Puja Dhawan
SOAR Advisory Board Chair, she/her/hers
Puja is a long-time leader in social justice philanthropy and women’s rights work.
For over a decade, Puja advanced girls’ and women’s rights at the NoVo Foundation. As Director of the Initiative to End Violence Against Girls and Women, Puja led all of the initiative’s grantmaking and operational work. Under Puja’s leadership, the Initiative distributed $50 million in annual grantmaking to over 200 organizations in the United States, the Global South, and Europe with a dedicated focus on meaningful partnership and community-building with grantees. Puja now provides strategic consulting services for philanthropic and social justice organizations. Puja began her career in the legal sector: first working at Human Rights Watch in the South Asia division and then representing clients in family court proceedings at Bay Area Legal Aid. Puja is based in Seattle,WA.