Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program Archives

Keerthi Jalli

Ms. Keerthi Jalli is a 2013-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. Over the past 13 years, she has held multiple leadership positions in Assam, working on public health, nutrition, and women’s empowerment. She currently serves as Commissioner, Panchayat and Rural Development, Assam, and Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen.

As District Commissioner, Keerthi focused on improving maternal and child health, combating anemia and malnutrition, strengthening citizen participation, and enhancing service delivery in geographically challenging and socio-economically vulnerable regions. She played a key role in managing flood response and COVID-19 relief efforts. Her work has been recognized with the Chief Minister’s Karmashree Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

In her current role, Keerthi oversees rural development and sanitation programs. She is leading efforts to strengthen local self-governance institutions, promote sustainable sanitation, enhancing livelihoods, and building climate-resilient communities through decentralized development.

Keerthi holds a B.Tech. in computer science and engineering. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing large-scale public programs. As a Humphrey Fellow, she is focusing on technology policy and management. She aims to study how emerging technologies, data-driven governance, and digital public infrastructure can strengthen public service delivery and improve development outcomes, particularly for underserved communities.

Shashank Anand

Mr. Shashank Anand is a career law enforcement officer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 2006 and was awarded the Prime Minister’s Baton and Home Ministry’s Revolver for being the best officer-trainee at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. In his parent cadre Haryana, he served as police chief of five districts and gained rich experience in public order management, counterterrorism operations and criminal investigations.

Shashank is credited with pioneering electronic filing of chargesheets, constituting community liaison groups for alternative dispute resolution and reducing road accidents as traffic police chief of Chandigarh. He is now Inspector General in the Border Security Force, the world’s largest border-guarding force.

An engineer by education, Shashank has a MTech in telecommunications technology and management from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and holds LL.B. from Punjab University, Chandigarh. He is a Chevening Gurukul Fellow. As a Humphrey Fellow, Shashank is studying international best practices in border management, particularly those related to human trafficking and contraband smuggling. He seeks to contribute to drafting effective, humane and technologically-enabled public policies in this field. On the personal front, Shashank is a bibliophile and an avid player of tennis and golf.

Anirudh Gaurang Gudlavalleti

Dr. Anirudh Gaurang Gudlavalleti has a bachelor’s degree in dentistry, a master’s degree in social entrepreneurship, and is currently completing a PhD in public health from Maastricht University. He is passionate about community health and in 2024, he founded Pragyaan Sustainable Health Outcomes Foundation (PRASHO). His interests lie in utilizing technology and coaching community health workers to detect and treating diabetes, cancers, and eye diseases in India’s villages.

Dr. Gudlavalleti has won grants to develop a prototype for an AI diabetes screening tool. He was named as one of Asia’s 50 leading social entrepreneurs by DBS Bank.

During his fellowship, Dr Gudlavalleti is focusing on leadership and technical skills that will help him advance the mission of PRASHO. These include sharpening his project leadership skills, health economics and budget impact analysis skills, grant writing and partnership negotiation skills while working with mentors, faculty, peers and university partners.

Haulianlal Guite

Mr. Haulianlal Guite is an IAS officer of the Indian government, currently serving as the Commissioner of Food Safety and Drug Control in the Government of Rajasthan. In this assignment, he is tasked to ensure public health/hygiene within Rajasthan by regulating the manufacture, sale and distribution of drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and all food products. He has extensive governance experience over the last 13 years in sectors that include rural/urban development, healthcare services, law and order, and e-governance initiatives at the rural, municipal and state government levels in Rajasthan and Manipur.

Haulianlal graduated in Philosophy, completed a master’s in Sociology, and recently submitted his doctoral dissertation to MNIT, Jaipur, India, in Political Science. He has also published a philosophical non-fiction work titled Confessions of a Dying Mind.

