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.