Rhea Almeida

Rhea Almeida leads digital strategy and communications for EJ-ROC's advocacy campaigns, using every digital tool at her disposal to conduct strategic outreach, inform parents and community members across the country, and help organize them within the Free the Future campaign to protect and defend public education. With a background in research, she simultaneously leads rapid response research to drive timely policy conversations and creates explainers that distill complicated policies into easy-to-consume tools. Prior to this, she led research on equitable summer learning programs and policies for the NYU Metro Center's Policy, Research and Evaluation team.

Previously at the Financial Access Initiative think tank she led strategic communications for global studies focused on financial resilience and policy protections for small firms in Global South countries. Her expertise extends to gender rights advocacy, having spent three years leading national programs for the women's labor union SEWA Bharat across 5 states of India. She has also consulted with the UNCDF’s Local Development Finance team to study the impact of digital platforms on local economies, and risk-reduction strategies. 

Rhea has a proven track record in media and communications, having worked as a TV news journalist for India's largest national news channel NDTV, and having co-created the Hallway Talks podcast. She believes in evidence-based, bottom-up approaches to social justice, equitable policy design, and advocacy. She has a Masters in Public Administration – International Policy & Development from NYU Wagner. Originally from Mumbai, India, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York.