People


Dr. Robyn Wilson
Fundraising AmbassadorDr. Robyn is an Asia-based leadership specialist who has worked with individuals, teams, and organizations across Asia and the Middle-east. A long-time supporter of Women LEAD, Robyn is passionate about championing young women. Australian by background, Robyn is a lover of the outdoors and the mountains of Nepal.


Yvonne Lau
Fundraising AmbassadorYvonne Lau is a Hong Kong-based journalist covering Asian financial markets; and culture and society in China, Russia, Nepal.
Nepal has made an immense impression upon Yvonne — particularly the strength, resilience, and outlook of its women and girls. She joined Women LEAD to support programs that build up girls’ development and education in leadership and politics. As am Ambassador, Yvonne hopes to advance the conversation on the role of women and girls in society.
She is also passionate about peacebuilding, community connections, and sustainability. When in Nepal, Yvonne can be found in the mountains and villages, with hot rum punch and momos in hand.


Niki Leung
Fundraising AmbassadorNiki is based in Hong Kong working in the tech industry.
Niki has a passion for women’s equality and assisting in paving a path for people to reach their full potential. She has experience in volunteering in Nepal and other parts of the world to provide resources for women and help businesses become sustainable. As an Ambassador, Niki aims to break social stigmas and fight for women’s rights in Nepal.
Her hobbies also include advising young entrepreneurs to grow their business. For fun, Niki likes to attend open mic nights to take a stab at stand up comedy.


Priyanka Bisht
Campus AmbassadorPriyanka was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. She currently lives in the United States with her family. She is a 4th year Pharm. D student at St. John’s University. Her hobbies include: watching movies, playing football, and listening to music. Her professional goals are to boost her networking skills, and hopefully in the future earn a degree and work for a reputable company. She also wants to be able to grow personally by making new connections and not limiting herself when it comes to interacting with new people. Her goals as campus ambassador include, but are not limited to, raising funds and ensuring that people are aware of Women LEAD and their goal of creating leadership opportunities for the younger generation in Nepal.


Sadhabi Thapa
Campus AmbassadorSadhabi is a senior at St. John’s University with a major in Economics and a minor in Philosophy. She is also a Career Peer Leader at St. John’s. She’s from Kathmandu currently residing in New York. She is a full-time learner and wants to create a favorable environment for emerging think tanks. Sustainability and style is a tough choice for her so she is learning to modify old clothes into a new style. She aspires to contribute to the policymaking field in Nepal in her future.


Rajina Shrestha
PresidentRajina (2010 LEADer) is currently a student of Masters in Biotechnology. She has immense confidence in the role of support programs for women’s leadership and has also helped start Women LEAD’s wing of Women Leaders in Technology (WLiT) in 2012, as well as registering it as a non-profit organization in 2015. She has been involved in WLiT as an in-charge of the leadership curriculum and the mentorship program alongside operations and development. She also believes that Women LEAD’s vision of ‘women co-creating the future’ can best be accompanied when other strong women in the periphery support and uplift each other. Since Women LEAD exemplifies this, Rajina is excited about the new generation of female leaders who will not only create a legacy, but will also pave paths for the younger generation.
On lighter evenings, she performs standup comedy at various venues in the city and hosts a weekly comedy radio show.


Menuka Gurung
Vice PresidentMenuka (2011 LEADer) graduated from Bangkok University International College where she studied Entrepreneurship and Management. She served as a Founding Board Member in 2012. She was an Entrepreneurship Fellow in 2011 and interned at Women LEAD for 5 years during her summer break and led recruitment for the LEAD Course. Currently, she is running her own online clothing store and freelancing as a Business Consultant.
Menuka has seen Women LEAD grow from a small co-working space to a space big enough to fit all of the alumni. She believes that Women LEAD have created a safe space for all the alumns to share their opinions and at the same time challenge each other for betterment. It’s time for us to create bigger impact and she is very much looking forward to this 2 year tenure as a Vice-President to create a sustainable environment where changemakers are created to lead themselves, their community, and Nepal.


