Shyama Venkateswar

Shyama Venkateswar, Ph.D., Director of Research and Programs brings a strong background in international programming, particularly in the areas of poverty reduction and economic sustainability. At the Council, she provides vision and strategic direction as well as helping to develop research and policy agendas.
     Before joining the Council in late 2008, she was the founding Executive Director of Mercy Corps’s Action Center to End Global Hunger, an interactive learning center dedicated to eradicating hunger and poverty. Previously, she served as the Director of the Asian Social Issues Program at the Asia Society and was a Program Officer at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. She was also an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn College where she taught courses on South Asia and Middle Eastern history and politics.
     Shyama’s areas of expertise include human rights, peace and conflict, and South Asian politics. Her commentary has appeared in numerous publications and outlets and she has been a speaker at high-level panels and events including at United Nations, Columbia University, the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, and the Population Council. She has served in advisory capacities at the New York Women’s Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and for Echoing Green. She is currently a contributing editor for India Review, an external reviewer for Transparency International, as well as an advisor to Breakthrough, a human rights organization.
     Shyama was awarded the Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship for her research and dissertation work on religious nationalism in India. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science at Columbia University and is a graduate of Smith College.