Dr. Shyama Venkateswar is currently the Senior Director, Learning, at Seramount (now a part of EAB) where she leads strategy for the development, design, and facilitation of tailored DEI curriculum and custom-built workshops for corporate clients and government agencies to tackle complex workplace culture and talent challenges that disproportionately impact underrepresented groups. She collaborates with senior leaders across the organization to provide differentiated and quality learning solutions by leveraging research, data, and subject matter expertise to create content geared towards creating inclusive behaviors and actions in organizations and senior leaders. In 2021, she was appointed to the Commission on Gender Equity by the then Mayor of NYC, and also serves as the New York representative for the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW).
Shyama has over twenty years of bringing thought leadership to higher education and the nonprofit world. She has vast experience in strategic planning, policy research, program design, operations, organization, and philanthropy. She has led a range of initiatives from increasing diversity and inclusion in higher education to facilitating and disseminating policy research on global economic and security issues, and leading successful campaigns. As a skilled communicator, she has written several reports, commentaries and op-eds, and given numerous high-level lectures and presentations in the U.S., Europe and Asia to
academic, government, policy, nonprofit and corporate audiences. She has been widely interviewed by print and broadcast media for her content expertise in politics, policy, research and advocacy.
Prior to her position at Seramount, she was the Director of the Public Policy Program at Roosevelt House & faculty member at Hunter College, City University of New York, a position that she held for eight years. She led the expansion and governance of the program, crafted new and innovative curriculum, designed and taught courses, led evaluations for accreditation, and played an instrumental role in implementing initiatives for student and faculty development. Shyama’s work included a focus on providing opportunities for first generation learners, immigrants, undocumented and other underrepresented students through
comprehensive mentoring programs leading to successful post-secondary careers. She worked with senior leaders on campus to implement the College’s strategic plan and devised student performance indicators and teaching impact metrics.
Before arriving at Hunter College Public Policy Program, she worked at the National Council for Research on Women (now merged with the International Center for Research on Women). As the Director of Research & Programs, she helped provide the vision and strategic direction of the Council’s policy agenda on
economic security and women’s leadership, and received grants from foundations and corporate philanthropy. She has also served as the Founding Director of Mercy Corps’ Action Center to End World Hunger, and as Director of the Asian Social Issues Program at the Asia Society.
She is a graduate of Smith College and received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in Political Science.
