Staff
Tiloma Jayasinghe, Executive Director, joined Sakhi staff in February 2010. She was formerly a Social Affairs Officer at the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women where she was responsible for analyzing and identifying policies and practices eliminating violence against women from an international perspective. Prior to that, she was the National Advocates for Pregnant Women’s first Baron Edmond de Rothschild Staff Attorney Fellow where she focused her legal, educational, and organizational skills on the intersection of the war on reproductive rights and the war on drugs. She is a graduate of New York University and the George Washington University School of Law. Ms. Jayasinghe’s diverse legal background includes litigating bankruptcy and financial restructuring cases, filing Habeas Corpus appeals, VAWA petitions, and preparing amicus curaie briefs before state and federal appellate courts throughout the United States. As an associate at the international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw, LLP, she spearheaded a pro bono project supporting the development and creation of the Asian University for Women. She is also a birth doula and a founding member of With Woman Doula Coopertiva. Ms. Jayasinghe has served as the New York Chapter Representative to the Board of Directors of NAPAWF (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum). She can be reached at tiloma.jayasinghe@sakhi.org or 212-714-9153, x 1010.
Sethu Nair, Community Outreach and Media Advocate, joined Sakhi in November 2010. She brings to Sakhi experience media, communications and fundraising work experience in the non-profit sector in New York City. Sethu holds a Masters in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. At Sakhi, she manages initiatives designed to increase awareness of violence against women and engages individuals and community members through traditional and social media activities. Sethu is fluent in Hindi, Malayalam and Urdu. She can be reached at sethu.nair@sakhi.org or 212-714-9153, x 1004.
Danielle Reydon, Senior Development Officer, joined Sakhi in May 2010. Danielle manages grant prospecting and proposal development for private and government funding, and supports Sakhi in the areas of fiscal management, special events and fundraising execution, individual donor cultivation, and direct mail campaigns. She received a BA from Brooklyn College, majoring in Anthropology and History. She can be reached at danielle.reydon@sakhi.org or 212-714-9153, x 1003.
Bithi Roy, Economic Empowerment Coordinator, completed a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from John Jay College in May, 2009. While at John Jay, Bithi conducted a research on Domestic Violence in the Bangladeshi Immigrant Community. Bithi also completed her Master and Bachelor in Sociology at Shahajalal University of Science & Technology in Bangladesh. She is fluent in Bengali. She can be reached at bithi.roy@sakhi.org or 212-714-9153, x 1006.
Reshmi Sengupta, Domestic Violence Program Advocate, joined Sakhi as a volunteer in the summer of 2010, going on to becoming a full-time staff member in September. She has a BA from Hunter College, double majoring in Economics and History, with a focus in development Economics. After 6 years in the finance world, she decided to go back to school and get a Masters degree in Economics and Education from Columbia University-Teachers College, focusing on women’s development in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is fluent in both Hindi and Bengali. She can be reached at reshmi.sengupta@sakhi.org or 212-714-9153, x 1007.
Shalini Somayaji, Deputy Director, first started working around gender-based violence issues in 2000 during a summer fellowship at Raksha, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that works within the South Asian community. There, her passion for social justice was sparked, and she continued on after law school at Tapestri, a nonprofit dedicated to ending violence in refugee and immigrant communities, for over six years, first as a legal advocate and then as Co-Executive Director. She is a graduate of Tufts University and Emory University School of Law. She is currently on the Steering Committee of Asian Women Giving Circle. When not trying to figure out how to make life easier with technology, you can find her hanging out with her family, looking for the best vegan meal, or writing a story based on her grandfather’s life – who first inspired her to do good without expecting anything in return. She can be reached at shalini.somayaji@sakhi.org or 212-714-9153, x 1002.
