not something you see in your sleep. It is the thing that does not let you sleep! (APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India); Only when you stop moving can you see where to go next… (Pico Iyer).

Favourite books: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker, and The Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

Favourite pastimes: baking, sewing, watching Netflix.

Nityanand Bhatt provides support to finance related operations. This involves managing CREA New York accounts – payment to vendors and consultants, settlement of staff advances, program budget/program financial report/expenses statement preparation and review and also maintaining expenses record with proper documentation.

He holds a Masters degree in Finance.

Before joining CREA, Nityanand has worked as an Accountant in both profit based and non-profit organizations.. In his free time, he likes to travel to new places.

Prajesh will work with the Communications team at CREA where he will lead the strategic planning, implementation, and execution of organizational communications. He will work with a team of communications professionals to help amplify programs, events, activism, and voices through effective articulation and storytelling.

Prajesh has worked as a journalist for various newspapers, magazines, and online portals for more than a decade in Nepal. His work has been published in The Kathmandu Post, Republica, M&S VMAG, and Annapurna Express among others. Before joining CREA, he headed the Communications Unit at a local feminist NGO: Women LEAD Nepal. Prajesh is a staunch advocate for capacity-building and has run many workshops and training programs, through and outside his previous organization, to teach professional and technical communications skills. He believes that people need to own all parts of the storytelling process for their voices to be unfiltered and authentic.

An admirer of the arts, Prajesh loves being around and working with artists. He believes art to be one of the purest forms of human expression, which is why he explores worlds, ideas, and expressions through an artistic lens. A multidisciplinary at heart, he works on all forms of media from creative writing to film. Prajesh has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Sharda University.

Rajina supports resource mobilization and Impact and Learning for CREA’s programs and overall organizational strategic plan.

Rajina carries experience in developing young women and girls’ leadership and supporting organizational development for small collectives and non-profit organizations. She is a former board chair of Women LEAD Nepal, an organization for young Nepali women’s leadership development, and co-founder for Women Leaders in Technology where she supported the development of leadership of Women in Tech. She is also involved in participatory grant-making processes as part of the advisory committee for the FREE STEM Fund, and FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund.

Rahul’s work as a Finance Assistant at CREA involves providing active support in managing CREA India Accounts, donor reports, sub-grants, Payroll, Budget, TDS, EPF etc.

He is a commerce graduate and has 12 years of experience as accounts professional in non-profit sector.

He is a dedicated and hard working person, also loves using his expertise in his work. In his spare time, he likes to listen to music and also travel to new places.

Raisa is the Program Manager – Gender Based Violence, Well-Being & Rights with the team that addresses CREA’s Strategic Objective 3 aiming to build responses to gender-based violence, expand and promote well-being, security and rights, and challenge punitive approaches. Her primary areas of engagement is with CREA’s work as a part of the Count Me In! (CMI!) consortium, the challenging the criminalization agenda, and CREA’s initiative on feminist faultiness.

For over 10 years Raisa has been working with rights based interventions on HIV/AIDS, child rights, gender justice and political participation of young people. Her work has included program implementation, policy building, network development, and research. She holds a M.A in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and an M.A in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies.

Before joining CREA, Raisa was working as a research consultant engaged in critically mapping development interventions with girls, for the Rejuvenate project at the Institute of Development Studies. Her specific areas of interest include building strategies to counter gender backlash and violence, re-shaping our understanding around women’s work, and building safe spaces for children and young people to participate in the politics around them. She is a firm believer in building experimental, collaborative and innovative spaces that promote discussion and critical thinking.

She currently co-runs the book club at Young People for Politics  (@yppbookclub on Instagram) as a part of these experiments. In her free time Raisa likes to travel, read, try different kinds of food (she hardly cooks), or just sit.

Rambishnu is primarily responsible for managing finances, preparing budgets and balance sheets, review expenditures against approved budgets, making reports for donors, and managing taxation-related work, investment, and audits.

Ram holds Masters degrees in Commerce and in Business Administration, with a specialization in Finance. He also holds a Diploma in Financial Accounting System (DFAS). He specializes in financial management in the development sector.

Ram likes listening to music and loves playing Tabla, an Indian musical instrument.

Bani, as the Project Coordinator- Feminist Opportunities Now (FON), will work closely with the Project Manager and Program Director, and other members of CREA’s FON team. Her main responsibility involves managing grant applications, coordinating the grant process, and implementing initiatives to strengthen the organization’s capacity.

She attained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sociology from the University of Dhaka.  Over the past decade, she has worked extensively on SRHR, human rights, Gender Justice and Diversity, GBV, and Sexuality in different roles. Prior to joining CREA, she worked for BRAC, Plan International Bangladesh, and FPAB. She is also a Women Deliver Youth Alumni.

