Tara Devi Dhakal, MSW

Tara holds a master’s degree from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, where she specialized in social and economic development and organizational management. She studied agriculture as an undergraduate and earned a postgraduate certificate in women’s studies.

Tara comes from a farming community in south Sikkim. She was a researcher and development consultant with NGOs and international development organizations in India and Nepal. She’s been an eco-health researcher with BAIF Development Research Foundation; a gender and social inclusion consultant with The World Conservation Union, Nepal; a consultant with International Center for Integrated Mountain Development; and a consultant on community development with JPS Consultants Delhi/IC Net-JICA Japan. She has conducted a literature review of the eastern Himalayas on agro-biodiversity conservation from a gender perspective and done field studies on gender-based traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and conservation of agro-biodiversity. Tara is interested in community development, rural livelihood, agro-biodiversity, and gender issues and is strongly influenced by social justice and equity and deeply connected to sustainability and practices of environmental and humanitarian spirituality.

Education

• MA, Washington University in St. Louis, Brown School of Social Work