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SAALT
STAFF
 Deepa
Iyer is the Executive Director of SAALT. Deepa has had
over seven years of experience in civil rights and immigrant rights
advocacy. She began her public interest career at the National Asian
Pacific American Legal Consortium, where she managed the Census
2000, Language Rights, and Voting Rights programs. She then served
as Trial Attorney at the Civil Rights Division of the United States
Department of Justice, where she represented individuals suffering
from workplace discrimination due to their immigration status or
national origin, and assisted with the Division’s efforts to
address backlash discrimination in the wake of September 11th. Deepa
most recently served as the Legal Director of the Asian Pacific
American Legal Resource Center, where she institutionalized a multilingual
legal referral hotline and organized a pan-ethnic coalition that
successfully advocated for linguistic access to government services
and benefits.
Throughout
her career, Deepa has addressed issues affecting the South Asian
community. She is the Executive Producer of a 26-minute documentary
featuring hate crimes survivors and community organizers. She has
taught classes on legal issues affecting Asian Americans at Columbia
University and Hunter College in New York City and has written on
language access and post 9/11 backlash. Deepa was recently featured
in a Stanford University Law School publication entitled Beyond
the Big Law Firm. Deepa moved to Kentucky from India when she was
twelve. To reach Deepa, please email deepa@saalt.org.
 Mou
Khan joined SAALT in January 2008 as the Part-Time Program/Admin
Assistant. Mou graduated from Carelton College with a degree
in Political Science and International Relations. She recently completed
the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs in St.Louis. To reach
Mou, please email mou@saalt.org.
 Aparna
Kothary joined SAALT in August of 2007 as the Fundraising
and Development Assistant through the Americorps VISTA program.
Aparna recently graduated from the University of MD - College Park
with a B.S. in International Business and a minor in International
Development and Conflict Management. To reach Aparna, please
email aparna@saalt.org.
 Priya
Murthy is the Policy Director at SAALT. As the Policy
Director, she monitors and analyzes legislative and administrative
policies affecting the South Asian community; conducts advocacy
on various policy issues; and develops educational materials for
the South Asian community members and organizations. She also represents
the organization as a member of immigrant and civil rights coalitions
as well as before lawmakers and governmental agencies. She previously
worked for various Immigration Courts, the Amnesty International
Refugee Office and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in New
Delhi. Priya received her J.D. from Tulane University and her B.A.
from the University of California at Berkeley in Peace and Conflict
Studies. To reach Priya, please email priya@saalt.org.
 Arefa
Vohra joined SAALT in January of 2006 as the Advocate for
Community Empowerment. She works with South Asian communities
and allies locally and nationally to help strengthen the South Asian
voice in America toward greater civic and political engagement.
Arefa previously worked as an Immigrant Women Program intern for
Legal Momentum, previously NOW Legal Defense Fund where she helped
coordinate the Office on Violence Against Women Training and the
10th National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women Conference.
She also was with the ACLU of Northern California as their Surveillance
Project Consultant, where she gathered information concerning post-9/11
government surveillance and effects of the USA Patriot Act toward
peace activist and immigrant communities. Arefa has remained active
with local communities through her involvement with the ADC-SF chapter,
CAIR SF/Bay Area chapter and CAIR-Southern California chapter. Arefa
received a dual B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley
in Mass Communications and History. To reach Arefa, please email
arefa@saalt.org.
SAALT
CONSULTANTS
 Qudsia
Raja is SAALT’s New Jersey Outreach Coordinator.
Qudsia conducts outreach and education to South Asian communities
in parts of New Jersey. She previously worked for Raksha Inc. in
Atlanta and Manavi in New Jersey. Qudsia is a graduate of Agnes
Scott College in Decatur, GA. To reach Qudsia, please email quidsia@saalt.org.
