SONALI P. CHITRE
Sonali is a climate change and green energy lawyer, advocate, and entrepreneur specializing in India, the Middle East, and Africa. She is the founder of the Healing Arts Ashram of Brooklyn, as well as Priyamvada Sustainability Consulting LLC. Sonali regularly speaks on television news and at conferences on climate change, women, and diversity. Sonali regularly publishes on environmental law and economics as well as climate change and sustainable development, sharing her work with United Nations and US government decision makers as well as with nonprofit stakeholder groups. She particularly focuses on climate change in India, arguing for the principle of climate justice in the context of emissions reduction.
In 2007-2008 Sonali worked at Clean Water Action, a nonprofit grassroots advocacy group focused on organizing and fundraising to protect waterways and drinking water. In this role Sonali campaigned for progressive political candidates, such as Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD). In 2011-12, Sonali served as the Legal Adviser to the Republic of Fiji at the United Nations, where she was a key architect of Pacific Island sustainable development and climate change global policy.
In 2013, Sonali founded Women Advocates for Transforming Energy & Resources (WATER), a training program for aspiring young women leaders in climate change and new energy across law and policy, business and strategy, and science and technology. WATER launched its international outreach campaign at the 2016 Arctic Circle Summit in Reykjavic, Iceland, publishing its inaugural newsletter to influence global leaders at UNFCCC COP-22 in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016.
Sonali has served as a consultant to Global Mana Foundation and Eco Mana Ltd., a Honolulu, Hawaii based group focused on public relations, communications, research, technology and financial solutions to the climate change crisis. Sonali has also advised Environmental Defense Fund’s India program. Sonali attended American University and graduated in 2005 with a BA in Political Science and a minor in International Relations. She completed her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law in 2011, and she is a licensed attorney in the State of New York. Sonali began her MBA at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business in September 2017 with a focus on building socially responsible business ventures and scaling disruptive technology solutions. She also completed the Columbia Business School Digital Business Leadership Program.