Dr. Geetha Murali

Organization: Room to Read
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Industry: Non-profit
Hometown: San Francisco, California
Notable in 2023: Released a multimedia storytelling project to empower millions of girls to create change.

As CEO of Room to Read, Dr. Geetha Murali is leading the effort to combat illiteracy and gender inequality through development of a love of reading in marginalized children.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Murali oversaw an evolution in the nonprofit's model, developing new types of learning environments, meeting children where they were, and offering funding to children facing difficult pandemic circumstances.

In 2023, the organization launched She Creates Change, a multimedia storytelling project intended to broaden its reach by encouraging young women and girls to create change in their own communities and achieve educational goals. The multimedia project, the first of its kind, tells stories via physical books, live action and animated films, using techniques from vivid abstract imagery to claymation, and audio productions, with iterations in dozens of languages intended to reach a broad audience.

The project showcases the stories of six girls who are taking action in their own communities, from Diksha, who challenges colorism and menstrual stigma, to Naifat, who follows her dreams and works towards a career in music.

Throughout her time as CEO, Murali has established various government and NGO partnerships for Room to Read, establishing curriculums, library standards, and approaches to education that are cognizant of gender inequity, and in line with its fundamental goal of expanding educational opportunities and improving outcomes for children around the world.

Room to Read says that as of 2024, it will have benefited the same number of children over the past four years as the organization did during its first twenty.

Correction. An earlier version of this article misstated how many children Room to Read has benefited in recent years.