About

Thanks for checking out the SAPP Blog. The South Asian Philanthropy Project, or SAPP, aims to create a forum that inspires South Asian Americans to become more involved in philanthropy and volunteering.

This page has information about the SAPP authors (Archana, Venu, and Priyanka). If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave us some feedback. We are always looking for people to contribute to our blog and propose new ideas and fresh perspectives.

Venu Gupta joined the Chicago Committee as the organization’s Executive Director in January 2006. Prior to joining the Chicago Committee, Venu was the Director of Diversity Education & Outreach at Northwestern University School of Law. Through her experiences in law school administration, private practice and non-profit organizations, she brings a working knowledge of the Chicago legal community and law firms on issues of diversity. Venu received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1999. Subsequently, she was a law clerk for the Honorable David H. Coar of the Northern District of Illinois.

Archana Sridhar is Associate Director of the Hennick Centre for Business and Law at York University in Toronto, Canada.  Formerly, she was Assistant Dean for Research and Special Projects at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana. She received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2001 and completed a year-long U.S. Student Fulbright Fellowship in Guatemala during 2006-07. Archana has worked in foundation and corporate relations for the international humanitarian organization Interplast and as a tax associate at Sullivan & Worcester LLP. As a law student, Archana participated in a number of student groups, including the South Asian Law Students Association, and pursued clinical work with the Harvard Civil Rights Project. Archana’s own continued research addresses international philanthropy, post-conflict development, and tax reform.

Priyanka Dube is an undergraduate at Indiana University – Bloomington. As a Hudson and Holland Scholar, Priyanka is double majoring in the biological sciences and spanish. Before pursuing her degree at  IU, Priyanka participated in the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Language in Valencia, Spain. Last summer, she interned at the Indiana University School of Medicine Simon Cancer Center. An active participant in the South Asian community, Priyanka is a trained classical dancer and presently volunteers at the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana and the IU Asian Culture Center.

Ramya Iyer is currently at the University of Chicago pursuing her graduate degree in Social Work. Her primary orientation is clinical, with a focus on family systems and psychotherapy, and a sub-focus on poverty and inequality. Prior to her graduate degree Ramya was working at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare’s Research Institute in psychosocial research involving cancer patients. She has her undergraduate degree in Psychology from DePaul University and is certified in crisis intervention.