She loves to travel and experience diverse cultures, alongside reading and writing.

Sanjay is primarily involved in Audits, finalization of balance sheet, sub-grant management, monitoring of funds, donor reports, budgets and other finance related operations. He is also involved with compliance related to FCRA, Income Tax Department, Banking. He supervises salary payment, advances, TDS, processing bills etc. He maintains CREA’s Human Recourse Management Software as well.

Sanjay is commerce (honors) graduate and has done post-graduate diploma in Business Administration.

Sanjay has enriching work experience of 21 years as Accounts professional in various capacities with different non-profit-organizations like Care India, International Congress of Immunology, Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (HRIDAY).
He likes to spend his free time with his family.

As the Program Manager – Gender & WASH, Seema works closely with the sexual and reproductive rights team and Program Director – Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights. Her pivotal role extends to developing strategies for program design for working with WASH practitioners on Gender, Sexuality and ensuring project reporting and effective utilization of budgets and managing the relationship with the partner organizations and trainers.

Seema has obtained her M.S.W in Community Development. She is also an MA. (Economics), LLB & holds a Post Graduate Diploma in District Health Management (PGDDHM). As a Sr. development professional with over 16 years’ experience, she has managed key programs in the areas of Gender, Maternal and child health, ARSH, Child Protection, WASH & Rights of Marginalised Communities Her expertise includes field-based research, process documentation & writing on different social issues. Prior to joining CREA, she worked with MAMTA HIMC as State Manager-M&E in Madhya Pradesh.

She is an avid trekker & loves to be in communion with nature.

As the Training cum Training coordinator, Shalini will work closely with the program team and Program Director – Capacity Building, Knowledge Resources, Technical Support. Her key role extends to the implementation of training in partnership with the thematic teams. She will be engaging in designing training activities and modules, coordinating with internal and external members of the programs and facilitating resource requirements including knowledge resources, personnel and other logistics related to programs.

Shalini has done Masters in Counselling Psychology. She has also had years of training in aspects of mental health and special education. Prior to joining Crea, she worked at schools as a counsellor, while also incorporating sexuality education. Her work on sexuality, gender, health and rights issues began at TARSHI, more than two decades ago. She also spent a few years with The Lawyer’s Collective (HIV/AIDS Unit) where she worked with marginalised communities on rights and public health, while conducting trainings and workshops on the Draft HIV/AIDS Bill.

She is fond of the natural surroundings and enjoys travelling, reading, yoga and spending time with her dogs and children.

Shalini works on strengthening Feminist Leadership at Grassroots level. Her current role also involves leading implementation of Grassroots Feminist Leadership Program “Meri Panchayat Meri Shakti” in three states Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with 12 partners organizations, work with 30 grassroots organizations for capacity building, conceptualize, design and manages all annual Hindi training programs and institutes which includes Basic training on Gender and Sexuality, Feminist Leadership institute and Sexuality and Gender rights Institute in Hindi.  She is also involved in training with external organizations on Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive health and rights. She has developed training manuals on Gender, Sexuality, VAW and Patriarchy for activists and trainers in Hindi.

She is a trained counsellor, with a background in social science and law. Shalini is part of several Internal complaint committees on Sexual harassment and conduct trainings with ICC members and organizations on Anti Sexual Harassment act, 2013.  Her previous work experience includes counselling, legal case work, training on laws, gender and human rights. She enjoys writing in Hindi.

Soumya is an Associate for the Gender and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program at CREA. She has worked with civil societies and non-government organizations such as Jan Vikas Sansthan, and Niramaya Health Foundation to support community-based initiatives and advocacy programs.

Soumya has a master’s in Social Work in Public Health from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a bachelor’s in English Literature from Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University.

Soumya wishes to travel the world and read as much as possible.

Sudipta Mukhopadhyay has joined our team at CREA as Senior Team Lead – Emerging Leaders, Learning Exchanges and Partnership from 1^st June 2023.

She comes to us from Magic Bus where she was Head of Government Partnership – East. She has closely worked with CREA in various consultancy assignments- under Nuffic project in Bangladesh. She developed content on gender, sexuality, and SRHR for Government MR training documentation for community health workers and field-level workers along with RHSTEPs MR training manual. Additionally, she made contributions to the training of master trainers and the formulation of content for the master trainers manual for the Meri Shakti Meri Panchayat project in Jharkhand. Furthermore, she exhibited her linguistic proficiency by translating CREA’s two books on power and movement building in India from English to Bengali. Lastly, she played a crucial role in facilitating interpretation during workshops for the SAYWLM project in Bangladesh.

She will closely work with the Executive Director. Her work focus will be leading CREA’s efforts in Bangladesh which are across various programs, donor interfaces related to specific programs, and upcoming efforts related to the Emerging Leaders Initiative.

