We are:
- facilitators, trainers and coaches
- diversity, equity and inclusion practitioners
- practical activists
- experienced at navigating cross-cultural and cross-racial dynamics
Meet Our Founder
Monica Biswas
Social justice work must be steeped in a commitment to ongoing learning. My lessons started at age 12 when I was drawn to studying social justice – apartheid in South Africa, colonization of India, the Holocaust, and the police violence against Rodney King.
My master’s work at Harvard examined the impact of racism and other social factors on health, education, socioeconomic success.
My extensive coaching training with Martha Beck Institute allows me to work with people as they move through painful limiting thoughts and programming that prevent us from living up to our intended values.
And now, as a Diversity & Inclusion strategy practitioner at a corporation, I design research-informed programs to more equitably serve populations of employees and customers.
Every day, I am humbly seeking new knowledge and experiences that I can put into practice in service of my social justice goals.
Lived Experiences
I bring to this work my lived experiences as an Indian-American daughter of immigrants. I have learned from a young age to navigate cross-cultural and cross-racial dynamics as I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey and Massachusetts. My career has allowed me to hone these skills further – I served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in South Carolina and then trained teachers in rural villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Practical Activist
I have engaged in activism since middle school when I challenged my male shop teacher when he said ‘i don’t usually let girls use the jigsaw’. When I was young, my activism included educating my teachers about the myths they were teaching about India and colonialism. In high school, we held a rally for Rodney King and supported the rights of gay and lesbian students. As a City Year volunteer in Columbia, SC, I helped organize the city’s first celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in collaboration with University of South Carolina.
Now with two elementary school-aged boys and many responsibilities, my activism takes different forms – advocacy in my places of work, engaging on the boards of local organizations, and election volunteering. I feel compelled to stay active, but realize that it will look different based on the strengths and resources I have at any given time.
I also maintain a regular practice of meditation and nourishing my body and heart – this plays a key role in sustaining my advocacy efforts. I find that even my ongoing pursuit to actively dismantling my perfectionism plays a role in my social justice work. I find that when I can reprogram the oppressive habits in my life, I bring that expertise out into the world.
