16 accomplished South Asian women to walk the ramp in NYC.
By Sithara Sethumadhavan
The women’s networking initiative LadyDrinks will host a fashion show in New York City on June 25, featuring South Asian women who have excelled in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.
The event, which will be held at Rouge Space Chelsea, is part of nonprofit’s effort to highlight the achievements made by the Asian women in the STEM fields and to inspire the young women to reach newer heights, an official release from the organization said.
“The mission is to illuminate, elevate, and celebrate the female engineers, researchers, mathematicians who are transforming our world but don’t work in traditionally glamorous fields,” LadyDrinks co-founder Joya Dass said. “The idea of producing a fashion show has also come up. As LadyDrinks enters year three, we are fusing the two ideas together. We couldn’t be more excited about this amazing line-up of women walking on June 25th.”
Sixteen South Asian “role models” will walk the ramp during the three-hour event, which will begin at 6 pm. A portion of the earnings from it will go towards the scholarship for a young girl from the Boys & Girls Club of Newark who aspires to study in a STEM field.
The event will also showcase several enterprises spearheaded by South Asian female entrepreneurs. All 16 “role models” will walk the ramp wearing sarees designed by Mitan Ghosh, a South Asian designer; jewelry from Mi Amor by Mona Bangalore; shoes by Sandra Gault of True Gault; and handbags by Alexandra Clancy.
The women “role models” walking the ramp are:
- Akanksha Thakur, senior consultant, Ernst & Young
- Anamika Chanda, principal associate, Capital One Financial
- Anuja Kochar Singh, systems engineering manager, Cisco
- Debyani Chakravarty, cancer biologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Hetal Gor, Women’s Own Obygn LLC
- Jaya Banerjee Chatterjee, high school chemistry teacher, Woodbridge Township School District
- Jaya Laxmi Mohanan, senior research chemist, BASF
- Jyoti Sharma, systems engineer, Alcatel-Lucent
- Karina Yager, visiting associate professor, SUNY Stonybrook; senior research scientists, NASA
- Kiran Gill, founder and president, PARS Environmental Inc.
- Monica Patel, CEO, First in Math India
- Preetha Chakrabarti, biology teacher turned IP Attorney (Science), Crowell & Moring
- Rima Lahiri, senior structural engineer, WorleyParsons
- Shruti Kapoor, founder and economist, Sayfty
- Zalini Bhagroo, quality compliance manager, Luitpold Pharmaceuticals Inc.
- Ree Chawla, founder, lead researcher & director of Brain Wellness Programs
Citing stats about children in the Newark School System, LadyDrinks board member and chief transformation officer for BGCN Kavita Mehra said “the disparity in access to STEM education, particularly for children who live in densely populated, underfunded urban areas is an issue we can address today.” She said only “57% of African-American students have access to STEM education, versus 81% of Asian-American or 71% Caucasian students.”
Mehra said BGCN is launching a new initiative “to ensure these kids aren’t left behind” — Lachman Family STEM Center, “a first-of-its-kind for an after-school program in Newark, where our members can learn robotics, coding, app creation, and water robotics and have a fighting chance at those jobs.”