SAALT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jayesh
Rathod [Chair] is the current Chair of SAALT’s Board of
Directors. Jayesh is a Practitioner-in-Residence with the International
Human Rights Law Clinic at American University Washington College
of Law (WCL). Prior to joining the WCL faculty, he was a Staff Attorney
at CASA of Maryland, representing low-wage immigrant workers on
employment law and immigration matters, and participating in worker
education, organizing, and advocacy efforts. He also practiced in
the litigation section at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering LLP, and
was law clerk to the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer, of the United
States District Court for the District of Columbia. Over the course
of his career, he has worked with numerous non-governmental organizations
to advance the civil and human rights of communities in the United
States and abroad. His areas of specialty and scholarly interests
include immigrants' rights, labor and employment, occupational safety
and health, and the intersection of law and organizing. He is a
graduate of Columbia Law School and Harvard University.
Ankur
Agarwal [Vice Chair] is a Senior Advanced Process Development
Engineer at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in Silicon Valley. He has
been an active leader in the community through his management of
SAALT's national day of service project for the past 3 years. Ankur
has worked with over 200 organizations and many volunteers in organizing
the annual project. Ankur’s work in the South Asian community
stems from his involvement with South Asian organizations and events
as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Michigan.
He currently resides in the Bay Area and is active in the local
community.
Ambreen
Ali [Secretary] is a master’s candidate at Northwestern
University’s Medill School of Journalism. She is studying new
media journalism and is interested in pursuing international or
community-based journalism that works to create awareness of underrepresented
issues and people. Prior to beginning her master’s in January
2007, Ambreen was the communications associate of the National Committee
for Responsive Philanthropy. There she served as the editor of Responsive
Philanthropy, a quarterly journal and redesigned the organization’s
publications and layouts. Ambreen graduated from the University
of Washington Business School with college honors and served as
a program associate for Catholic Community Services’ Youth
Tutoring Program in 2004. In 2005, she spent three months in Karachi,
Pakistan, where she worked for The Citizens’ Foundation, South
Asia’s largest non-governmental organization. After a freelance
trip to the earthquake-affected regions of Pakistan and Kashmir,
Ambreen’s work appeared in World View, Glimpse Quarterly, Woman
International, PakCast, and Newsline, as well as her self-published
Web log, www.ambreen.net/blog.
Maryah
Qureshi [Treasurer] is a Chicago-lifer working in the field
of economic development. She is a graduate of the University of
Chicago with a BA in Economics and Public Policy and is active in
Chicago's community development scene with a special focus on South
Asian and Muslim community empowerment. Maryah serves on the Young
Women's Leadership Council of the Chicago Foundation for Women and
the Political Action Task Force of the Muslim Students' Association
of the U.S. and Canada. She is also a participant in the Leadership
Council of Asian Pacific Americans 2006 Community Leadership Program.
Amber
Khan is the former Executive Director of the Communications
Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes the effective use
of strategic communications in philanthropy by providing leadership,
resources, and guidance to foundations and nonprofits. She has over
10 years of experience in the public interest sector working on
issue advocacy, coalition building, communications and grassroots
organizing with a variety of national advocacy organizations, including
People for the American Way, the Center for Reproductive Law and
Policy, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Sunil
Oommen is a Major Gifts Officer at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation (GLAAD). In this role, he serves as the East
Coast liaison for Alliance Circle, GLAAD's premier major donor program
that recognizes individual donors who give $5,000+ annually. Immediately
prior to joining GLAAD, Sunil focused on corporate and foundation
giving at the New York Blood Center. Sunil entered the fundraising
field after years in public relations for a variety of nonprofit
organizations and corporations. He developed communications strategies
and executed media relations for or on behalf of organizations such
as, Heidrick & Struggles, Project People Foundation, KPMG, Cendant
Corporation, CV Therapeutics, Cross-Cultural Solutions and the New
Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services. A proud resident
of New York City, Sunil earned a Master of Science degree in International
Relations from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of
Arts degree from American University in French language/Western
European Area Studies.
Sonali
Perera is a professor of English at Rutgers University. She
teaches courses in South Asian literature, postcolonial literature
and theory, feminist theory and globalization studies. Her research
interests include traditions of internationalism and literary radicalism
from the global South, including parts of India and Sri Lanka. She
is working on book manuscript titled, ‘All that is present
and moving…’: Thinking Working-Class Writing at the Limits.
