Our Faculty

Worrin Muivah is the Founder and Director of STEP North-East and STEP Academy. He has over 7 years of experience working across 4 countries in Europe and Asia. He is also a visiting faculty at the State Institute of Hotel Management (SIHM), Manipur and the Director of Career and Entrepreneurship Cell at Needy Home Academy. He has conducted over 60+ communication skills workshops across Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

Worrin holds a Master’s in Development Studies, specializing in Human Rights, Peace and Conflict Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), in the Hague, Netherlands. He also holds a Diploma Master’s in Liberal Arts, as a Young India Fellow, from Ashoka University.

Onaiza Drabu is the co-founder of CodeSwitch Consulting and as a management consultant who brings 8 years of experience across industries and regions. As an anthropologist with a specialization in digital cultures, Onaiza has managed technology implementation projects for UNICEF for the last five years across seven offices in three regions (Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia). Her methodology keeps people at the center of transformation projects, rolling out digital products through an understanding of human behavior and peoples' interactions with technology. 

As a semiotician and market-entry consultant, she has worked with brands to design their product propositions, positioning, and communications in India, Pakistan, Kenya, and UAE. She has also co-founded Daak, a South Asian regional-language digital cultural archive with ~200,000 readers across platforms, and is a published author with academic work on the semiotics of racism on the internet, folklore, and online cultures.

Yamichon Shimrah is the head of operations and data management for a global cyber security programme at SWIFT. Before that, she had a diverse career working as a lead security specialist, business continuity manager, change manager and engineer in India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

She is passionate about sustainability, environmental conservation, empowerment of women
and vulnerable communities. Yami is a facilitator of the #IamRemarkable Google initiative focused on empowering women and minorities to self-promote in the workplace.

She has an MBA from INSEAD Paris, an MSc in e-Business Management from the University of Lille and a Bachelors in Computer Science from the University of Calicut.

Rachana works as an investment manager with the UK government’s emerging markets investment arm. She makes investments into South Asia and Africa that create a significant development impact (example in sectors such as agriculture, financial inclusion, healthcare, education) alongside financial returns. She has an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Vishnupriya Rajgarhia lives and works between India and the United Kingdom. She is an independent consultant with core expertise in art, culture, and education. Her artistic practice looks at 'interventions' and 'interactive art'. A Levett Scholar from the University of Oxford, she was selected as the only South-Asian Research Fellow to represent the British Pavillion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Some select exhibitions include a group show at the London Met, The Cass, The CCCU in the UK, as well as KHOJ Artists Association, Goethe Institut in India, Bikaner House, New Delhi. Her previous teaching experience includes Assistant Professor at Anant National University, where she developed the first Bachelor's in Visual Arts Program, as well as visiting faculty and tutor appointments at Ashoka University, and the University of Oxford. She was nominated and selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia recognition in Arts.

Payaswini Tailor is a Weidenfeld-Hoffman Scholar with an MPhil and Master's degree from the University of Oxford. She had previously done her undergraduate in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi.

Payaswini has been working in the not-for-profit sector for the last four years. Her research and professional engagements have been on rural livelihoods and gender justice.

Currently, she is facilitating strategy and learning at the Ford Foundation's regional office in India on civic engagement and government, gender, racial and ethnic justice, technology and society, and the future of workers. Prior to this, she was the Associate Project Director at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India.

Tanusha works as a product manager at MiQ, London, a top adtech firm. Her role involves engineering privacy-focused products that help advertisers reach audiences ethically without losing on performance and ROI.

Tanusha has been working with data across different verticals for 4 years now since she graduated from Manipal with a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Outside of work, she loves working out, traveling, writing poetry, and playing the ukulele.

Anuja Dasgupta is a visual artist and educator based in Ladakh. She is the recipient of the TOTO Award for Photography (2023), Prince Claus Seed Award (2021), the Indian Photography Festival–Portrait Prize (2017), and her work has been showcased at various platforms, such as the Ladakh Literature Festival (2019), Kochi-Muziris Students’ Biennale, India (2018), Head On Photo Festival, Australia (2018), Odesa-Batumi Photo Days, Georgia (2017), PhotoVogue, Vogue Italia (2017), Isthmus: Image Dialogues, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2016), and the Contemporary Arts Week, India (2016).

Anuja holds a BA (H) in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, and an MA in Visual Art from Ambedkar University, Delhi. Anuja was also a Designate Research Fellow as a recipient of the Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowship in 2017. She is trained in Hindustani Classical Music and Mixed Martial Arts, and loves languages, coding, and coconuts.

Rutvi Ashar is the Associate Director, Communications and Operations at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds an M.S. in Education (major: International Educational Development) from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this, she worked at the Office of the Provost, Anant National University, India’s first design university. She has also served as Program Lead - Academics at Naropa Fellowship in its inaugural year.

Before moving to higher education, Rutvi’s academic and professional background was in architecture and design journalism. She is passionate about improving the higher education system and learning environments for adult learners.

Jessica Jakoinao is a freelance editor currently based in Gurugram, Haryana. She holds a master’s degree in Politics (IR) from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Stephen’s College. She is currently learning Mandarin as a fourth language. She is the co-founder and deputy editor of Ptenopus, a digital literary magazine centered on art. She particularly likes to work with experimental fiction. She is also an editorial fellow at The Caravan.

Pritha Mahanti is a writer, editor and independent researcher currently based in Barrackpore, West Bengal. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English from Presidency University and a second master’s degree in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has worked as a research assistant for India Writes Network, a journal on Indian foreign affairs, and as a scriptwriter for Study IQ, an ed-tech company. She is the co-founder and chief editor of Ptenopus, a digital literary magazine centered on art. She loves writing about visual art, global politics and popular culture. Her poems and essays have been published in Café Dissensus, Madras Courier, Gulmohur Quarterly, LiveWire and Himal Southasian.

Aakanksha is a passionate, disciplined, and certified leadership coach who believes in the power of taking risks and making bold decisions. With over 5 years of experience, Aakanksha has coached and mentored clients from diverse backgrounds, including CEOs, HR Heads, authors, and entrepreneurs. She became an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF)at the young age of 25, she is skilled in creating coaching awareness and designing practical action plans. A Law Graduate and a Vedica Scholar, her entrepreneurial spirit and sense of ownership have driven her to work with over 500 participants in 2022, including students from premier colleges like IITs. Her passion for impact-led training and working with youths to create better, aware future leaders is contagious. Her mantra, "You are stronger than you know," is an inspiration to all who seek to unlock their full potential.