Bio

I am an International Ford Foundation Scholar with a doctoral degree in English Literature and an M.S. in Disability and Human Development from University of Illinois at Chicago. I am a people's person with high emotional intelligence. I thrive on relationship building, networking for creating partnerships, in being a trusted adviser and advocating for equity for those at the margins of socio-economic development. I am a professional with 20 years of experience in the area of human development with specialization in social policy. I started my career as a faculty teaching English Literature, and moved to work as Assistant Commissioner - Disabilities with Government of Rajasthan. Post my fellowship, I joined the World Bank and subsequently a policy advocacy non-profit organisation in Delhi. Currently, I head CSR at Mphasis, where my key responsibility is to engage with development sector especially in the area of education, disability inclusion and livelihoods; to help the company become more inclusive and work towards removing barriers which may exist in persons with disabilities accessing equal opportunities. I have successfully helped the company hire and retain nearly 1% of its workforce from a diverse talent pool, created internal systems and policies for inclusion, retention and career growth of employees with disabilities, helped with strategic partnerships with educational institutions like Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore (IIM-B) to set up an Office of Disability Services and a Research Chair on Digital Accessibility and Inclusion, helped pilot India’s first accessible cab service in Bangalore (Kickstart Cabs) and experiment with other high impact programs like Arivu-Disha (Education Technology), Nudge Gurukul (Skilling) and Make India Accessible (a policy advocacy programme). I been recognized for my work both - internally and externally. I have also published extensively on CSR and Disability Inclusion.