Her current research is focused on a formation of feminist texts
of women’s labor (sources ranging from South Asia, Sub-Saharan
Africa, to North America) which offer alternative ways of theorizing
socialist ethics. She received her Ph.D. in English and Comparative
Literature from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2003.
Prior to joining Rutgers, she was a post-doctoral lecturing fellow
at Duke University. She was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and lived
there until immigrating to the US in 1985. She is fluent in Sinhalese
and is committed to learning Tamil. She currently resides in New
York City.
Nicholas
Rathod hails from the state of Nebraska, where his parents emigrated
to from Gujarat, India. Nick attended Nebraska Wesleyan University
where he worked for State Senator Dan Fisher and was a founder of
the first NAACP chapter in the state. He is a 2000 graduate of American
University Law School. As an attorney Nick has successfully litigated
matters relating to discrimination in lending claims on behalf of
African American, Native American, Muslim, Asian and Latino communities,
including a one billion dollar settlement on behalf of African American
farmers.
Currently,
Nick works as the Political Director for New York Governor Eliot
Spitzer. For Governor Spitzer Nick helps to develop policy for New
York State on immigration, civil rights, stem cell research, labor
and election reform. In addition, Nick works with Senators Hillary
Clinton, Charles Schumer and New York's Congressional Delegation
in political and policy decision-making to assure that New York's
interests are represented in Federal legislation.
Prior
to his work with Governor Spitzer, Nick directed state and local
operations at the Center for American Progress - a progressive think
tank started by President Clinton's Chief of Staff, John Podesta.
For the organization Nick worked across the country with progressive
governors, mayors and state legislators to craft and pass progressive
legislation such as stem cell research expansion, laws promoting
renewable energy, workers rights and immigration reform.
Rishi
Reddi is a fiction writer and attorney living near Boston, MA.
Her first collection of short stories, addressing the Indian immigrant
experience, was published by Ecco/HarperCollins in 2007. Her fiction
has appeared in literary journals, and has been chosen to appear
in Best American Short Stories and earned an honorable mention
in the Pushcart Prize series. For ten years, she practiced
environmental law for both federal and state government, working
in the areas of policy and enforcement. She recently worked for
the Massachusetts Legislative Coordinator for Amnesty International
USA. She was born in India and has lived in both England and the
United States.
SAALT
Council of Advisors
SAALT’s
Council of Advisors, created in 2006, assembles a group of individuals
with expertise and knowledge about policy issues and immigrant communities.
The Council of Advisors provides guidance to SAALT regarding stances
on policy issues and collaborations with South Asian and non-South
Asian organizations.
The
Council of Advisors includes:
Penny Abeywardena is the Director of Strategic Relations
at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy in New York. Prior
to joining DMI Penny was the Development Program Officer at the
Funding Exchange in New York. She has also worked in development
and program areas for Human Rights Watch, the Fund for Global Human
Rights and Doctors Without Borders. She graduated from the University
of Southern California in 1999 with a BA in Political Science and
minor in Business Administration. She completed her Master in International
Affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public
Affairs in 2004, where she studied economic and political development
and non-profit management. Penny concurrently completed Columbia's
Fundraising Management program. She was the editor of Rights News,
an annual publication by Columbia's Center for the Study of Human
Rights from 2004-2006. Penny serves on the Board of Advisors of
Resource Generation, the Advisory Council for the 'Creating Change
Through Family Philanthropy' national conference, and the planning
committee for the 'Making Money Make Change' national retreat. She
is a mentor for Third Wave Foundation's Why Give program for young
women of color and transgender youth.