Bidhyalaxmi Maharjan
SecretaryBidhyalaxmi recently completed her Bachelor’s in Arts from Tribhuvan University. After freelancing for several projects as an interpreter and research assistant, she now works at Samriddhi Foundation, an independent educational and public policy think tank. Apart from her research work, she also contributes to Samriddhi’s weekly column in the Himalayan Times.
Bidhyalaxmi previously served as the vice-secretary in WLEAD Nepal board and helped oversee the executive transition. Her varied engagements with the organization since the completion of LEAD Course 2015 have given her a significant understanding of WLEAD and its works. She firmly believes that investing in girls and young women is key to ensuring women’s leadership at all levels.


Sagoon Bhetwal
Vice SecretarySagoon (2018 YWPLI) is currently a social sciences student at National College. At Women LEAD Nepal, she has been an intern, mentor, Chief of Staff for OWN IT Nepal, and also represented WLEAD at the 63rd Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Recently, she completed her project Naritwa with other three members as one of the Sujata Baskota Changemaker Awardee and completed a vagina screening camp and sessions in schools in Surkhet. Her vision for WLEAD is to see the organization grow and become home to many more young girls and make collective efforts in building a better and equal society.


Prasansha Rimal
Interim TreasurerPrasansha ( 2015 LEADer ) is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in arts and law (B.A.LL.B.) at Kathmandu School of Law with aim of advocating in the field of Environmental Law. After successful completion of LEAD course at Women LEAD Nepal, she mentored 2 young LEADer. She is the recipient of Travel grant, provided in partnership with Nepali Travellers and Women LEAD Nepal as part of Solo Woman Travel Challenge . An avid reader, she loves to read and even writes on her own blog. Prasansha is a firm believer of goodness in humankind and looks forward to co-creating a future where people without any prejudices to their gender, get access to various opportunities to pursue their own dreams.


Erika Rani Thapa
MemberErika (2013 LEADer) is currently a final year medical student. As a passionate advocate of woman empowerment, she plans to combine her passion and profession by contributing in any way she can to make the issue of female reproductive health mainstream. She is currently mentoring a LEADer and intends to make it a journey of inspiring as well as being inspired.


Prapti Sherchan
Co-ChairPrapti has over 12 years of nonprofit and private sector development experience, with clients in Asia, Africa, and the United States. She works at International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. At IFC, she provides clients with gender-specific advice to improve women’s access to financial services and employment opportunities in the emerging markets.
Prapti is passionate about women’s economic empowerment and believes closing the gender gap is the first step to a thriving community and economy. Prapti is thrilled to find a nonprofit that is working to increase the number of women leaders in Nepal through leadership programs targeted at young adolescent girls. She is proud to serve as a co-chair of the U.S. Board.
Prapti has an MBA with a concentration in sustainable development from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.


Erika Veberyte
Co-ChairErika is an international development and foreign policy expert. She recently served as a Senior Adviser to the President of the International Republican Institute (IRI) for International and Women’s Organizations. She was offered this position after five years of leading a global program at IRI as Director of the Women’s Democracy Network, which spanned in more than 60 countries around the world. Prior to this, she had a successful career as Lithuania’s diplomat serving at the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Washington, D.C. where she was responsible for Congressional and Think Tank Relations. Her broad foreign policy experience also includes serving as a diplomatic adviser to the President of Lithuania and senior foreign policy adviser to the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament where she promoted Lithuania’s aspiration to become a member of the international community of democratic nations. Her passion for empowering women and girls is born out of her life story, where she saw women fighting for her own country’s independence and human rights along with men. However, in the aftermath, women were missing from the leadership positions. Erika believes that leadership starts from providing girls with the right education. An educated girl will ensure that her family and community is healthier as well as contribute as will lead the cultural, political and economic growth of her country.


