Dharini Parthasarathy, Director of Communications, has 14 years of experience in media and communications with non-profits, working on climate change and food systems. Before joining the Global Alliance, she worked for eight years as international communications lead for Climate Action Network, a global network of 2000 civil society organizations. Dharini brings skills in movement and network-building, media relations and communications strategy with a focus on systems thinking based on equity and justice. She has implemented network-wide media and communication plans for several UN Climate Conferences, landmark reports and campaigns and co-convened and facilitated communicators’ meetings and alliances.

Prior to this, she was immersed in understanding the impacts of climate change on farming in South Asia. She worked with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, communicating about projects on adaptation, food security, fisheries and livestock. In her three years as South Asia Communications Officer for the CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Research Programme, based in New Delhi, she took the opportunity to engage with and learn from farmers, policymakers and agricultural scientists from across the region.

Dharini has degrees in social science from the University of Vienna, Austria, and in journalism. Dharini started her career with The Hindu, a leading English daily in India.

She currently lives in Bangalore, India, and spends some of her free time these days putting together a compendium of South Indian recipes with her mother.