Co-Chair: Stephanie Rivera-Kumar is a City and Regional Planning doctoral student and Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. Her research focuses on how Latinx immigrants from the Global South create positive economic, cultural, political, and social impacts in U.S. cities. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Stephanie worked for more than 10 years as a nonprofit professional and social impact strategist, and is also an AmeriCorps Alum and an NLC-Philadelphia Alum. She has experience developing and implementing initiatives to promote the improved quality of life for diverse populations, and has a consistent record of nonprofit capacity building through community innovations, social impact, and public service. Stephanie holds an M.S. in nonprofit leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.A. in international administration and development from the University of Texas at Arlington. In August 2021, Stephanie was recognized as an AL DÍA 40 Under Forty Honoree and in May 2019, Stephanie received the University of Pennsylvania’s Excellence in Social Impact Award. Stephanie is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and believes improving the immigration experience for all people is the only path forward in the U.S.

Co-Chair: Simanti Lahiri is the Program Coordinator of Student Civic Engagement in the Office of Civic Engagement at Rutgers University, Camden. Where she runs a program placing students in community organizations as well as directing programming initiatives. She holds a MSc. in the Politics of Asia and Africa from the University of London and an MA and Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Simanti’s research focused on the politics of South Asia and contentious politics. Her work examined the ways that social movements can effectively create change as well as fundamental questions of political belonging and citizenship. In her new position she is committed to instilling a lifelong love of community engagement in her students. Simanti is the daughter of immigrants from India and loves to register new citizens with PICC in Philadelphia. She is the author of a book titled Suicide Protest in South Asia: Consumed by Commitment (2014) and her most recent article is titled Hard choices,
soft targets: Terror proscription and strategic targeting decisions of FTO (2021).

PICC’s Board of Directors is elected by the membership. Each director serves an initial term of three years, and is then eligible for re-election.