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
DR. RADHIKA KUNNEL
Dr. Kunnel came from humble beginnings in India, grew up in a loving family with three older brothers. She lives by the values her parents instilled: never stop fighting for what’s right, serve others with humility, always be grateful, and become an advocate for the less fortunate. In the mid-1990s, she immigrated to the United States to pursue graduate school and became a citizen.
Recently, she received a J.D. from the University of Nevada, Boyd School of Law. Before law school, she was a tenured Associate Professor and a Scientist at the University of Mississippi Medical School and Tulane Health Science Center.
Radhika received a Ph.D. in Cancer and Microbiology from Louisiana State University Health Science Center and a Post-doctoral fellowship in adult stem cell biology and regenerative medicine from Tulane University of Health Sciences. Also, she has two Masters in the field of Microbiology/Biotechnology and certification in business administration.
Radhika advocates for victims of domestic violence and child abuse, and also served as a Sunday school teacher. She has been active in the local Democratic clubs in the past decade and a graduate of Emerge Nevada, Class of 2020. Before moving to Nevada, she served as a principal investigator on research grants from the National Institute of Health Sciences and a grant reviewer for the National Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, and other national and international organizations.
In 2020, she was the first South Asian to win in competitive primaries in a crowded field. She is working on putting together a South Asian Caucus in Nevada.
