Executive Director – INDIA & US
Mallika Dutt, Founder
Mallika has authored several articles and essays including the widely referenced "With Liberty and Justice for All: Women's Human Rights in the United States." She was also the co-author of the globally utilized manual, "Local Action Global Change: Learning About the Human Rights of Women and Girls," which has been translated into more than ten languages.
Prior to founding Breakthrough, Mallika was the Program Officer for the Human Rights & Social Justice Program at the Ford Foundation's New Delhi office. Mallika has also served as the Associate Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University and as the Director of the Norman Foundation. She began her professional career as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton in NYC.
Mallika is a founder of Sakhi for South Asian Women and has served on several boards and committees, including the Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project and Asia Watch, The Sister Fund, Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Lt. Governor Committee on Public Police Relations, Committee on Sex and Law - the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the US NGO Coordinating Committee for the UN World Conference Against Racism. She currently serves on the Open Society Institute US Programs Board, the WITNESS Board of Directors, the Games for Change Advisory Board, and the Rights Working Group Steering Committee.
Mallika is a member of the NY State Bar. She has a JD from NYU Law School, a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College.
Mallika grew up in Kolkata and Mirzapur in India and currently lives in NY with her husband Sumit Daniel Ghosal and their dogs, Piko and Sulta.
Staff – India
Sanjukta Basu, Program Coordinator - Community Outreach and Internet
Sanjukta Basu is a lawyer turned social media enthusiast, women’s rights activist, LGBT rights champion, a writer, traveller and photographer. She has practiced in the Courts, worked in the corporate world, small business process outsourcing, performed research in national and international non-profits, publication houses and more. She has also worked towards community building, networking, organizing events and trainings on social media and blogging on topics of gender, sexuality and secularism. She claims her present role in Breakthrough to be her dream job. She aspires to be famous one day.
Piali Bhattacharya, Media Assistant
Piali has done her Masters in English Literature from Meerut University. She has been working for 9 years in academic and administrative positions in various organizations like Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, Reliance Infocom and Kaya Skin Care Ltd. She has received on the job training on communication skills and Bioinformatics and has actively conducted workshops on communication skills.
At company Kaya Skin Clinics, she worked very closely with the operations team, maintaining and updating daily sales and monthly information reports as well as coordinating with clinics in North and East India. Before joining Breakthrough Piali worked as the HR and Admin Executive in M/s Andre HK Buying Office Ltd. Her key functional area was recruitment, expat management and administrative support of all the branch offices of India.
Tupur Chatterjee, Program Assistant
Tupur is a graduate of St. Stephen's College and the University of Delhi with a degree in History. She received her Masters in Global Media and Post National Communication from The School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and completed her thesis on Muslim Identities in Popular Hindi Cinema titled, “Another Brick in the Breaking Wall; Contexualizing Muslim Identities and Locating the Secular Nation in Mani Ratnam's Bombay and Khalid Mohammad's Fiza.”
During her stint in London she was a Research Associate for Internews Network, a Washington based organization for their project, “The Business of Changing Lives: Sustainability Guide to Community Radio.” After returning to India, she worked with Point of View, a Mumbai based NGO that works with Gender and Media on a project called pad.ma which is an online archive of annotated documentary and commercial film footage.
Urvashi Gandhi, Manager - Community Leadership Program
A trained and experienced facilitator, Urvashi has conducted training programs with different groups (youth from colleges and marginalized communities, CBO, NGO workers and people from the corporate sector) on social issues ranging from gender, human rights, women's rights sexuality and life skills. She has been involved in developing resource materials, sessions and organizing state and national levels events on these issues.
Urvashi has done her Masters in Home Science specializing in Human Development from the S.N.D.T Women's University. She has received her certificate in Non-Profit Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2000 she joined Pratidhi, which works for the welfare and rehabilitation of victims of crime, and undertook legal literacy drives to sensitize women about their rights in the context of dowry, domestic violence and sexual abuse. At CASP-Plan, she has counseled children and women, begun a documentation center, worked on a children's quarterly magazine and organized events for and with Bal Panchayat members. At Don Bosco Ashalayam, she worked on a UNHCR project with Afghan and Burmese refugees in Delhi and building self help groups.
