Mallika Dutt

Founder, Activist, Social Change Leader

Mallika Dutt inspires leaders to remember their innate interconnectedness and transform their impact. In a world of division and isolation, she invites us to see our shared well-being with people and planet. She asks us to embrace collaboration and cultivate a world where we can flourish and thrive together. Mallika’s wisdom is born from decades on the frontlines, championing human rights in local and global contexts. As a multimedia curator and storyteller, she has used culture to change culture through award-winning campaigns that have touched millions.

As a strategic innovator, Mallika has pioneered effective approaches of social change through the founding of several nonprofits, including Breakthrough and Sakhi for South Asian Women. She has also provided transformational leadership in her roles as a Program Officer for Human Rights and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation’s New Delhi Office, the Director of the Norman Foundation, and the Associate Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University.

Now, Mallika leverages her experience as a changemaker to catalyze a new, interconnected leadership, through program design, facilitation, public speaking, and coaching. Her intersectional methodology incorporates creative and contemplative approaches, including: narrative strategy, storytelling, somatic embodiment, energy medicine, yoga and mindfulness practices.

A recipient of multiple awards, she received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2016. Mallika has served on several boards and committees and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of NYU Law School and Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, Mallika began her career as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton. She is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from her undergraduate college, Mount Holyoke.

Click here for more information about Mallika Dutt.

Read on for an exclusive Q&A with Mallika ahead of the Summit:

What does wellbeing mean to you?

Wellbeing is starry skies and vast oceans, dancing with the directions, celebrating our humanness and our connection to all beings.

Why are you looking forward to being part of The Wellbeing Summit?

We need a paradigm shift in how we bring about social change. And the summit allows us to explore possibilities that center the world we desire to create rather than opposition to all that is wrong.

How does your work connect to wellbeing?

Interconnected leadership that brings together self, community, systems and the earth is essential to the shared wellbeing of people and planet. Our individual wellbeing is interdependent with the wellbeing of all.

How does your work for the summit bring you and your audience closer to wellbeing?

Pleasure is a necessary dimension of wellbeing and one that is little explored. I hope to encourage joy, awe, sassiness and fun as an essential part of social change.