Geetanjali Misra


Geetanjali Misra is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of CREA, a women's rights NGO based in New Delhi. Geetanjali has worked at the activist, grant-making and policy levels on issues of sexuality, reproductive health, gender, human rights and gender-based violence. Presently, she is on the Amnesty Gender Task Force, Spotlight Civil Society reference group and a board member of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

Recent life and works

Previously, Misra has taught as an adjunct professor on the intersection of LGBT issues, sexual rights and public health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Before joining CREA, she was Program Officer, Sexuality and Reproductive Health for the Ford Foundation in New Delhi and supported non-governmental organizations in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. She also co-founded SAKHI for South Asian Women in 1989, a non-profit organization in New York, committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin. Formerly, she was Chair of the Boards of Reproductive Health Matters, a global peer reviewed journal on sexual and reproductive health and rights and Mama Cash. She was a Board Member of FHI 360 and also served as President of the Board of the AWID. In the past, she held several key advisory roles such as being a Member of Cordaid’s Expert Advisory Group, served as a core member of the Action Plus Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV/AIDS, was regional and Global Advisor for Global Fund for Women among others. She writes on issues of sexuality, gender, and rights, and in 2005, she co-authored Sexuality, Gender and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia with Radhika Chandiramani. The book covers sexuality and rights in South Asia, from education and health services to transsexuality, AIDS concerns and treatment, and advocacy. Misra has also written a number of academic papers on the rights of sex workers in Asia, including
Protecting the Rights of Sex Workers: The Indian Experience, published in 2000 in the Harvard School of Public Health, Health and Human Rights journal.She is also author of ‘The Power of Movements’ published by AWID.
She holds Master’s degrees in International Affairs from Columbia University, US, and in Economics from Syracuse University, US.