Sonali Khan, Country Director - India
Sonali Khan has been a journalist with about ten years of experience in the field. She began as a TV journalist for Television 18 and has worked on programs broadcast on channels like the BBC World, Star Plus, Delhi
Doordarshan and CNBC. She has also made documentaries on Indian art and craft. She has been effectively trying to use her media skills in the development sector. She was previously working as Program Coordinator for Public Education And Advocacy, with Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action - CREA a not for profit organization. Her work involved building awareness on issues of violence against women, sexual and reproductive health, sexuality, women's human rights and social justice.
Sonali has an M.phil degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Political Science.
Pushkar Kirola, Accountant
Pushkar holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Delhi University. He is currently pursuing an MBA in Finance & HR, and has 7 years experience in Accounts & Administration. His professional career began as an Accounts Trainee under the auspice of Ms. Sanjeev K. Bansal & Co. and worked for 2 years in different positions in the corporate sector.
Bindu Madhavi, Program Coordinator-Monitoring and Evaluation
Bindu Madhavi is a postgraduate in Sociology with eight years of experience in the development sector especially in education, policy issues, child and health. She has developed skills over the years in Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Research, Training, Advocacy, and Counseling. She has worked with several organizations holding different positions such as Population Council (Consultant), BBC World Service Trust (Research Officer), UNDP/TAHA/NIS Sparta (Faculty), CRY (Consultant), EC/Trained Nurses Association of India (Research Officer), Society for All Round Development (Trainer/Counselor), Center for Civil Society (Project Coordinator) and National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (Project Assistant).
Gautam Marwah, Manager - Accounts
Gautam has his Bachelor's in commerce from Delhi University and has 14 years of experience in accounting. He began his professional career as an Accounts Assistant with Charisma Realty and worked for 9 years in different positions in the corporate sector. In 2003, he joined the development sector as Account Executive with TARSHI, NGO which works on the reproductive and sexual health issues.
Before joining Breakthrough he worked as a Manager-Accounts with IDE-India NGO working towards development of low cost technologies to improve financial situation of poor farmers.
Sunita Menon, Director - Education and Training
Sunita Menon has developed and implemented projects at national and international level on citizenship education, women's rights, sexuality and HIV/ AIDS. An experienced trainer, she has conducted capacity building programs with various civil society organizations, government departments, corporate houses and with marginalized communities on diverse social issues .She has authored Jaano, Jaago , Jagaao – A Peer Educators Guide to HIV/AIDS Awareness and co authored Rights and Desire- A Facilitators Manual on Healthy Sexuality. Her articles on development issues have been published in national newspapers, magazines and websites. She has scripted and hosted education programs for Gyan Darshan a national television channel. She is also the founder member of socio - cultural group, which uses theatre and culture to address conflict related issues.
Vartika Mishra, Executive Assistant
Vartika completed her Masters in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2006. She worked with human rights firm Vacancy Voyage, as a consultant for the banking and insurance sector. She also worked with S.P.A.C.E (Science Popularizing Association of Communicators & Educators) a nonprofit working on the agenda of building scientific rationality and temper. As Program Coordinator she did the marketing for various astronomy clubs targeting different age groups from varied fields.
Vani Periodi, Program Manager
Vani Periodi has over two decades of experience in the field of development. She is a seasoned trainer in the areas of gender, education, communications and local governance. She has also used theater and other cultural forms of expression to promote human rights.
Vani has considerable experience in research and evaluation and has produced several publications, newsletters and reports for organizations in Karnataka. She has also developed a training mannual for youth on sensitive partnership and responsible parenthood during her fellowship under Population Council Delhi.
Rajinder Singh Rawat, Office Assistant
Rajinder completed his studies in 2000 from Uttaranchal, India. Prior to joining Breakthrough he worked at Hero Cycles as an office assistant holding the position for two years. At the Delhi Breakthrough office Rajindra provides support to staff in numerous capacities including public relations.
Staff – USA
Heidi Boisvert, Multimedia Manager
Heidi J. Boisvert recently joined the Breakthrough team as their Multimedia Manager and is responsible for overseeing production of a wide range of new media including video games, video podcasts, and flash animations, to help raise awareness and transform attitudes to create broader support for human rights.
