About Me:

Shanti oversees the Training Department and Challenge Day Facilitators in her role as Director of Programs. Shanti was born in Brooklyn, NY to immigrant parents from Guyana, South America.  She was raised in the SF East Bay Area, with a unique blend of influences from Caribbean, Indian and American culture, and in a family that placed great value in community service, connection and compassion.

Her love of the written and spoken word led her to the University of California at Berkeley where she graduated with a degree in English Literature, and then pursued career opportunities in editing and management.  Ultimately, her desire to work in a more service-oriented field led to her discovering Challenge Day in 2005. For the next 11 years, Shanti nurtured a strong sense of purpose contributing to the development of the Challenge Day program through her work in the Client Relations Department.  Witnessing and experiencing firsthand the power of the programs to engender safe and accepting environments where people express their authentic selves have been some of her most meaningful and transformative experiences.

Stepping away to raise two amazing children in Half Moon Bay with her partner Rajan, she had the opportunity during this time to develop and launch small businesses, including a legacy business to honor the life and work of her father-in-law. Shanti is thrilled to return to Challenge Day once more to continue the work of cultivating communities led by empathy and compassion, and to hold the vision of a world where every child is safe, loved and celebrated.

If You Really Knew me…

• I believe kindness is a superpower
• I have learned through being a parent, to trust in the intelligence inherent in life
• Time spent in nature makes me happy
• Music, movement and meditation help me to show up as my best self
• I can be won over by great storytelling