Prajolita Lamichhane
Board SecretaryA lawyer and an international development professional, Prajolita has experience working with government, private sector and civil society organizations on issues related to women rights, women’s participation in politics, gender sensitivity campaigns and gender mainstreaming in project implementation. Before moving to Washington, D.C., she was working on a multi donor initiative called “Strengthening Women’s Participation Especially from Marginalized Communities in Local Governance, Decision Making, Elections and Politics (SMARCO)”, implemented through a Nepali national NGO – Jagaran Nepal. She played a key role in reviewing the gaps in existing laws and policies of Nepal and how those gaps could be cemented to incorporate GESI friendly rules and regulations in electoral Acts. She previously worked with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and business law firms in various capacities.
With an LL.M. in human rights and gender justice, Prajolita is passionate about disentangling the legal and policy hurdles that could potentially help women take leadership role in solving pressing socio-economic issues society is facing today. Through Women LEAD, she aims to contribute to these goals by working with a wider network of international development institutions and civil society communities in Nepal. Having already contributed to Nepal’s sixth shadow report on the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), she also believes that taking national issues to regional and global forums is crucial in leveraging resources towards both legal and policy reforms in the country.


Sukripa Shah
Board FundraiserWorking as an Advancement and Community Relations Manager at a youth mental health and education nonprofit, The Children’s Home of Reading, in the U.S; Sukripa specializes in donor communications, fund development, grant writing, digital marketing, and community outreach. In her present role, she has successfully tapped into various foundational and individual funding sources that have accelerated the nonprofit’s mission.
Sukripa has been delivering data-driven, mission-oriented results to help US-based donors and constituents fulfill their philanthropic aspirations for over three years. Born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sukripa came to the US in 2016 to pursue MA in Communication at Villanova University. Post-graduation, she embarked upon her professional journey in the Department of Human Services through a Summer Internship Program with Susan. G. Komen-Philadelphia, a leading breast cancer awareness nonprofit in the US. Since then she has been actively working towards furthering various nonprofits’ missions (including the Red Cross Organization of Eastern PA) that mainly focus on underserved, at-risk populations.
As a Women LEAD Board Fundraiser, Sukripa is determined to use her voice and platform to empower female youth in Nepal through fair access to education, resources, and opportunities that will in turn reduce the socio-economic gaps in Nepali households due to gender inequalities.


Sue Snyder
Honorary MemberSue has over 20 years experience in business consulting, leadership training/coaching and organizational development/change management. Sue has worked with leaders of companies with revenues of $17 billion dollars to organizations with a handful of employees. She has also run the Government Accountability Office’s leadership program, set up SRA International’s learning program and worked on global talent management initiatives. Sue joined Women LEAD because she has observed the birth of this organization since co-founder Claire Naylor’s years at Georgetown. She has also been to Nepal and has a sense of the needs of their young women.


Ayesha Karki
Board FellowAyesha has more than five years of experience serving nonprofit and private clients. Currently, she works at a private company where she oversees and keeps the accounting and financial processes of the company up to standard and ensures accurate financial reporting and control. Prior to working in the private sector, Ayesha worked in Public Accounting serving non-profit clients for their annual audits, reviews, and compilations. Her expertise includes financial compliance and accounting risk management.
Ayesha believes in giving back to the community and is passionate about serving non-profits. She is excited to serve as a Board Fellow at Women LEAD and help young women in Nepal to become future leaders. Ayesha has a Master in Accounting degree from the College of William and Mary.


Claire Naylor
Co-FounderClaire strongly believes that female leaders are the ultimate solution to pretty much every problem that ever existed. Born in sunny England, she grew up in South Asia, and, like most of her friends, studied abroad in the U.S. where she spent fours years analyzing the gender inequality, feminized poverty and violent conflict she witnessed during her childhood in Nepal. She gets unreasonably excited whenever women’s rights, South Asia and cupcakes are mentioned. Claire has been advising Women LEAD with its work since June 2011 and has found it to be one of the most manic and glorious experiences of her life.


Claire Charamnac
Co-Founder

Sonu Shakya Bajracharya
Co-FounderSonu led the implementation of our programs and trained over 1,000 adolescents through the LEAD Course and the School Leadership Program for seven years. She helped start Women LEAD in 2010, and has been instrumental in the development and direction of its programs. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Tribhuvan University’s Public Youth Campus.