During this fellowship Haulianlal will be studying the workings of U.S. local governments, imbibing the best practices and examining their replicability in India. He will also be engaging with other academic interests at the interface of policymaking and theorizing, particularly in the area of religion-state relations, and the place of civil liberties in the age of social media and AI.

Mamu Hage

Ms. Mamu Hage is the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of West Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh. She is a 2017 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. Her previous stints have included being Collector and District Magistrate of North Goa District with additional charge as MD & CEO of Panaji Smart City Corporation. As District Magistrate and Collector in various districts and states she has conducted two Legislative Assembly Elections and Parliamentary Elections, ensured implementation of key Government schemes and initiated several developmental projects.

During her stint in West Siang, Mamu focused on district developmental goals such as Clean Aalo Initiative and urban transformation through a range of measures. She has been instrumental in securing various awards and accolades for the district in urban innovation, health and wellness and election management.

Mamu is the first Apatani Tribe IAS officer and only the second from Arunachal Pradesh to be selected as a Humphrey Fellow under the Fulbright Scholarship.

Mamu is also a swimming enthusiast. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, and a master’s in Applied Psychology from South Campus, Delhi University. As a Humphrey Fellow, Mamu is studying urban sanitation, urban roads and mobility, and how to make cities smart.

Ananya Sinha

Ananya Sinha is an officer of the Indian Revenue Service. She has over five years of experience in direct tax administration, during which she has conducted tax assessments of over 300 tax entities ranging from high-net-worth individuals to multinational companies and NGOs. She has conducted tax outreach programs in her assigned jurisdiction and has also been part of tax enforcement operations. She has been responsible for the revenue administration of one of India’s oldest and largest business districts, Chandni Chowk – known for its bazaars for the last 500 years. She has also garnered field-level experience of the implementation of historic direct tax policy measures like Operation Clean Money launched after the announcement of demonetization in November, 2016.

In her current role as Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Ms Sinha is part of the team that is responsible for policy formulation with respect to the newly launched Faceless Appeal Scheme, 2021. The scheme is a, one of its kind, global initiative designed with the objective to make tax administration more efficient, transparent, and accountable through the use of technology. Ms Sinha provides policy inputs in respect of this scheme to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)- the apex direct tax body in India.

She is an Economics Graduate and holds a Bachelor in Law from the University of Delhi. She also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Law from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

As a Humphrey fellow, she wishes to pursue interdisciplinary engagement aiming to understand and study the organization and taxation of the real estate sector. She wishes to enrich her insights through a cross-country comparison of the taxation of the real estate sector in other developing countries. She hopes that these insights gathered during the course of the fellowship will help her in contributing to the development of a more nuanced policy that can have a significant impact in increasing the revenue generated from the real estate sector.

Makepeace Sitlhou

Makepeace Sitlhou is an independent journalist, who has been working in the media and communications field for over a decade in India. Makepeace has been covering India’s Northeast for several leading news publications like Vox, The Baffler, The Daily Beast, Nikkei Asia, The British Medical Journal, Vogue Business, Middle East Eye, Foreign Policy, The Juggernaut, Asia Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Fair Observer, Popula, BBC, Vice World News, Sojourners, and TRT World.

Her freelance work has been widely recognized by awards in national and international forums. More recently, she was jointly awarded the prestigious Red Ink Award by the Mumbai Press Club in the Lifestyle category for a story she wrote for CNN International.

In 2017, she received the UNFPA sponsored Laadli Media award for gender sensitivity for her coverage of tribal women’s protest in Manipur for The Ladies Finger. Her story on Black rice in Manipur published in Popula won the South Asian Journalism Association Award in the Business category in 2019. In 2020, she received the National Media Award for her coverage of coal mining in Meghalaya post the National Green Tribunal ban.

Her work has been supported by organizations like Google News Initiative, Center for Financial Accountability, National Foundation for India, Zubaan Books in collaboration with Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Humsafar Trust, and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Makepeace completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology from the University of Delhi. She has previously worked with leading civil society organizations like Amnesty International and Breakthrough India and as a staff writer with The Alternative (Sattva Media) and The Print.

