Vanita Shastri, Ph.D.

Board of Directors

Vanita Shastri, Ph.D. is an academician, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is currently Dean of Undergraduate Programs at Ashoka University, a new initiative that is building a liberal arts program in India. Vanita has taught business and entrepreneurship at Boston area colleges including Boston University’s School of Management, Wellesley College, and University of Mass at Dartmouth. She has also been a policy consultant at Harvard University, where she wrote a number of policy papers, including one on the “Software Policy of India” for the Government of India. She has worked for Redwood Investment Systems, Inc. where she led the effort to set up their wholly owned subsidiary in India and directed their global operations.

Vanita also served as the Executive Director of TIE Boston for many years. She has founded two non-profit organizations, including the Meru Education Foundation and the Habitat Learning Center in Delhi, India. She has a Ph.D. from Cornell University where she worked on India’s Industrial Policy Liberalization. She studied Political Science at Lady Shriram College and followed it up by an MA and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Vanita is a trained Indian classical dancer and an active member of a number of civic organizations.