Hima Bista
Executive DirectorPrior to joining Women LEAD, Hima led Possible | Nyaya Health Nepal as the Managing Director, designing strategy and overseeing implementation to improve healthcare for underserved communities. Her expertise was leading the organizations’ Communications, Gender Equity and Social Inclusion, Partnerships, Finance, People Operations as well as National Operations to ensure quality healthcare for over 200,000 beneficiaries. Hima has 18 years of experience working in the development sector, including 6 years of experience as the Head of Human Resource at DFID Nepal (UKAID). She received her MBA from Kathmandu University, School of Management and her MPhil in English from Institute of Advanced Communication, Education and Research (IACER) in Nepal. Hima is a fierce feminist who thrives at advocating for women’s issues – be it on rage against rape or dignified menstruation.


Manil Shrestha
Director of OperationsManil joined Women LEAD with more than seventeen years of experience in the development sector. He worked in multiple South & Central Asian countries on broader issues of livelihood, economic development and management of small organizations. His past experiences include institutional development and organizational strengthening of member-based organizations and small enterprises/institutions; creation of effective market linkages; technical and vocational education and training; women economic empowerment and so forth. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance. Between 2003 to 2008, he also served as a visiting faculty/guest lecturer for undergraduate courses in different campuses. In his spare time, he occasionally writes about the Nepalese equity market in the national dailies and weeklies. Manil believes that the creation of a just and diverse society will only be possible when we have equity for all and he is looking forward to contributing to making this possible through Women LEAD.


Prajesh SJB Rana
Communication ManagerPrajesh works at Women LEAD as its Communications Coordinator. He has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Sharda University, India. He has spent almost nine years working in local journalism. Apart from journalism, he has also dabbled in the occasional film, design and photography projects. With a penchant for technology, he can be found either writing about technology or tinkering around with it. He believes in a world where gender-based discrimination doesn’t exist and where people celebrate, instead of criticize, diversity.


Suju Poon
Program ManagerSuju is Women LEAD’s Program Manager and did her Master’s in Conflict, Peace and Development Studies from Tribhuvan University. Before coming to Women LEAD, she worked at Dristi Nepal, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the stigma and discrimination surrounding former female drug users by giving them the skills to be economically independent. Suju considers herself a liberal feminist and believes that the gender gap can only be solved by giving women access to all the opportunities that men have, as well as having men join hand in hand to overcome gender inequality. She aspires to see a nation where education and opportunities do not differ for men and women.


Babita Karmacharya
Finance CoordinatorBabita (2011 LEADer) is Women LEAD’s Finance Officer. She recently graduated from Pokhara University, with Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. Before joining Women LEAD, she worked as a Business Development Officer in Evolving Minds Pvt. Ltd. and as Marketing Executive Intern in Navyaata Media Pvt. Ltd., where she learned the importance of marketing. She believes that interacting with people and traveling new places are great source of learning and these things will help to achieve her aim of being an entrepreneur in the future.


Kabita Tamang Lama
Program and Government Affairs CoordinatorKabita is Women LEAD’s Program and Government Affairs Coordinator. She did her Master’s in English Literature from Padma Kanya Multiple Campus. Before coming to Women LEAD, she worked at Little Sisters Fund, an organization that works with economically disadvantaged Nepali girls to become empowered leaders through education, mentoring and community support, and at the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu. She believes that true empowerment comes from equipping women with the knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to drive change in fields of economics, politics, and social transformation.


Rosha Shrestha
Events and Program CoordinatorRosha holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from Kathmandu University School of Arts. She has more than three years of experience working in the areas of agriculture, livelihood, and women’s empowerment. She also brings an experience of working for the women conflict survivors of the Nepal’s 10 years long armed conflict. She believes women can achieve their dreams and goals to make the world a better place for living, if given equal opportunity.


Dipasa Bista
Development OfficerDipasa is Women LEAD Nepal’s Development Officer. She graduated from Asian University for Women with a degree in BSc. with Public Health Studies as a major and Development Studies as a minor. Having completed Women LEAD’s LEAD Course in 2014, she is also an organization alumnus. Her work in various research projects in Nepal, India and Bangladesh further reinforces her skills in working with local governments, youth mobilization, capacity building for women/young girls. Dipasa believes that education and awareness are two different things and aspires to educate the Nepali youth to inculcate inclusiveness, representation, and cultural sensitivity in their society. Apart from indulging in intellectual conversations around contemporary issues and cracking lame jokes, you’ll either find her eating, singing, or sleeping.”


