Angellica Aribam
Founder
Named one of Forbes India's "30 Under 30" in 2017, Angellica Aribam has been working on issues of race, gender, and the democratization of politics for over a decade. Hailing from Manipur, in the marginalized northeastern region of India, Angellica faced racial injustice and discrimination firsthand since childhood. It motivated her to get involved in politics. In 2012, she became the first student from the northeastern region of India to be elected in the Delhi University. Subsequently, she served as a National General Secretary of the students' wing of Indian National Congress for five years. Angellica has advised the Government of India on anti-racism laws. She anchored the student manifesto for the 2014 parliamentary elections for the Congress.
In 2017, she decided to pause her political career to work on a larger goal - to get more women into politics. Angellica started Femme First Foundation in 2019.
Angellica was an inaugural VVEngage Fellow for Women Political Leaders at Vital Voices, an American NGO founded by Hillary Clinton, where she was mentored by former women Prime Ministers of Canada, New Zealand, and Peru; and trained by professors of Harvard Kennedy School.
Angellica was also a Lead Gender Consultant at the British Council India's Newton Fund. She served on the Expert Panel of Stanford University's Impact Labs in 2022. Angellica is also a certified Public Narrative coach and has conducted workshops with Prof Marshall Ganz and team for students at the Harvard Kennedy School.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from University of Delhi and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Peking University, Angellica is on a quest for learning. As a staunch advocate for gender and racial rights, she regularly writes for various Indian publications including The Indian Express, The Times of India amongst others.
Akash Satyawali
Lead - Policy Advisory
Akash Satyawali is a political and policy consultant specialising in strategic communications, policymaking, and outreach campaigns. His core areas of work are equity, macro economy, healthcare, and gender rights.
At the Femme First Foundation, Akash handles partnerships with provincial governments as well as embassies and leads policy advisory projects.
Akash has wide work experience where he has advised senior members of parliament and state governments. He is currently National Coordinator at the All-India Congress Committee Research Department. One of the youngest national bearers, he oversees political operations and election campaigns. He co-anchored Congress party’s manifesto consultation exercise for the 2019 general elections. Before joining the Congress party, he worked with the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). Akash regularly contributes to leading national dailies and publications.
In 2020, he was selected as one of the world’s fifty political leaders to participate in the quadrennial exchange programme for the United States Presidential Elections. He has represented India at the Yenching Global Symposium, an annual gathering of global leaders hosted by Peking University. He secured the Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, for the 2022-23 cohort.
Innocentia Atchaya
Program Associate
Innocentia holds a Masters degree in Geopolitics and International Relations, and her research interests have always been centered around gender issues in the field. She has been actively advocating for the recognition of gender in geopolitics and international relations through various publications. Specifically, she has contributed multiple articles to Modern Diplomacy, where she addresses the significance of gender in these domains. Her publications aim to raise awareness and stimulate discussions on the role of gender in the geopolitical and international contexts.
