Recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the Ten Behavioral Scientists You Should Know, she launched the university’s first-ever behavioral science course. Neela is also a behavior change consultant for Surgo Ventures and a commission fellow at Reimagining India’s Health System: A Lancet Citizen’s Commission.

As a board member of “The Life You Can Save”, a non-profit organization founded by philosopher Peter Singer, Neela works towards ending extreme poverty by encouraging “high-impact giving”. Neela has previously been a senior advisor at The Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, headquartered in Nairobi, where she advised the Center on academic and institutional partnerships to further the practice of behavioral sciences in South Asia and Africa.

Neela was the founder-director of the Centre for Social & Behaviour Change at Ashoka University, where she helped create an Indian institution that is today globally reputed for transforming behaviors among low-income and marginalized communities.

Neela has experience working in the private sector too, leading teams on insight, strategy and marketing with multinationals such as Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo and Accenture across India and the United States.