She attained her Master’s degree in Geography from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has over two decades of rich experience working on issues of SRHR and gender in the South Asia region primarily in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. She worked with various reputed organizations i.e. Institute of Social Studies Trust, National Foundation for India, CREA, Population Foundation of India, C3 – Centre for Catalyzing Change, International Planned Parenthood Federation, India HIV AIDS Alliance Regional Technical Hub, and Magic Bus India Foundation.

Sunita Kujur works at the intersection of sexuality, gender, feminist leadership and human rights, and is currently Advocacy Advisor at CREA. In her current role, she will advise and implement CREA’s advocacy strategy. In the twenty-seven years, Sunita’s work has spanned grassroots activism, capacity building, movement support, national and international advocacy, managing consortiums & coalitions and organizational development. Before transitioning out at the end of 2022, Sunita had a long stint of sixteen years at CREA, during which she contributed significantly to strengthening organizational processes and managing growth, as well as leave a larger and stronger footprint in India, South Asia, East Africa, MENA, Central Asia and globally.

Sunita has been a part of several progressive social movements and agendas. She has worked extensively with coalitions and consortiums, playing a fundamental role in ensuring that they remain transformative and relevant to the social change that they aspire to bring about.

Sunita holds a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Delhi. Away from work, she is a sports enthusiast, especially football. She is a die-hard fan of the Arsenal women’s and men’s football teams. Her other interests include watching films & TV series and traveling.

Susana is the Director for Global Programs at CREA and a Fellow at the Global Health Justice Partnership (Yale University). Her work focuses on building cross-movement strategies and advocacy to challenge criminalization of sexual and reproductive rights, sexuality, HIV, sex work, sexual orientation, gender identity and drug use.

From 2008-2014, she was the senior gender, HIV and health advisor at UNDP.  Susana has worked in a senior capacity with a wide range of women’s rights, human rights, sexuality-related rights and SRHR organizations, including Open Societies Foundation, ICASO, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Amnesty International, Outright Action International (formerly the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission), International Women’s Health Coalition, Harvard School of Public Health, WHO, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, among others.

She has spoken and written widely on topics related to gender-based violence, sexuality, health and rights. She is currently Chair of the Athena Initiative Advisory Board and a Board member of the Astraea Lesbian Fund for Justice.

Sushma’s role involves organizing and coordinating conferences, institutes and workshops for CREA.

She holds a diploma in Hotel Management and Food Technology from Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai. She has worked for two years as the Networking and Operations Manager of the South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality based at TARSHI, New Delhi. She has previously also worked with other non-profits, Taj Mansingh, MNCs, etc.

As Manager Admin & IT, Taruna will work closely with the Admin & IT team and Director – Events, Admin & IT. Her key role extends to taking care of all office administration, procurements, vendor contract management and IT needs of the organization.

Taruna, with experience of more than fifteen (15) years, holds a PGD in Human Resources and Administration from Tata Institute of Social Sciences along with a bachelor’s Degree from Delhi University. She has enriching experience in administration and worked with national and international organizations in the development sector throughout her career. She is coming from Plan International (India Chapter) where she was heading the administration department. Prior to joining Crea, she also worked with the HIV/AIDS Alliance, the American India Foundation, and the International Centre for Research on Women.

She is an avid reader and loves to travel.

Valleri is a development practitioner and has worked with several rights-based organizations in rural pockets of Bihar, including SEWA Bharat. At SEWA, she led their projects in the State. She got an opportunity to work with women collectives in establishing their Farmer Producer Company and engaged with goat farmers.

Prior to her time at SEWA, she worked at a Delhi-based organization, Manas Foundation. As a Program Manager, she managed the gender sensitization program, during which she worked closely with commercial vehicle drivers and Uber drivers across metros.

Valleri completed her post-graduation in rural development at the Tata Institute of Social Science, Tuljapur. She also has an MPhil in Development Practice from Ambedkar University, an action research-based program anchored by Pradan. Her action research project under her MPhil was, ‘Transforming Spaces for Women-Reflection of Young Women in Budeli Village, Chattisgarh’.

Valleri recognizes mental health as a significantly important feature of everyone’s engaging, busy work life and therefore continues to find ways to maintain a balanced and healthy mind-body engagement. She loves running, practices yoga, and loves reading fiction.

As Program Coordinator- OVOF, Ziayan works closely with Senior Team Lead- OVOF, she works closely with partner organisations. Her role includes managing day to day programmatic functions, ensuring effective delivery and coordination within CREA. She also works on networking, documentation and communications, and represents CREA on different fora.

She has a master’s degree in Gender Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia and has pursued Sociology for her bachelor’s degree from Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi. Previously, she has worked with Action India on gender, youth and educational projects.

She loves to doodle and travelling to new places bring her joy.