We must become the change
we want to see.
To increase decision making and foundational skills in adolescent girls by implementing a transformative design process where teachers, learners and community leaders choose and address educational challenges in KGBVs.
Our Mission
our values
our team
Ananya Tiwari
Co-Anchor
An Alum of St. Stephen’s College and Ashoka University (Young India Fellowship), Ananya studied Chemistry, Neuroscience and Liberal Arts before switching to Education. She was a teacher in a rural school, opened a school in a village, and designed, implemented and evaluated at-scale interventions. She is driven by interdisciplinary educational approaches aimed to reduce social inequalities. A recipient of the coveted Illinois Innovation Prize, the Illinois International Achievement Award, Due and Ferber Research Award and the Bailey-YMCA Fellow, Ananya is a regular swimmer and an occasional runner.
Vaibhav Kumar
Co-Anchor
A Mechanical Engineer (NIT-B, IIT-Kanpur) and a Liberal Arts student (Young India Fellowship, Ashoka University) by degree and a teacher at heart, Vaibhav believes that quality education to every child can bring equality in society. Since 2013, he has worked as a teacher, volunteer, education leader, mentor to an after-school program, content developer and designer of a teacher professional development program. He often writes on education for national newspapers in both Hindi and English. He believes in finding answers internally and draws inspiration from running.
Arzoo Shakir
Program Lead
Born and raised in Kolkata, Arzoo has her bachelor’s degree in Urdu. Through her volunteering experience at Play for Peace since 2016, she has lived through the benefits and success of cooperative games in building peace and resolving conflict in communities, classrooms and organizations. She is a certified Master Coach from Quest Alliance and has volunteered with World Vision since 2012 as a life skill education facilitator with individuals suffering from HIV AIDS. She has also worked as a district project manager for an year with Project Potential. She likes to travel and explore about having communities beyond walls.
Suganya Sankaran
Fundraising Lead
The hope, strength and resilience present in India’s rural communities has been serving as a guiding inspiration for Suganya to explore education and development at the grassroots. She believes in the spirit of collective partnerships and the power of collective voices to bring about change. Since 2016, she has worked across multiple organizations serving as a volunteer-teacher, partnerships manager and teacher facilitator. She has studied business and liberal arts before moving to education.
our mentors
Ms. Daya Kori
Managing Director - Software R&D Center, Evive India
Prof. Mona Yadav
Department of Gender Studies, NCERT
Mr. Ravi Gulati
Founder, Manzil & Co-Founder, Safe in India
Being a Social Activist, Educator with over 20 years of experience in this space Mr. Ravi Gulati has been a constant support and mentor through his valuable inputs since the inception of idea.
Mr. Mehmood Khan
Managing Trustee of Rasul Kanwar Khan Trust, Mewat
Mr. Mehmood Khan has over 4 decades of experience of working in corporate space including 2 decades of experience in leading roles in Unilever. He has been a pillar of support for SwaTaleem varying from understanding local context to mentoring on organization building.
Darnell Leatherwood
A public figure in the spheres of business, education, social activism, and media, Darnell is a native of East St. Louis and currently resides outside of Chicago. Along with his team, he has founded, co-founded, or served as a founding member of multiple organizations dedicated to promoting social justice, healthy communities, equitable outcomes, and the obliteration of oppressive systems and false stereotypes.
our directors
Monika Mahto
Graduated as an Electrical Engineer, she has worked in corporate sector for a brief period and also as a volunteer and academic mentor. She holds interest in multiple fields, specially education and women empowerment. She is an artist, a nature lover and a detail oriented person. She also has a keen interest in observational astronomy.
Ratnakar
A firm believer in education as the most powerful tool for social and personal change, Ratnakar has academic training in Chemical Engineering, Education, Pedagogy and Psychology. His engagement in teaching started in 2010 and since then he has volunteered in Schools, NGOs and also worked full time in Jagriti Bal Vikas Samiti (JBVS) working for the education and welfare of migrant children. He believes that the only thing that limits us is our imagination.
Hemang Srikishan
An Indicorps fellow alumnus, Hemang has been connected with education in India and the United States for over a decade. As a resident of Chicago, he has been teaching mathematics in under resourced schools since 2011. Hemang loves mindfulness and shares this with his students and teacher colleagues through regular guided meditation.
Saundra Murray Nettles
Saundra Murray Nettles is a feminist writer and scholar of environmental psychology and human development. She is the author of Crazy Visitation, a memoir of life with and without a brain tumor. She has published numerous academic articles and book chapters, and her poetry appears in Double Stitch: Black Women Write about Mothers & Daughters and I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love.
She received a B.A. degree in philosophy and Ph.D. in psychology from Howard University, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, a Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Fellowship, and a NIMH traineeship. Dr. Nettles is co-founder of the Section on Black Women, Society for the Psychology of Women and 2009 President of the American Psychological Association Division of Population and Environmental Psychology.
Dr. Murray Nettles conducted research at the American Institutes for Research and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools and taught at several institutions, including the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her biography appears on the website, “Psychology’s Feminist Voices.”
our advisors
Wynne Korr
Dr. Korr was among the founding deans for the award-winning I-Venture Accelerator and on the initial executive committee for the Siebel Center for Design. She serves her local community as member of the board of the East Central Illinois Community Foundation and as an adviser to the Community Solutions nonprofit incubator. She is also a member of the United Way Community Impact Committee.
Saundra Murray Nettles
Saundra Murray Nettles is a feminist writer and scholar of environmental psychology and human development. She is the author of Crazy Visitation, a memoir of life with and without a brain tumor. She has published numerous academic articles and book chapters, and her poetry appears in Double Stitch: Black Women Write about Mothers & Daughters and I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love.
She received a B.A. degree in philosophy and Ph.D. in psychology from Howard University, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, a Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Fellowship, and a NIMH traineeship. Dr. Nettles is co-founder of the Section on Black Women, Society for the Psychology of Women and 2009 President of the American Psychological Association Division of Population and Environmental Psychology.
Dr. Murray Nettles conducted research at the American Institutes for Research and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools and taught at several institutions, including the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her biography appears on the website, “Psychology’s Feminist Voices.”
our volunteers
Ayushi Chaurasia
Backend work pertaining to Fundraising and conducting sessions in KGBV Jalmana
Mahima Jaju
Marco Toc
Marketing Strategists