Shaheen Mistri is the CEO of Teach for India. Shaheen grew up in five countries around the world and returned to India when she was 18 to start Akanksha. For 17 years, she worked with teachers and students, building Akanksha to provide 4,000 children from low-income communities the kind of education that would maximize their greatest potential. Today, Akanksha serves 6,500 children through their School Project and after-school centers in Mumbai and Pune.

In 2008, Shaheen founded Teach For India, with an audacious vision of providing an excellent education to all children across India through building a pipeline of leaders committed to ending educational inequity in India. Today, Teach For India directly impacts approximately 38,000 children across seven regions in India.

Shaheen serves on the boards of the Akanksha Foundation and Simple Education Foundation. Shaheen has been an Ashoka Fellow and is the author of the book Re-drawing India. She has a bachelor’s degree from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and a master’s degree from the University of Manchester.