Sahana Dharmapuri
Independent Gender Advisor

Sahana Dharmapuri
Sahana Dharmapuri is an independent gender advisor with over a decade of experience providing policy advice and training on gender, peace, and security issues to USAID, NATO, The Swedish Armed Forces, The United States Institute for Peace, international development consulting firms, and NGOs.

Ms. Dharmapuri has garnered numerous awards for her work on women, peace and security issues. She was appointed a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2011-2013) and an Investing in Women in Development Fellow at the United States Agency for International Development  (2003 to 2005). In 2000, Ms. Dharmapuri was invited by Women in International Security Conflict Management and Peace and His Holiness The Dalai Lama’s Foundation for Universal Responsibility in New Delhi, India to conceptualize and facilitate their first conflict-transformation program for young women from India and Pakistan. In 1999, Ms. Dharmapuri was selected to be a member of the American Council of Young Political Leaders. Her writing has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Human Rights Quarterly, The Global Responsibility to Protect Journal, The Global Observatory, The Providing For Peacekeeping Project, and Parameters: The Senior Professional Journal of the US Army.   

She received a Masters Degree in Middle East Studies and a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 1997, and her BA from The University of Chicago in Anthropology in 1992.  Ms. Dharmapuri a member of the US Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace & Security, and is co-founder and Vice President of the Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development Alumni Network of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.