​​​​Supriya Lopez Pillai​

My story, in brief

 

As a woman of color rooted in social justice and movement building across multiple geographies, I am passionate about and deeply committed to advancing social change and dismantling structures that keep inequity intact.  Movements need strong institutions and strong people; I provide tools for building collective and individual leadership, developing forward-thinking vision and the concrete plans needed to achieve it. 

 

My family's history informs a lot of who I am.  Stemming from Kerala, South India my parents immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s.  I was born and raised in Chicago where my father worked as an engineer and my mother ran a Montessori preschool, still in operation today.  I spent extended time with family in India as a young person and traveled on my own when I was 18 to the foothills of the Himalayas where I first worked with an important mentor, Dr. Kshama Metre. Soon thereafter I moved to New York City where it was my greatest privilege to experience and participate in a dynamic era of social and political action in the late 1990s.  One of my most important political homes was Stress Magazine, devoted to hip hop and politics, where I served as an editor.  I came to know of and work with many community organizations at the forefront of racial justice organizing, such as CAAAV and Malcolm X Grassroots, growing my understanding of the power of people and our collective consciousness.

 

At the dawn of the new millenium, I was given the opportunity to work on a project in rural West Africa on a fellowship and thus began a period of my life working and living abroad.  Public health, social marketing, women's health and human rights, sexuality, civic participation, youth power are threaded throughout this experience.  Truly the world was my teacher and I am forever grateful to the many different communities who let me in from Conakry to Phnom Penh.  

 

I returned to New York in 2005 with the belief that the sphere I wanted to learn more about and influence was philanthropy. How can increased resources move to frontline communities in smarter and more effective ways? Over time, particularly through my leadership experience at the Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing, I have come to believe in the possibility of organizing philanthropy, closing the gap between those with wealth and those most impacted by inequity who are transforming our world for the better.  

 

In 2011, I met the love of my life, Genaro Lopez Rendon, an exceptional community organizer from South Texas and my greatest gifts and teachers arrived soon thereafter: Anika Lela in 2013 and Luna Soma in 2015.  My family grounds my passion and desire for justice.  Not only do I believe another world is possible, but because of my daugthers I fight harder for it.  There is a lot to be dismayed about when contemplating the state of the world today and the reality of bringing children into it.  Because I know so many people, organizations and movements working in synch, spreading a beautiful vision of what could be, I remain excited and optimistic for my girls' future and the paths they will blaze.   

 

Between work and the family, I try to maintain a writing practice.  I am the kind of writer that can't help herself and must write to feel totally alive. I hope one day to deliver the world the poetry of my heart, but until then, I'll continue to pour my energy into institutional projects, scribble in the margins of my notebook and write future letters to my daughters.  

 

I often do my consulting work solo, but enjoy and have experience constructing teams to meet the needs of my clients.  I remain at the ready to learn how I may serve your biggest and boldest vision.