Our Team

Natasha Singh, Co-Founder

Natasha Singh has been an educator and youth advocate for over 20 years. Natasha consults, teaches, and speaks widely on topics including gender/sexual literacy, sexual ethics, porn literacy, sexual harms prevention, and creating just relationships.

 

An activist with roots in community organizing, Natasha’s ongoing social justice work has included serving on a number of Boards: FreedomFwd, a San Francisco based organization that attempts to reduce youth vulnerability to commercial sexual exploitation by addressing systems-based harms; the GainesJones Foundation, which provides mentoring, scholarships, and educational opportunities to African American youth. Natasha also co chaired the Board of Center for Domestic Peace, an organization committed to ending domestic violence and promoting healthy relationships in Marin County. She was a Board Member of Desh Pardesh, Canada’s first arts and activism festival devoted to creating a community platform for marginalized voices in the South Asian diaspora, namely those of queer and gender variant folk, people living with HIV and AIDS, refugees, women, working class people, people living with
disabilities, and people marginalized due to caste-based oppression. Natasha went on to co found Diasporadics, a sister organization based in New York City.

 

Natasha’s writing has appeared in several publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and the South Asian Review.

Priya Mishra, Co-Founder

For the past twenty years, Priya has been working on behalf of her community in Sonagachi. She has served as production manager in a variety of organizations dedicated to ending sex trafficking and creating economic opportunities for women wanting to exit the sex trade. Priya was the production manager and motivator in Freeset Bags & Apparel and then went on to found Moksh Foundation, which provides employment for at-risk women and those who have aged out of the sex industry. Moksh has partnered with a local hospital to create a small health clinic for women. Priya is currently the General Manager at Love Calcutta Arts, which employs women who have exited the sex trade, and she used to serve as the chairperson of Freeset Trust, which has provided health care, trauma counseling, childcare (for children of prostituted women), and literacy programs to women who have worked in the sex trade. Having made her home in one of the brothel lanes in Sonagachi, Priya is a respected and beloved member of her community.

Natasha Dolby, Board Member

Natasha Dolby is a nonprofit founder, executive, investor, and philanthropist working to find cross sectorial solutions for the public good. Natasha serves on a number of boards, including The Freedom Fund, a global organization combatting modern-slavery, and of Freedom Forward, an organization she co-founded addressing the intersection between foster care and sexual exploitation of youth. Natasha received an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University. Natasha is from Brazil and a mother of three girls.

Rinku Roy, Executive Director

An educator for 14 years, Rinku had a central mission for a long time: she wanted to work on behalf of marginalized women who were being denied basic human rights by mainstream Indian society. In 2012, Rinku came closer to actualizing her mission when she joined an organization dedicated to teaching sexually exploited women marketable skills. The sewing school Rinku helped co-create paid women a stipend to learn sewing before offering them employment elsewhere. After completing her MSW in social work, Rinku worked with rescued girls from Mumbai’s and Pune’s red light areas, and her efforts were primarily focused on rehabilitation.

 

To Asha Rising, Rinku brings years of experience, a big heart, and a deep passion for social justice. Outside of Asha Rising, Rinku continues to teach health and life skills to vulnerable and exploited women and is associated with a small business near the border that provides employment to vulnerable women.

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Seema Daryanani, Board Member

Seema brings her commitment to inclusion and belonging to both her professional and volunteer work. A trained crisis counselor, she has a demonstrated passion for helping people and teams identify both professional and personal roadblocks and unconscious biases, rewire patterns, and strengthen relationships. She is currently a Global Lead Diversity Business Partner at Google. Prior to that was a DI&B global leader at Anaplan, forming diversity alliances and partnerships, focusing on fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging, and leading the Women’s ERG. Prior to Anaplan, she recruited executive technical talent with a focus on diversity and inclusion at Autodesk and the U.S. Digital Service, a start-up created by the Obama administration that hires technical talent from Silicon Valley to modernize government technology. Seema’s long-term commitment to equity and inclusion extends far beyond her professional life. She’s been actively involved fighting against human trafficking with Asha Rising & International Sanctuary as an ambassador and Executive Board member for more than a decade. Seema also served on the advisory board of Model Expand -a D&I strategy firm focused on employer branding and talent acquisition, as well as on the Equity and Inclusion Strategy Committee at Katherine Delmar Burke School, a gender-inclusive school for girls. Most recently Seema has joined the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Colette Minnock, Board Member

Colette Minnock has volunteered in non-profit organisations involved in small business, education, literacy and community outreach in New York and San Francisco. In addition to her work at Asha Rising, she is currently a consultant with The Acceleration Project, a New York-based business advisory firm dedicated to supporting high-potential, underserved small businesses and keeping local economies vital.

 

She served as a Board Member of The African Library Project, a non-profit that partners with community organizations, NGOs and schools to open school libraries in rural Africa. The ALP has established over 3,000 libraries in 13 African countries.

 

Colette tutored at-risk teens and facilitated a literacy program in the New York Public school system. She participated in visiting programs to hospitalized children in Mount Sinai and Bellevue hospitals to support children and their families through illness. She worked as part of an outreach network to elders living alone in New York to help interrupt patterns of isolation.

 

Colette holds a BA degree in Economics and Business from Trinity College Dublin. She worked for JPMorgan in London and New York in Sales and Trading, Treasury and Investment Management. She is the mother of two young adults and lives in San Francisco.