While an MFA student at Hunter College in the Integrated Media Arts program (along with Natalia Rodriguez, an MFA student the Performance and Interactive Media Arts Program at Brooklyn College), Heidi designed ICED - I Can End Deportation, the downloadable game created by Breakthrough to spark dialogue and create awareness of unfair U.S. immigration policies. Prior to joining Breakthrough, she taught Digital Media & Media Studies at Hunter College, and launched a free Digital Media Program for low-income youth, adults and parent/child teams at the Bronx River Art Center through Time Warner & NOAA funding. Heidi also has taught 3D Game Design, Documentary Video, and Photography at BRAC and Newark School of Art, ENG shooting & editing at BCAT and served as an educator and exhibition designer at the Museum of the Moving Image after many years working as a freelance editor, shooter and independent producer.
Julie Griff, Executive Assistant
Julie has a BA in History and Humanistic Studies from McGill University in Montreal. She is a co-founder of the MoBo Bicycle Co-op, a non-profit, community-based bicycle education project dedicated to sustainable transportation in Cincinnati. She has worked extensively in community education and service projects, including Freedom Schools and The Friendship Reading Center in Cincinnati and The Elderly Project and Santropol Roulant in Montreal.
Nikki Marron, Grants Manager
Nikki has an undergraduate degree in art history from Barnard College. She is also a graduate of Villanova University School of Law, where her studies focused on civil rights and social justice issues. Prior to joining Breakthrough, Nikki assisted with the administration of grant programs for local artists at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and most recently she worked in the office of development at The New York Public Library.
Madhuri Mohindar, Program Coordinator
Madhuri Mohindar is a documentary filmmaker, media producer and journalist. She has worked on a number of documentary films featuring diverse subjects, including immigrant experiences, civil liberties, gay rights, and the impact of globalization on Bollywood dancers.
Her first public film, 'Red Roses', is a sociological portrait of South Asian women in a beauty parlor in New York, and has played at a number of international film festivals, including New York's South Asian International Film Festival, San Francisco Docfest and Globians Documentary Festival in Germany. It has also received substantial press coverage including "CNN-IBN" and "India Today."
She has published numerous articles in Inter Press Service, a global news service dedicated to covering developing news features and has worked as an Archiving, Research and Publications Officer at Osian's, an Auction House, Film House and Archiving Centre of Indian fine arts, cinema and architecture.
Her desire to integrate media and social issues emerged after a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Communications Media at Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai, after which she completed a Masters in Media Studies from the New School in New York.
Sandy Shin, Program Coordinator
Sandy Shin has a Masters in Human Rights from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in Women's Studies and Sociology from the University of Albany. She was the Legal Advocate Project Director at the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault where she coordinated statewide trainings and provided constituents and the general public with services. Sandy has also been involved with community-driven social movements led by local activists employing anti-racism, anti-war ideologies.
Marc Sokol, Deputy Director
Marc Sokol is the Deputy Director of Breakthrough. Marc has worked extensively in nonprofit management and administration, and has an MFA in Arts Administration from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Art and Architectural History.
Prior to joining Breakthrough, Marc was VP for Business Development and acting COO of a national school-reform organization that provided professional training services to administrators and teachers. Marc designed the staff and operation systems, programs, and budgets, growing the organization to where it had 100 trainers delivering 4,500 training days yearly. As a private consultant, Marc helped nonprofit and for-profit clients with strategic planning, organizational development, education and training programs, and client development.
Marc's nationally replicated Architectural Youth Program received numerous awards and won multi-year funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. As a member of Visual AIDS for the Arts, he helped produce the "Night without Light", a World AIDS day tribute. Marc has served on juries and panels, including the Westchester Arts Council, United Federation of Teachers, Scholastic Art Awards, American Institute of Architects, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
Crissy Spivey, Program Coordinator
Crissy has worked as the Program Coordinator producing web content and managing web outreach at Breakthrough for over two years. In addition, her online reach includes being a freelance writer for many websites during off hours. Prior to working on the web, offline Crissy worked in documentary production at Court TV. She was a Cultural Arts Instructor for The Bronx School of Law, Government and Justice and Herbert H. Lehman High School, which entailed creating a film internship for students and coordinating cultural arts events for the schools. She was also an Admissions Counselor at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York.
Crissy has her Masters in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Journalism from the University of Rochester.
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