As a Humphrey fellow, she wishes to learn in-depth about the US immigration laws and policy, and their implementation along the US-Mexico border. She’d like to study the parallels between the Indian and American immigration systems from the angles of national security, human rights, bureaucracy and citizen-centric politics.

Ajeetha Begum Sulthan

Ajeetha is an IPS Officer, 2008 Batch, born into the Kerala Cadre. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Business Management and a Master’s degree in Political Science with a specialization in Gandhian studies. While training at the National Police Academy, she was adjudged the Best Lady Athlete and the Best Lady Outdoor Probationer of the batch.

She has worked as the Assistant Superintendent of Police Reasi and Additional Superintendent of Police Ramban in Jammu and Kashmir following which she was transferred to Kerala. In Kerala, she worked as the Superintendent of Police of Internal Security Investigation Team, CBCID, District Police Chief (Thrissur rural), Deputy Commissioner of Police (Trivandrum City), District Police Chief (Wayanad), Principal of Police Training College, District Police Chief (Kollam rural) and District Police Chief and Commissioner of Police (Kollam city). She is currently working as the Assistant Director in SVP National Police Academy. She has represented India at the UNODC conference in Vienna, Austria ( 2019) and made a presentation on Gender mainstreaming in the police.

The officer has been awarded the Kalinga Fellowship in recognition of her work in combating gender-based violence and the trafficking of women and children. She is a triathlete and has also stood first in Full marathon Open category Women’s – Hyderabad Airtel Marathon 2021.

As a Humphrey Fellow, she wishes to learn more about practical strategies to address the issue of prevention of crimes against children and also will improve institutional response to child victims of sexual assault by studying international best practices, policy frameworks, initiatives carried out by various public authorities, and develop a roadmap which includes multi-agency coordination to tackle this problem.

Sateesh Bino Sathiadhas

Sateesh Bino is the Deputy Inspector General of Police in the Indian state of Kerala. He is a 2008 batch Indian Police Service officer. He has approximately 15 years of experience, including serving as the police chief in five districts of Kerala where he supervised sensitive investigations, ensured law and order, and initiated several well-appreciated community policing initiatives, specifically focusing on prevention of drug abuse and trafficking. In 2023, Sateesh was a global fellow with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). He is a certified Resilience Trainer of the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Apart from his professional accomplishments, Sateesh is an avid fitness enthusiast, being an ultra-marathoner and a triathlete. He has completed two full IRONMAN triathlons (Maryland 2022, Texas 2023). He holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Indian School of Business and a doctorate in managerial economics. As a Humphrey Fellow, Sateesh will focus on law and human rights. He intends to study international best practices in ensuring human rights and contribute to the development of standard operating procedures for law enforcement in this direction.

Aashraya Seth

Aashraya Seth is the Founding President of Impact91 NGO, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (https://www.theintelligentindian.org/). An award-winning social innovator and inventor of India’s most affordable sanitary pad vending machine, he has over eight years of experience in advising the British, Indian, and Australian governments, and leading the transformation of education and social systems. He is India’s Climate Ambassador, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Yenching Global Symposium China Scholar, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeeper (SDG 5) and Queen’s Commonwealth Trust’s Young Leader. For his work on menstrual and educational rights of tribal and underserved people, he was placed amongst the top 80 social innovators in India, top 50 emerging policy leaders in the world, and honoured at the UK Parliament in 2024.

Apart from his professional accomplishments, Aashraya has professionally played 10m Air-Rifle shooting and writes for The Times of India. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and master’s in business administration. He has fellowships from University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, KDI School, and UN.

As a Hubert H. Humphrey fellow at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Aashraya will focus on public policy analysis and public administration. He aims to study evidence-based policy making to advocate for gender-friendly policies interpreting data that will contribute to menstrual equity and STEM for girls.