Chief Executive Officer

Mona Shrestha Adhikari has more than 25 years of experience working in the private sector, national and international non-governmental organizations and international organizations.

Her experience ranges from working with organisations like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva, the Economic Policy Incubator project of Department for International Development (DFID)/Palladium Group in Nepal which required working in close coordination with the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Development and the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Nepal. She served as a Gender and Trade Advisor of South Asia Regional Trade Facilitation Programme (SARTFP), a project of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian Government.  She has also worked with Action Aid offices in Nepal and Sri Lanka, Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public), Water Aid in Nepal and the United Nations Development, Regional Office – Bangkok on areas relating to education, child rights, trade and development, women rights and gender equality. Prior to this she also has 7 years of experience working with a joint-venture commercial bank, Nepal Indosuez Bank.

She has conducted extensive studies and published on the topics of judicial gender equality, gender and trade and various contemporary socio-economic issues and presented papers at a number of international conferences. Her chapter “Nepalese new women workers in the hotel industry: Exploring women’s work and respectability,” is published in a book titled Rethinking New Womanhood: Practices of Gender, Class, Culture and Religion in South Asia in 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom.

She holds a PhD in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Warwick (UK), Master of Arts (MA) in Development Studies specializing on women, gender and development from the Institute of Social Studies (the Netherlands) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from University of Pune (India). 

Senior Economist

Shiv Raj Bhatt has more than 30 years of experience in the field of education and as well as in the field of Developmental Economics.

As an educator he has a decade long experience which includes teaching economics and research at Tribhuvan University Nepal, Institute of Social Studies - ISS, the Netherlands, and NGOs like South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment – SAWTEE and Institute of Integrated Development Studies – IIDS.

As a Development Economics expert, he has more than two decades of experience, working in different countries like Nepal, Solomon Islands, South Sudan and the Netherlands. He has also worked with national governments (Government of Nepal, Solomon Islands Government and the Government of Republic of South Sudan) and international agencies (UNDP, UNCTAD, etc.).

Mr. Bhatt also publishes articles and academic research papers on contemporary issues. More than a dozen research papers, more than 100 articles and various studies/books/book chapters were published in Nepal and abroad.

Mr. Bhatt did his Masters’ Degree in Economics from Tribhuvan University in 1992 and in Development Studies (specialization in Development Economics) from the ISS, Netherlands in 2001.

Program Director

Aleena Udas Sharma has more than a decade of work experience, which includes working with the banking sector, a national non-governmental organization in Nepal, and as an educator in different management institutes in New Delhi, India.

As an instructor, her teaching experience encompasses teaching both the postgraduate and undergraduate management students in the areas of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management.

She is a columnist and freelance writer and has contributed articles on contemporary social issues such as gender discrimination, bias and prejudices, parenting, education, etc. in Republica and Annapurna Post in Nepal. She also contributes to DailyO, an online platform from the India Today Group and to a blogging website momspresso.com.

She holds a Post Degree Diploma in Human Resource Management and a Certificate in Business Management from University of Winnipeg, Canada. She also acquired Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Institute for Integrated Learning in Management (IILM) New Delhi, Masters in Human Resource Management from Annamalai University and Bachelors in Education from Panjab University, India.  

Gender and Development Associate

Veera Lamichhane has extensive experience in working in the development sector in Nepal, with her main focus being on women and children.

Veera led a team of women for the Amar Project at RHEST (Rural Health and Education Service Trust), and made field visits to various districts of Nepal in order to aid access to education, provide financial aid and counsel young girls of school-going age.

She then went on to become a Summer Fellow at Daayitwa and worked with the Ministry of Industry to engage with national youth to leverage a movement and involvement of younger generations in the governance of the country.  At SAARC, she worked to report on Common Issues of Women in South Asia.

Veera then went on to become an educator at Columbus Int. School, where she was responsible for using modern and dynamic learning teaching methods to show students how to fluently communicate using the English language. She led, motivated, supported and developed students at all levels in order to ensure wholesome growth and knowledge acquisition.

