Shaheen Mistri

Shaheen Mistri is the Founder of the Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to impact the lives of less privileged children, enabling them to maximise their potential and change their lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing non formal education through its Akanksha centre model and also formal education by initiating school reform. Shaheen started Akanksha at the age of 18. Over the past 19 years, the organization has expanded from 15 children in one centre in 1989 to over 3,500 children across Mumbai and Pune, and has 58 centers and 6 schools in Mumbai and Pune. Shaheen is also the CEO and one of the founding board members of Teach For India, a nationwide movement with the mission to build a movement of leaders who will eliminate inequity in education. She has been working on the idea of Teach For India since 2007, and in 2008 formally established the movement after successfully adapting the widely acclaimed Teach For America model to India. The first batch of 87 Teach For India Fellows (exceptional college graduates and young professionals from across the country) began teaching in June 2009, and committed to teach full-time for two years in under-resourced schools and to become life-long leaders, across sectors, advocating for educational equity. In just a year, Mistri has grown the movement to 217 Fellows teaching in over 60 schools in Mumbai and Pune and impacting the lives of almost 7000 children. Among the numerous rewards and recognitions she has received, Shaheen is an Ashoka Fellow (2001), Recipient of the Indo-American Society’s Young Achiever Award (2001), a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum (2002), an Archana Trust Woman Achiever (2003), an Asia Society 21 Leader (2006) and serves on the boards of Ummeed, The Thermax Social Initiatives Foundation and is an advisor to the Latika Roy Foundation.