About Us
Women’s Education Project (WEP) prepares women to become earners, leaders and changemakers.
Founded in 2002, with the fundamental belief that the decisions made by a self-reliant, informed, skilled and civically engaged woman effect lasting positive change in her life, her family, her community and society, WEP’s unique, scalable model provides grassroots NGO partners a highly effective, locally resourced, holistic program in which young marginalized women become earners, leaders, and changemakers.
Board of Directors
Donna Campbell
Executive Director, Aravind Eye Foundation
Deb DeVries
Co-Founder and President at Girls Thinking Global
Nalini Dhar
Senior Vice President, Merrill Lynch-Bank of America
Ekta Ghelani
VP Manager Research Analyst, AllianceBernstein
Kathy Hurley
Co-Founder and CEO, Girls Thinking Global
Deepika Mandrekar, President
Advocate for Women and Education
Veeru Srivastava
Director, Bank of America
Zoë Timms
Founder, Women’s Education Project
Board of Directors, WEP India
Shalini Puchalalpalli
Country Head at Google Customer Solutions, Google
Roopa Ravikumar
Professor in Sociology at Lady Doak College
Shruti Shibulal
Director and CEO of Tamara Leisure Experiences
Malini Eden
Administrative and Program Director of WEP-India
Council — US
Kirti Agarwal
Mental Health Counselor, Self-Employed
Michael Campbell
Healthcare Consultant and Managing Member, Indicina
Amanda Gassé
Illume Advising, Principal Marketing and Business Development
Divya Konuru
Exec in Residence and Interim Chief of Staff, Evergreen Services Group
Paula Maylahn
Paula Maylahn Consulting
Bhavani Parameswar
President, Indivate Inc.
Rasika Reddy
Artist
Meet the Team
Zoë Timms
Founding Executive Director
Founding Executive Director
Zoë Timms, Founder, first went to Hyderabad, India in 1996 as a student of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Year-in-India Program. There she was introduced to educational, grassroots NGOs, helping former girl child laborers study for the first time. Later, in 2001-2004, directing the Wisconsin program in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Zoë worked with a young woman whose dream to obtain an MBA and enter a career in finance were blocked by serious family illness and debt. Zoë realized there were countless ambitious young women in similar circumstances. She thought about the obstacles they faced and the steps it would take to remove them. The idea of creating a Center where young women could meet, develop skills, focus their ambitions, and expand their awareness of life’s possibilities was born. Zoë returned to New York to raise the money for her friend’s scholarship and recruited others to the cause.
Sudar, WEP’s first Center, opened in Madurai in 2002. This was followed by Hyderabad in 2007 and Kadapa in 2012. In 2016, WEP-India was established in Bangalore with its own Board and in-Country Director.
Malini Eden
Administrative and Program Director, WEP-India
Administrative and Program Director, WEP-India
Malini B. Eden, Administrative and Program Director of WEP-India, is a Development Specialist, with an experience spanning over three decades. Strong, process based management principles has been the way of working for her with organizations, international agencies and government bodies at State, National and Corporate level.
With the conscious choice to work for the empowerment of communities in urban and rural areas, Malini has always been keen to work in cross-cultural contexts. Her ability to understand the nuances of cultures, high aptitude for learning and ability to apply sound principles for perspective building and conceptualizing aspects in the context of development has been her strength. She has significant experience of working for the marginalized and underprivileged communities, creating strategic initiatives to bridge the urban-rural-poor divide.
Leadership Academy Directors
Academy Directors are women whose leadership, compassion, laughter and commitment to the students drives the success of the WEP Academy program.
