SAN’s staff, volunteers, and board include: a majority of women, who are persons of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Nepali origin from Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist traditions; first-generation immigrants and American-born; speakers of Hindi, Nepali, Gujarati, Urdu, Bangla, Punjabi and Sinhala; and queer and heterosexual members.
SAN’s diversity reflects the multiple identities within the community, as well as multiple issue areas and methodologies for community building. Staff come with extensive experience and knowledge of public health, civil rights/ immigrant rights, intimate partner violence and community education.
Staff Members
Aisha Ishtiaq
Community Advocate – AWAZ
Aisha@southasiannetwork.org
Aisha, born in Pakistan and raised in the U.S., became an advocate for victims of violence and their children and for young women’s esteem at 16, after she witnessed abuse in the community. With a degree in Psychology, Aisha joined SAN in 2009.
Asha Gandhi
Community Advocate – CHAI
Asha@southasiannetwork.org
Asha has been with CHAI focusing on linking low income South Asian families, children and elderly with State and Federal benefit programs since 2009. She enrolls low income community members in public benefit programs and does extensive health outreach.
Manjusha Kulkarni
Executive Director
Manju@southasiannetwork.org
Manjusha is Executive Director at SAN. Prior to joining SAN, Manju served as Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) for eleven years. At NHeLP, Manju worked to improve access to quality health care for low-income individuals. Manju has been awarded the Public Service Award by the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California in 2005. She was also selected for the Women’s Policy Institute Fellowship program in 2006, a project of the Women’s Foundation of California to train women to take on leadership roles in state policy advocacy.
Muneera Gardezi
Health Advocate
Muneera@southasiannetwork.org
Muneera assists low-income families and elderly South Asian Americans apply for public benefit programs and better understand how health care reform will impact their lives. Muneera has a B.A in Anthropology from UCLA and an M.A in Anthropology from Cal State Northridge. Muneera joins SAN through the Public Allies program through which she previously worked with LDIR on leadership development and creating and implementing a curriculum addressing issues of race, gender, class, religion and sexuality.
Riffat J. Rahman
Community Advocate – AWAZ
Riffat@southasiannetwork.org
Riffat, holds a Masters in Social Science from Bangladesh, joined SAN in early 2005 for a Bangladeshi community mapping project and now manages cases and media projects for AWAZ. Previously, Riffat worked extensively in legal, economic and gender justice.
Saima Husain
Director of Programs
Saima@southasiannetwork.org
Saima was born in Pakistan, raised in four countries, and speaks five languages. With a Ph.D in Human Rights, Saima started at SAN in 2007, coordinateed the AWAZ unit, and is now SAN’s Director of Programs. She previously worked on police violence, disability rights, and governance.
Tamia Pervez
Policy Organizer
Tamia@southasiannetwork.org
Tamia links policy advocacy to organizing, with a focus on immigrant rights and national security. Since joining SAN in 2009, Tamia utilizes her J.D. emphasis in Critical Race Studies and her experiences as a Pakistani immigrant to empower SAN’s community.
Consultants
Danyaal Mashedy, Technology
Deanna Cherry, Fundraising
Janis Weir, Fundraising
Neha Shahpatel, Mental Health, neha@southasiannetwork.org
Preeti Sharma, Communications Consultant, preetis@southasiannetwork.org
Rajwinder Kaur, Community Health, raj@southasiannetwork.org
Board Members
Ahilan Arulanantham, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU of Southern California
Jyoti Nanda, Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Lecturer, UCLA Law
Nazleen Bharmal, Internal Medicine Physician and Health Services Researcher, UCLA Clinical Instructor
Rashmita Mistry, Associate Professor, UCLA Department of Education
Rohit Shendrikar, Senior Legal Director, Yahoo!
Sanjay Chhugani, Support Services, Santa Barbara Applied Research
Shiraz D. Tangri, Partner, Alston and Bird’s Environmental and Land Development Group
Sonia Shah, Project Manager, Community Benefit, Kaiser Permanente
Suresh Seeram, Manager, TV Production Accounting, 20th Century Fox
Suma Mathai, Supervising Attorney Family Law, LA Center for Law and Justice
