Aashraya Seth

Visiting Fellow

Aashraya Seth is a mid-career Fulbright Fellow at the UMN’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, a Policy Specialist at the Minnesota Senate, a Member of the Minnesota Menstrual Equity Coalition, HeForShe Fellow for UN Women, and the Founder of Impact91 and Happy Periods, national non-profits working on menstrual equity, girls’ education and gender justice. His work is accounted as case studies for the Global South by UN Women, the Gates Foundation, and the Swedish Government, among others. Aashraya is responsible for designing over a dozen non-profit projects in education, environment and public health, cross-cutting gender. His multi-award-winning innovations include building India’s most affordable sustainable menstrual product vending machine at $25, launching a $3 menstrual cup, and a messenger-based chatbot for literacy in SRHR (and a menstrual curriculum), which has impacted over half a million underserved and tribal women and girls.

He studied Physics and Information Systems, before getting his first Public Policy fellowship at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, followed by at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Korean Development Institute, United Nations, and HSF Germany. For close to a decade, Aashraya has advised and managed programs for the British, Indian, and Australian governments in the areas of science, technology, space, education, and gender equity, and has contributed to dialogues and policy discussions at the UN and World Economic Forum. He was recently placed amongst the top 80 social innovators in India and the top 50 emerging policy leaders in the world.

Aashraya enjoys writing Op-Eds, and the most recent one was for The Minnesota Daily on The 2024 U.S. elections — a critical juncture for reproductive rights.