Ananthi Al Ramiah
Ananthi brings over a decade of experience in driving positive change through rigorous research, evidence-based policy recommendations, and diversity and integration scholarship. Ananthi is dedicated to understanding and mitigating complex social challenges for meaningful impact. Her multidisciplinary approach, combining social psychology and economics, forms the basis of her research and evaluations of interventions in various global contexts.
With a background spanning academia, government advisory roles in the UK and across Asia, and non-profit program development, Ananthi has served on and led teams in start-up and established professional settings to develop strategic frameworks and evaluation approaches. Her expertise lies in measurement and evaluation of programs and policies, economic impact analyses, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and effective communication of findings to policy makers and the public.
Previously, Ananthi served as the Director of Research and Strategic Integration in the Professional Schools at Wake Forest University, working to create tailored programs for students and faculty while leading research on character development and leadership formation. Prior to that she directed Dataluminescence Research in Malaysia, which she founded to provide evidence-based recommendations to South East Asian government, education, private sector, and civil society leaders seeking a deeper understanding of complex social challenges.
Ananthi holds a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, an M.Sc. in Development Economics, and a D.Phil. in Social Psychology from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar and a British Chevening Scholar. Her scholarly work has been published in outlets such as American Psychologist, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology.
Ananthi continues her mission to drive positive change, inspire leadership, and foster inclusive environments where diverse perspectives and approaches thrive. She has a Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management from Harvard Business School Online, and is interested in the role of Stoic ethics in professional identity formation, as a means to broaden and advance knowledge and practice in leadership and character development.