Bay Area Solidarity Summer is organized by a volunteer group of progressive activists committed to supporting and mentoring the next generation of young South Asian organizers. Contact us if you're interested in volunteering or have other questions.

Our core organizers include:
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Anirvan Chatterjee

Anirvan Chatterjee (@anirvan) is a technologist, storyteller, and activist. He was founder/CEO of pioneering ecommerce startup BookFinder.com, now a subsidiary of Amazon. He co-curates the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour and Black/Desi Secret History. He also works with ASATA and the Desi Queer Helpline.

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Anu Mandavilli

Anu Mandavilli has been involved in social justice work with community organizations, social movements, and labor unions in India and the U.S. She was part of the Mining Zone Peoples’ Solidarity Group research collective, working with communities in Orissa, India, fighting land grabs by steel giant POSCO. She has worked on campaigns around Hindu nationalism and corporate accountability with Friends of South Asia and the Free Binayak Sen campaign. Locally, she works with the San Jose Peace and Justice Center and the Coalition for Justice and Accountability towards civilian oversight of the SJPD.

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Asha Mehta

Asha Mehta is a project director at CompassPoint, working with nonprofits from across the country. She has previously been a community school coordinator, high school teacher, youth empowerment program director, and executive director. She loves to spend time listening to music with her son, reading, and swimming.  She secretly dreams of being a standup comic one day. 

Kitana Ananda

Kitana Ananda is a researcher, writer, and cultural anthropologist who works in higher education. Her teaching and scholarship examines the politics of war, migration, and diaspora in North America and South Asia, with a focus on the activisms of Tamil refugees and immigrants from Sri Lanka. She is a co-founder and member of Lanka Solidarity, and enjoys volunteering with community-based groups and non-profits. Kitana has lived across Canada and the northeastern US, and now lives in Oakland.

Kriti Garg

Kriti Garg is a BASS 2012 alum, and serves as a Program Advisor and Coordinator at the UC Davis Cross Cultural Center, working closely with students from the Middle Eastern and South Asian diasporas, the international student community, and the center's social justice peer education program. She was raised in the South Bay/Silicon Valley, with family and roots in northern India.

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Prithika Balakrishnan

Prithika Balakrishnan is an attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. Prior to becoming a lawyer, she worked as an organizer for Local 2, the San Francisco hotel workers union, focusing on issues of immigrant rights.  A long-time Bay Area resident, she was previously on the board of Trikone.  

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Sandhya Jha

Sandhya Jha is an ordained Christian minister, an anti-racism and Faith Rooted Organizing trainer, and a workers' rights activist. She's the founder and director of the Oakland Peace Center, and former Director of Interfaith Programs for East Bay Housing Organizations. Her book Pre Post Racial America was listed by Publishers Weekly as one of the top 5 books on race and religion in 2015.

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Vivek Bharathan

Vivek Bharathan is a web developer and strategist living in Oakland. He was born in Chennai and grew up in Tucson. Vivek participated in Youth Solidarity Summer in New York in 2003 and has since been a part of progressive South Asian communities in New York, Washington, DC , Philadelphia, and the Bay Area.