Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Additionalinformation
Timeline
Generic

KARUNA RAMACHANDRAN

Clarkston,GA

Summary

Collaborative leader partners with coworkers to promote engaged, empowering work culture. Documented strengths in building and maintaining relationships with diverse range of stakeholders in dynamic, fast-paced settings.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience

Work History

Redistricting Director

ProGeorgia
02.2022 - Current
  • Expanded the Georgia Redistricting Alliance (GRA) coalition base from 12 to 67 organizations contributing to strong mobilization during both redistricting special sessions and statewide community activism
  • Created pathways of engagement for the expanded coalition base which led to thwarting 2 regressive bills
  • Led a team of advocates to write and pass GRA’s local redistricting resolution in Gwinnett County, Clayton County and City of Clarkston, moving the needle towards progressive redistricting policy in Georgia
  • Led GRA through strategic planning processes resulting in a roadmap to 2032 outcomes, expanded programmatic scope, and fundraising tools with the goal to ramp funding up to $1 million + by 2027
  • Maintain funder relationships to sustain capacity and maintain a minimum yearly budget of $500,000
  • Mobilized 80 organizations to become redistricting leaders through organizing academies co-hosted with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice
  • Mobilized resources and led the research and analysis of the 134 counties that redistricted between 2022 and 2023 which creates the foundation for sustained policy advocacy at the local level across the state

Deputy Director

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta
02.2018 - 02.2022
  • Supported the Executive Director in strategic organizational growth resulting in expansion from 10 to 22 full time staff, expanded scope to include deportation defense, census and redistricting and increased organizational funding
  • Led staff through a strategic planning process resulting in cross departmental alignment, 3 year goal-setting, and departmental work plans
  • Raised and managed the $1,032,000 budget for redistricting coalition efforts
  • Co-founded the Georgia AAPI Complete Count Committee and secured $295,000 to invest in the coalition’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI), African Immigrant and Latinx 2020 Census outreach in 27 different languages
  • Secured resources to create and host multilingual 2020 Census website in 15 languages: aapicensusga.org
  • Organized national partners and designed programming for the 2019 national Asian Americans Advancing Justice 3-day conference attended by 1,200 participants

Health Programs Director

Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc. (CPACS)
01.2015 - 01.2018
  • Developed and supported implementation of the Enabling Services department of the CPACS COSMO Federally Qualified Health Center resulting in streamlined Electronic Health Record (EHR) workflows and 700+ patient navigation contacts in year one
  • Cultivated relationships with funders, community stakeholders, and clinicians to develop and implement refugee health screening program that led to expanded primary care patient populations from Burmese and Bhutanese communities
  • Secured grant renewals and new funding streams to sustain annual program budget of $700,000 across 7 public health programs that reached 1,150 community members yearly

Health Programs Manager

Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc. (CPACS)
08.2011 - 01.2015
  • Led a collaborative team to engage schools, businesses, law enforcement, local governments, civic and cultural groups, youth, parents, healthcare professionals, media, religious leaders, and other substance abuse prevention providers to the successful implementation of evidence-based substance abuse prevention strategies in four cities, with targeted impact on 7,000+ ethnic community members
  • Provided planning support and collected data for needs and capacity assessment in two counties resulting in the collection of 950 surveys regarding underage alcohol use from five limited English-proficient ethnic groups that informed coalitional strategic plans in multiple counties

Project Manager

New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD)
10.2008 - 01.2011
  • Developed Go to School, Get a Job (GTS), a $5.3 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus-funded internship program that successfully employed 2,207 New York City High School students, provided training and on-going technical support to 42 non-profit agencies hosting GTS, engaged 509 worksites across New York City and issued $2,806,359 in wages to low income youth
  • Developed a youth-led environmental justice initiative called the Go Green Challenge in which 200+ youth created environmental impact projects, presented in a city-wide exhibition in partnership with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)
  • Assisted the Director and Deputy Director in the management of the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) for In-School Youth participants, including the development of unique youth training and internship opportunities at Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bloomingdales

After School Site Director

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
10.2006 - 07.2008
  • Recruited and led a team of dynamic youth development professionals to create and deliver culturally specific After School Programming that served 200 + high school students from diverse cultural backgrounds in partnership with school administrations, school staff, and community parks administrations

Education

Master of Education - Psychological Counseling, School Counseling Concentration

Columbia University
New York City, NY
05.2006

Bachelor of Science - Psychology, Minor in Sociology

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL
05.2003

Additionalinformation

Chair, Cobb Collaborative Nonprofit Grant Process Committee, 01/01/16 - 11/01/16, Cobb Collaborative Board Member, 01/01/15 - 11/01/16, Co-founded the Georgia Health Alliance for Refugee and Immigrant Communities (GHARIC), Raksha Volunteer – Ek Shaam Raksha Ke Naam Fundraiser 2019, 2023, Study finds ‘severe underrepresentation’ for communities of color in GA county commissions, school boards, 02/02/24, Demographic Trends and Power Building: The Role of Demographic Data in Building a Multiracial Democracy, Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, 06/14/23, AAPI Rising: Redistricting with the AAPI community, House Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee, 08/30/21, Op-Ed, ACA repeal is too great a chance to take. Georgia Health News, 03/23/17, Asian-American perceptions of underage alcohol consumption, Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), 2015

Timeline

Redistricting Director

ProGeorgia
02.2022 - Current

Deputy Director

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta
02.2018 - 02.2022

Health Programs Director

Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc. (CPACS)
01.2015 - 01.2018

Health Programs Manager

Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc. (CPACS)
08.2011 - 01.2015

Project Manager

New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD)
10.2008 - 01.2011

After School Site Director

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
10.2006 - 07.2008

Bachelor of Science - Psychology, Minor in Sociology

University of Florida

Master of Education - Psychological Counseling, School Counseling Concentration

Columbia University

Similar Profiles

CREATE PROFILE
KARUNA RAMACHANDRAN