EDUCATION:
2000 MBA, University of Hartford, CT, USA
1997 BA, Corporate Secretaryship, Ethiraj College for Women, University of Madras, Chennai
Rekha Raghunathan
Lead - Partnerships and Resource Development | raghunathanr at iihs dot ac dot in
Countries: India, USA
States: Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Karnataka
Cities: Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, New York
Languages: English, Hindi, Tamil
Rekha Raghunathan leads the institution’s partnerships and resource development efforts. With nearly 20 years of diverse experience in India and the US, Rekha focuses on developing strong relationships with existing and potential donors and partners in India and globally.
She has been with IIHS since 2015, and has helped set up the IIHS Word Lab which anchors all IIHS publications including the production of its interdisciplinary journal Urbanisation. She also anchors the public engagement, donor acquisitions, and fundraising efforts of the IIHS public reference library, and co-founded IIHS’ annual international writings festival, City Scripts. She has built institutional relationships with several leading digital and print media platforms, cultural organisations, publishers, and other practitioners, collectives and stakeholders working across the arts and the urban.
Rekha and her colleagues at the Word Lab created one of IIHS first two MOOCs on Coursera titled, ‘Writing and Disseminating Grey Literature’, aimed at helping researchers and practitioners develop hands-on skills in writing across public facing formats such as op-eds, data stories, and social media posts. Articles edited by Rekha have been published in The Hindu, EPW, Scroll.in, The Wire and IndiaSpend, among other print and online media platforms.
Prior to IIHS, Rekha ran India Water Portal (Arghyam) and was instrumental in building the portal’s connections with the media. She has worked in finance, technology, product training, and sales with Thomson Reuters in the US, and managed several client relationships.