Community Conversation
with Farooq Mitha
NEHA DEWAN
Neha has long been active in both local and national politics. Most recently, she founded and served as the National Director for South Asians for Biden, an organization dedicated to engaging, educating, and mobilizing the South Asian community to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In 2016, Neha served as the National Co-Chair for South Asians for Hillary and was appointed by Hillary Clinton to the National AAPI Leadership Council.
Previously, in 2015, Neha was appointed as a guest of honor by the Consulate General of India in New York City where she was selected to speak about gender equality for International Women's Day. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Neha chaired the New York Chapter of South Asians for Obama and also served on the steering committee for Lawyers for Obama in New York. For several years, Neha served as an Officer of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council, an organization affiliated with the National Lawyers Council of the Democratic National Committee and comprised of Democratic lawyers and voting rights activists. Similarly, for many years, Neha served as an advisory board member of New Leaders Council, a national organization focused on training and supporting progressive political entrepreneurs. She has also been active in her local community board and political clubs. Neha served as the President of the South Asian Bar Association of New York in 2012, and now sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.
Mobilizing the South Asian Community & Building Political Power
HIRA SHAIKH
Hira Shaikh is a Principal at a national public affairs firm, Kivvit, and she specializes in campaign management, paid digital strategy, and strategic communications. Hira’s work includes planning and executing paid media campaigns with tasks ranging from developing audience-segmented messaging to refining the media mix according to campaign goals. She is passionate about work that’s focused on engaging Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, as well as all POC communities. Her notable work includes leading a multi-channel effort to promote COVID-19 testing and contact tracing in New Jersey, especially among underserved communities, as well as some local and statewide ballot referendum work.
Prior to joining Kivvit, Hira served as Secretary-General of Rutgers University Model United Nations 2015, a civic engagement program for 1,500 high school students from across the country, for which she trained and managed a staff of 65 Rutgers students. Hira also completed internships with the office of the governor of New Jersey and Standard Chartered Bank and served as a research assistant at the Center for American Women and Politics, where she researched women and minorities who hold local and statewide office in the U.S. Hira is an alumna of Douglass Residential College and the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Hira is an active organizer in the South Asian community. She served as the National Pakistani Outreach Lead and Video Team Co-Lead for South Asians for Biden, helping ensure that the Pakistani and Muslim communities’ voices were heard during the 2020 presidential election. Hira is also the Founding Co-Chair of the New Jersey Young Democrats South Asian Caucus.