The Learning Conference 2015

Rajasvini Bhansali is the Executive Director of 30-year old International Development Exchange (IDEX) and a passionate advocate for participatory grassroots-led social change and movement building. In a wide-ranging career devoted to social and economic justice, she has led a national social enterprise, managed a public telecommunications infrastructure fund addressing digital divide issues and worked as a researcher, planner, policy analyst and strategy consultant. Vini also worked alongside community leaders as a capacity builder for youth polytechnics in rural Kenya for over two years. Born and raised in India, Vini earned a Master′s in Public Affairs (MPA) with a focus on technology and telecommunications policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and Bachelor's degrees in Astrophysics and Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities & Social Sciences from UC Berkeley. Vini has been involved in community organizing and volunteer board roles for the last two decades. She is currently active on the Board of Directors for Voice of Witness, an organization that works to illuminate human rights injustices through oral history projects; Greenpeace USA; and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. Inspired by the potential of social justice philanthropy to support movements and community based organizations, Vini has also served on the steering committee for the Bay Area Justice Funders Network (BAJFN) and on the advisory board for the Agroecology Fund. She is currently on the Planning Committee for the Association of Women in Development (AWID) Forum to be held in Brazil in 2016 and the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) Learning Conference.  Vini has spoken at various fora and universities and is also a published poet, essayist, storyteller and popular educator. When not serving community organizations, Vini can be found hiking, cooking and dancing with friends.   

Ramani Sripada is the current Director of Member Programs and Services at Associated Grant Makers (AGM). Prior to joining AGM, Ramani was a Program Officer for MetroWest Health Foundation overseeing grants management and implementation of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and Childhood Obesity initiatives. Prior to that she served as Deputy Director of MA Asian & Pacific Islanders for Health (MAP) for twelve years providing HIV/AIDS prevention education and managed a CDC-funded National and Regional API HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Program. She also serves as a Gubernatorial Nominee of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), and is a current Co-Chair of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy -AAPIP's Boston chapter. 

Ramani is a human rights and social justice activist with an extensive professional background in public health program development, implementation and evaluation.  She received a BA in Social Thought and Political Economy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a MA in Applied Urban Anthropology from City College, New York.