Pari Pradhan
Admin and Program OfficerPari works as the Admin and Program Officer at Women LEAD Nepal. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Finance from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, India. She is also 2010 LEADer and an active member of the Women LEAD alumni community. She has worked at Sankalpa in various capacities such as a Director of Digital Marketing and Communications, a Program Officer, and a Finance Intern. She has also worked as a banking intern at Laxmi Bank Limited. She strongly supports and believes in the famous quote, “A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman.”


Nisha Baruwal
Junior Program Associate (YWPLI)Nisha (2018 LEADer) is a recent +2 graduate from Ideal Model School. She strongly believes that no one should be judged on the basis of their outer appearance and also believes that no one should set limits because of their gender. She believes women can be empowered more effectively with the help of other women.


Asmita Shah
Program TraineeAsmita, currently working as a Program Trainee at Women LEAD Nepal is a high school (+2) student at St. Mary’s High School. She aims to be the Prime Minister of Nepal someday which is why she is also involved in Youth Congress Nepal as a central committee member.
She believes that the youth must learn to put forward their ideas and engage in meaningful dialogues to inspire change. She envisions a future where the youth, and women, are at the forefront of local change.
During her free time, she likes to sing, dance, write and spread happiness wherever happens to be.


Akanchaya Bajracharya
Communications TraineeAkanchaya is a recent +2 graduate from Caspian Valley College and currently Communication Trainee at Women LEAD Nepal. She is a trained RJ and likes to communicate and listen to people. She strongly believes in the quote ”In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will only be leaders” by Jane Goodall.


Manaswi Budathoki
Communications TraineeManaswi (2019 LEADer) works as a Communications Trainee at Women LEAD Nepal. She completed her school and college from St Mary’s High School. Her interests revolve around a variety of different things like art, photography, sports, music, scouting, etc. After joining Women LEAD, she has found an opportunity, while learning from all the people around her, to explore and understand herself better.
She believes that acceptance is the key to enhancing and connecting lives, despite prevailing differences. She thrives to be more open to explore, learn, and make a positive impact in her society, nation, and the world. Manaswi believes that one should be thankful, humble, and cherish the tiniest little things and moments while living their life to the fullest.


Sanjima Jugjali Pun
Communications TraineeSanjima (2019 LEADer) is Women LEAD Nepal’s Communications Trainee. She is a recent +2 graduate from Moonlight College. She likes interacting and meeting new people and learning from their experiences. She believes that people should not be judgmental and should rather encourage others to be themselves.


Shreya Khadka
Development InternShreya (2016 LEADer) is working as a Development Intern at Women LEAD Nepal. She is currently doing her Bachelors in Business Administration Honors at Kathmandu University. She previously worked as an intern at a Startup called 8 Byte and at Tearfund Nepal. She visualizes becoming an Entrepreneur someday and aims to work towards eradicating social problems prevalent in Nepal. She is on the path of becoming an empowered woman herself and believes in the crucial role that women play in inspiring and supporting other women.


Yuki Gauchan
Program TraineeYuki (2019 LEADer) is a +2 student from St. Mary’s High School currently working as a Program Trainee at Women LEAD Nepal. She is a strong feminist who loves to spread love and joy wherever she goes. She identifies as a “bigreyki kt” as she believes that well-behaved women seldom make history. Live and let live is her life motto so you won’t find her poking her nose into other people’s business.


Kaptan Tamang
GardenerKaptan dai keeps our garden beautiful and makes our office space a fun to work in. His experience in gardening dates to over thirty years. Gardening has always been his passion and he wants to open up a nursery of his own in the near future.


Goma Adhikari
CleanerGoma Didi makes sure whole team gets to work in a very clean and hygienic office space. She has been taking care of homes and their cleanliness for the past 14 years. She loves to cook food and as a typical Nepali person, her favorite food is Daal Bhaat.