Muneer
Ahmad is an associate professor of law at the Washington College
of Law at the American University in DC. He holds expertise in immigrants’
rights, clinical legal education, labor and employment and poverty
law. Prior to joining the faculty of the Washington College of Law,
Ahmad was staff attorney and Skadden Fellow at the Asian Pacific
American Legal Center in Los Angeles. Previously he was law clerk
to the Hon. William K. Sessions, III, U.S. District Court in Burlington,
Vt. From 1998 to 2001 he was Legal Task Force Chair of the South
Asian Network in Artesia, Cal. He has presented on various human
rights topics at such institutions as Harvard University, University
of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Northridge,
New England School of Law, Loyola Marymount University Conferences
sponsored by: U.S. Department of State, American Studies Association,
The Rockefeller Foundation, The California Endowment, The Wellness
Foundation, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, National
Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. He is author of "Serving
Market Needs, Not People's Needs: The Indignity of Welfare Reform,"
10 Amer. U. J. of Gender, Soc. Policy & Law 27 (2002); "Homeland
Insecurities: Racial Profiling the Day After 9/11," Social
Text 72, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Fall 2002); "The Ethics of Narrative,"
11 Amer. U. J. of Gender, Soc. Policy & Law 117 (2002); "A
Rage Shared by Law: Post-September 11 Racial Violence as Crimes
of Passion," 92 Cal. L. Rev. 1259 (2004).
Vanita
Gupta works for the national legal department of the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) where she litigates cases to improve
access to justice and education for communities of color, and challenges
post 9/11 racial profiling and racially-biased aspects of the criminal
justice system. Before joining the ACLU, Ms. Gupta served as Assistant
Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (LDF)
for five years. At LDF, her work centered on civil rights litigation
that promoted systemic reform of the criminal justice system. Ms.
Gupta successfully led the effort to overturn the drug convictions
of 38 defendants in Tulia, Texas, representing wrongfully-convicted
individuals, organizing national law firms, and coordination the
overall legal and media strategy. With co-counsel, she settled civil
rights cases filed on behalf of the wrongfully convicted Tulia residents
for $6 million. A movie, titled Tulia, about Ms. Gupta’s role
in exposing the injustice in Tulia will be released in 2008.
Ms.
Gupta has received numerous awards including the Reebok Human Rights
Award and the American Red Cross “Rising Star” award,
the India Abroad Special Award for Outstanding Achievement, and
the Upakar Foundation Community Ambassador Award. Ms. Gupta was
also profiled in TheNew York Times “Public Lives” section
in 2003. She is a member of the U.S. Programs Advisory Committee
for Human Rights Watch, and a member of SAALT’s Council of
Advisors.
Chaumtoli
Huq is an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York. Ms.
Huq was previously a staff attorney with the New York Taxi Workers'
Alliance (NYTWA), a membership-based organization of immigrant taxi-drivers
in New York City. There, she directed the Wheels of Justice project
which provided legal support to TWA organizing efforts through litigation
and policy initiatives. Ms. Huq moved to NYTWA from the Asian American
Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) in New York, where she
was a Staff Attorney/Skadden Fellow. At AALDEF, Ms. Huq co-directed
the South Asian Workers Rights Project (SAWRP). After graduating
from Columbia University in 1993, Ms. Huq worked as the Domestic
Violence Coordinator at Sakhi for South Asian Women. A graduate
of Northeastern University School of Law, she was a Staff Attorney
at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia,
PA from 1997-1999. Born in Bangladesh and raised in Bronx, New York,
Ms. Huq tries to connect her community based work in New York with
international human rights issues.
Ann
Kalayil is the co-founder and director of the South Asian American
Policy and Research Institute (SAAPRI). She has a Ph.D. in History
from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and teaches Asian American
Studies at DePaul University. She has taught courses focusing on
Asian and Asian-American History at the University of Illinois and
Loyola University. As a Board member of several organizations, both
community service and advocacy based, she is active in Chicago’s
Indian American and Asian American community. She has conducted
diversity training and spent over a decade advocating in the following
areas: economic development for target communities, reforms in immigration,
campaign finance, education, tougher hate crimes legislation, combating
stereotyping of Asian Americans in media, and political empowerment.
Anil
Kalhan is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Fordham Law
School. Before coming to Fordham, he was an Associate in Law at
Columbia Law School, and he previously served as a litigation associate
at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and co-coordinator of
the firm's immigration and international human rights pro bono practice
group. He also has previously worked for the ACLU Immigrants' Rights
Project in New York and the South Asia Human Rights Documentation
Centre in New Delhi, India, and served as law clerk to the Hon.
