May 24, 2022

In March, CAWP welcomed a new research associate, Shikshya Adhikari, who joined our data team just in time for the midterm elections. Shikshya comes to us from the Center for Policy Research at the University of Albany, where she worked as a as a mixed-methods researcher and managed research projects. She also worked for disaster response projects at CARE Nepal, where she conducted baseline and impact assessment studies, reported on projects’ progress and reach, helped manage grants, and wrote funding proposals. At CAWP, Shikshya will work on our ongoing data and research projects, including the CAWP Women, Money, and Politics series of reports. We’re delighted to welcome Shikshya to CAWP; with her passion for data and experience as a quantitative researcher, our core work will be made all the richer for her collaboration.

We are thrilled to congratulate CAWP’s unit computing specialist, Linda Phillips, on her upcoming retirement! While we are dismayed by her impending departure, we are very excited for Linda as she prepares for new adventures and finds time to revel in her many passions and pursuits. “Unit computing specialist” belies the role Linda has played here over her three decades at CAWP. She has maintained and expanded CAWP’s website from its very infancy (take a trip in the Wayback Machine to view CAWP’s original web presence), and her dedication to this ongoing process has turned our website into the world’s premiere destination for data on women’s involvement in American politics. In addition to our public-facing resources, Linda has also been instrumental in the backend development of our databases and helping manage our vast digital repository of information that has been produced by CAWP over the course of our 50-year history. The world has changed a great deal since Linda joined the Center, with information technology becoming a more and more integral part of the work that we do. We couldn’t have done any of it without her. We’ll miss you, Linda, but are thrilled for you as you begin this new journey!

It is with no small measure of sadness that we must also announce the departure of CAWP’s manager of public programs, Pooja Prabhakaran. For four years, Pooja has been the steward of all of our events and other programming, doing the sort of challenging logistical ballet that is most successful when it is least visible to participants. She’s done so in particularly challenging times over the past two years and is largely responsible for CAWP’s speedy and smooth conversion to virtual events during the COVID pandemic. She is also, we discovered, a talented artist, who became an integral part of our communications team in creating visually compelling and informative graphics for our social media channels. Pooja will be joining the Victory Institute, an organization devoted to elevating openly LGBTQ leaders, as their new director of constituent engagement. While we’re sad to see her leave CAWP, we know she will be doing impactful work with this fantastic organization.