At BB Holdings Pvt. Ltd., she worked directly under the Managing Director as a Communications Officer, and oversaw public content and management of company profile, while creating public business profiles of relative companies within the company.

Her work as a Rapporteur at Women’s Alliance for Peace, Justice and Democracy (Sankalpa Nepal) required detailed, accurate reporting of the ‘South Asian Women’s Regional Conference – Weaving the Web’ and aptly working with the team to devise an action plan.

Most recently, she has worked as an Amanuensis for Ms. Chandni Joshi, assisting in the overall compilation of the book ‘Weaving my South Asian Tapestry’, which is soon to be published.

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Politics from Middlesex University, London. 

Junior Program Associate (Trainee)

Samjhana Karki has been a part of research in topics related to governance and development, economics, disaster, gender and women's studies, conflict studies, international relations, project management etc.

Samjhana had the privilege of working for Samriddhi Foundation as an Intern, where she was responsible for conducting desk review and research on the Public Private Partnership acts of the local governments in Nepal and have also published an article titled; “Converting Remittance into Investment” in Perspectives; a weekly supplement of The Himalayan Times.

Samjhana then worked under the mentorship of Ms. Deepa Shakya, a GESI specialist at USAID TAYAR Nepal and assisted in various projects and programs. Samjhana has been working as a team member of initiative on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management titled “Embrace the Cycle”.

At the Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs' Associations of Nepal (FWEAN), she served as a Publication and Expo Management Assistant where she was responsible for coordinating the publication of the 10th Edition of the Enterprising Women magazine and 5th International Women’s Trade Expo related activities. Ms. Karki also worked as an Associate Coordinator in 1000 Mahila Uddhyami Bhela.

She pursued Development Studies as part of her undergraduate education from National College affiliated to Kathmandu University (KU). She is getting her graduate degree in Crisis Management from Institute of Crisis Management, Samarpan Academy (ICMS), affiliated to Tribhuvan University (TU). She is currently working as the Research Intern in the thematic area (National Security) at Nepal Institute for Policy Research (NIPoRe). She reserves interest in the area of development, economics, gender, and disaster and policy research. 

Senior Design Thinker

Yvonne Watson is an Associate Professor at Parsons The New School for Design   who has held a number of positions in art and design higher education institutions, in the USA & UK. She currently serves as the Associate Dean for Curriculum & Learning in Parsons School of Design. As an Associate Dean for C&L she works closely within the Dean’s Office with oversight of curricula program development and pedagogy innovations within Parsons.

She has worked with the communities of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and Mongolia to enhance their product development process through the delivery of trend and design development workshops and has also designed curriculum for fashion design institutes in a number of countries including in Dubai, Ethiopia and Mongolia.

She is interested in proposing new ways to facilitate conversations between global artisans and the fashion industry in order to expand opportunities for holistic engagement that fully empowers an alternative global fashion supply chain. 

Certified Mindfulness Coach

Ms. Deepanjali Sapkota is a mother, change agent, writer, and an unshakable optimist who has been living in Switzerland for the past 21 years. During her early 20s, she went through the most challenging time in her life, which compelled her to go on a spree to find the answers to her unstable turbulent life. She found the recipe for her happy life in Self Awareness. 

And since then, she has been spreading her message of Self-Awareness, Mindfulness, and Atma Gyan in different ways, like organizing programs such as: Creative Festival for the youth of Nepal back in 2016; writing a chapter in a book called Ignite Your Life for Women; sharing her message through interviews and; introducing a wellness program in a humanitarian organization. Most of all she is driven to help others get, the secret of life that she got 17 years ago.

Development and Leadership Expert

Ms. Neeva Pradhan leads development and leadership initiatives with the corporate, professional, and entrepreneurial groups. She served as Vice President at Federal Credit Union USA, handling loan portfolios and enhancing investor relations. She championed learning and development trainings to credit union member groups. She has addressed major high-level forums and moderated panel discussions both in the US and in Nepal through General Services Administration, National Business Initiative andThe World Forum Ethics in business in Nepal. Ms Pradhan has authored a book on multiculturalism and diversity and written a few other publications related to Business Ethics. She holds an MS degree in Management and a BS degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from the US.