Founder
Abhijit Sinha reimagines education through Nooks—teacher-free, curiosity-led spaces across 6 countries. A decentralisation evangelist, he now mentors 40 global startups via Mercedes-Benz’s beVisioneers Fellowship. Learning without limits is his mission.
Head of Communications
Storyteller. Builder. Changemaker. Gurkaran Bakshi blends media wisdom with grassroots impact. At DEFY, he leads Communications—shaping narratives on learning, education, and communities through bold engagement and capacity-building.
Fundraising Associate
Radhika blends engineering precision with social passion. From Teach For India to Sattva, she now fuels DEFY’s vision,crafting trust-driven partnerships and fundraising narratives that shift power in education.
Impact Lead
Impact through insight. Manavi Das leads DEFY’s M&E efforts—designing frameworks, dashboards, and evaluations. With experience across Antarang, ANANDI, and IIM Ahmedabad, she translates data into smarter education outcomes.
Program Manager
At DEFY, Sunil Gill builds spaces where communities reclaim learning. A mentor and education reformer, his journey spans Sanjhi Sikhiya, Kaivalya Foundation—scaling grassroots impact through innovation and heart.
Head of Fundraising
Ravitha Prabhakaran drives DEFY’s growth through fundraising and engagement. Bringing expertise from Motivation India and Durga, she builds resilient organizations anchored in education, policy, and community empowerment.
DISPECS Lead
Since 2018, Dheeraj’s journey at DEFY bridges youth, technology, and social impact. Today, he leads DISPECS in Assam, pioneering disaster preparedness and community resilience.
Community Designer
Mariya Wahid, Community Experience Designer at DEFY, empowers Nook facilitators and learners. An engineer passionate about self-designed learning, she fosters collaborative, experiential education to help individuals realise their aspirations.
Senior Program Designer
Nishant, a DEFY Hopper, sparks Nooks across India. A computer engineer with a love for learning and nature, he dreams of creating a joyful learning space in his native village in Bihar.
Nook Hopper
At DEFY, Rajashree manages and supports facilitator teams, shaping community-led Nooks. She is a lifelong learner at heart, passionate about creating spaces where learning is open, and alive.
Design Lead
Boicha Huidrom reimagines learning systems that place agency, curiosity, and community at the center. As Program Design Lead at Project DEFY, he designs learning experiences and supports Nooks across diverse contexts. Enabling learners and communities to shape their own learning journeys and drive local innovation is his mission.
Prashant Rawat channels his passion for animals, nature, and the underwater world into creating spaces for exploration and discovery. As a DEFY Hopper at Project DEFY, he helps build Nooks where curiosity thrives and community members are empowered to learn, experiment, and grow on their own terms.
Program Associate – DISPECS
Kareena Bordoloi strengthens community-led approaches to disaster preparedness through local leadership and collective action. As a Program Associate at DISPECS, she combines sociology, social work, and systems thinking to design solutions rooted in community realities. Building resilience through community ownership rather than external support drives her work.
Program Associate – Design
Suharika Kanumalli brings together on-ground experience and program design to strengthen learning structures across Nooks. As a Program Design Associate, she works closely with learners to enable self-defined paths to success, supporting environments where curiosity, agency, and ownership of learning can thrive.
Visual Designer and Storyteller
Prakriti Das explores the intersection of storytelling and social impact through design and communication. With Project DEFY, she translates the ethos of self-designed learning into engaging narratives that resonate with diverse communities, using visual design and strategic communication to foster awareness, participation, and capacity at the grassroots level.
Fahad T builds and supports community-run learning spaces that enable people to take charge of their own learning. As a Learning Space Designer (Hopper) at Project DEFY, he mentors Nook Fellows and strengthens learning ecosystems across India and Africa. He also contributes to community-rooted entrepreneurship initiatives in New Zealand through MIT Design Labs.
Social Media Manager
Rachit Singh works with the Communications team at Project DEFY as Social Media Manager, shaping how stories of self-designed learning reach wider audiences. He leverages social media trends, analytics, and content strategy to build engagement, strengthen narrative impact, and amplify DEFY’s work across digital platforms.
Azby Brown mentors DEFY’s international team by deepening self-designed learning through thoughtful knowledge curation, intercultural reflection, and systems thinking, building globally connected, locally rooted Nooks as hubs of community-driven education.
Manuela Balett helps DEFY’s fundraising team develop effective strategies, cultivate real donor bonds, sharpen their stories, and embrace values-driven fundraising to build enduring support for DEFY’s vision.
Vipasha Tilak collaborates with DEFY’s leadership to shape visionary narratives, align communication with core values, and amplify their collective impact, transforming ideas into powerful messages that inspire change on a global scale.
Bilal Ghalib helps DEFY team members dive into research with curiosity and confidence, turning questions into discoveries and encouraging fresh thinking that drives meaningful change across their projects.
Kiran Reddy works closely with DEFY’s communication team to unlock their storytelling potential, refine their messages, and create genuine, impactful narratives that resonate and bring DEFY’s mission to life across diverse audiences.
Nico Esterhuizen mentors DEFY’s international team by offering personal and professional guidance through deep, thoughtful engagement. He supports team members in building networks, expanding horizons, and strengthening leadership, embodying the role of both a mentor and a friend who nurtures growth with trust and care.