Chester J. Straub (U.S. Ct. of App., 2d Cir.) and the Hon. Gerard
E. Lynch (U.S. Dist. Ct., S.D.N.Y.). He currently serves on the
advisory board of the Discrimination
and National Security Initiative of the Harvard University Pluralism
Project, and is a contributing writer to Dorf
on Law and AsiaMedia.
He also has been a member of the International Law Committee and
International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar
of the City of New York.
Before
attending law school, he worked for Cable News Network, the MacNeil/Lehrer
NewsHour, and the New York City Department of Transportation. He
received a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.P.M. at the Yale School
of Management, and an A.B. from Brown University. His areas of interest
include immigration and citizenship, criminal law and procedure,
constitutional law, international human rights, law of South Asia,
and Asian Americans and the law.
Nitasha
Kaur Sawhney is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Garcia
Calderon Ruiz, LLP. Ms. Sawhney specializes in education, labor
and employment law and advises clients on matters related to labor
negotiations, personnel, charter schools, educational foundations,
public meeting laws and school district governance matters.
In
2006, Ms. Sawhney was appointed by California Assembly Speak Fabian
Nunez to serve on the California State Commission on Asian and Pacific
Islander American Affairs. Ms. Sawhney currently serves as vice-chair
of the Commission. In addition, Ms. Sawhney is an advisor to the
Discrimination & National Security Initiative, and affiliate
of Harvard University’s Pluralism Project and is a member of
the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Diversity in the Profession
Committee. Ms. Sawhney also serves as a legal volunteer with the
California Sikh Council and the Sikh American Legal Defense &
Education Fund (SALDEF). Ms. Sawhney was awarded the 2006 Spirit
in Action Award from the Interfaith Councils of the City of Garden
Grove, Stanton, and Westminster for her work in raising funds and
awareness to aid victims of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan
and her dedication to public service.
Ms.
Sawhney is a first generation South Asian American. She is a graduate
of UC Berkeley where she studied Mass Communication and Ethnic Studies.
Ms. Sawhney received her law degree from the UC Davis’ King
Hall Law School.
Tito
Sinha is an attorney in private practice, specializing in civil
rights, real estate, and wills and estates. He is a former staff
attorney, and former board member, at the Asian American Legal Defense
and Education Fund, where he worked on hate crimes, voting rights,
immigrants rights and other civil rights areas. He is a graduate
of the City University of New York School of Law and Swarthmore
College. He is also a founding board member of South Asian Youth
Action (SAYA!) in Queens, New York.
Jayashri
Srikantiah is an Associate Professor of Law at the Stanford
Law School. A respected voice on immigration law and civil rights,
Jayashri Srikantiah is the director of the law school’s Immigrants’
Rights Clinic, in which students represent individual immigrants
and immigrants’ rights organizations and also engage in community
outreach, public education, and policy advocacy. She has litigated
extensively on behalf of immigrants, and her experience includes
challenges to mandatory and indefinite detention policies in the
federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court and representation
of human trafficking survivors. Before joining the Stanford Law
School faculty in 2004, Professor Srikantiah was the associate legal
director of the ACLU of Northern California and a staff attorney
at the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. She was a law
clerk to Judge David R. Thompson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit.
SAALT
Business Leadership Council
Murthy
Vangala (NJ)
Alka
Gupta (CA)
Christina
Kothari (NY)
Sankar
Sen (NY)
Maheen
Qureshi (VA)
Interns
Anuja
Mehrotra (2007)
Surabhi
Pudasaini (2007)
Kumudha
Kumarachandran (2007)
Neha
Singhal (2007)
Madiha
Malik (2007)
Reshma
Bharne (2006)
Swathi
Malepati (2006)
Pooja
Merai (2006)
Priya
Sarathy (2006)
Former
Staff Members/Consultants
Seema
Agnani (2007)
K’ai
Smith (2007)
Madhur
Bansal (2006-2007)
Reema
Desai (2006-2007)
Anika
Shah (2005-2006)
Imrana
Khrea (2004-2005)
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