Chitra Aiyar

Chitra Aiyar is the executive director of the Sadie
Nash Leadership Project, and a lawyer and longtime social justice
organizer. Sadie Nash Leadership Project (SNLP) was founded in 2001 to
promote leadership and activism among young women. SNLP serves
approximately 700 young women annually who are in middle and high school
in New York City and Newark and is designed to strengthen, empower, and
equip young women as agents for change in their lives and in the world.
By increasing the participation of women in social, political, and
economic decision-making, SNLP seeks to question and redefine the nature
of leadership and to promote perspectives and practices that are
cooperative, accountable, ethical, and effective. SNLP runs a 6-week
intensive summer institute along with afterschool programs for young
women that utilize a popular education methodology to address questions
about race gender, and class, along with providing a nourishing space
for community activists more broadly.