The URI Global Council is pleased to announce our new Interim Executive Director: Swamini Adityananda Saraswati.
She began March 1, 2021. In partnership with Anchor Advisors, members of the Global Council executed a thorough and precision-based recruitment process.
Swamini Adityananda has served as a URI Global Trustee since 2014. With 30 years of nonprofit and communications experience, she brings to her new role a strong background in interfaith leadership, as well as expertise in policy advocacy, public relations, partnership development, campaigning, strategic planning, and fundraising.
She began her career as a broadcast television producer/writer/director for networks including Discovery International, PBS, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CBC and the TV Guide Channel.
She later served as Director of Communications and Development for a crucial interfaith non-profit agency which resettles refugees and violence survivors from around the world. Witnessing the intense suffering of countless people, she went on to co-found the Pan-African Association, which has enabled tens of thousands of survivors of war, hunger, genocide, persecution, and torture from across the world to survive and thrive for over 17 years.
Later in her career, she served as a Director and United Nations Relations Manager for a large international nonprofit, often working within the UN Secretariat, World Bank and IMF on issues including water scarcity, world hunger, climate change, education, HIV/AIDS, conflict resolution, disaster risk reduction and response, and women’s rights. She also helped spearhead anti-poverty campaigns in the United States, Africa and Asia.
Her goal over the past decade was to help develop a new NGO which would bring the leaders of all faiths together - from the ground level to the United Nations level - to create meaningful change. That organization, the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, was launched at UNICEF World Headquarters, in partnership with UNICEF, the Government of the Netherlands, and USAID. She was responsible for its strategic plans, development, partnerships, fundraising, and programmes.
Said Swamini Adityananda, “When hearts and hands join forces through the coming together of all faiths, incredible strides can be achieved for our world. URI represents a bright light in that respect: touching lives, building bridges and enabling peace within 113 nations. I am deeply proud of URI, which I’ve served for seven years as a Global Trustee, and salute the grand and powerful vision of its Founder and President, Bishop Bill Swing and the leadership of Global Chair, Kiran Bali, MBE JP, and the URI Global Council. It will also be a wonderful honour to work with URI's compassionate and very dedicated staff, volunteers and friends. I feel humbled and inspired as I now dedicate myself to this new role as a servant to URI’s great and noble cause.”
Please join us in welcoming Swamini to her new role!