Archana has joined The Council as a Communications Specialist within Outreach. She has eight years of experience working as a storyteller, designer, and strategist in the development sector.

Her journey began at SPS Community Media (2017–2019), where she worked with tribal communities on films and documentation projects addressing food sovereignty and forest conservation. Her directorial project, Jaadui Jungle, won a National Film Award and was showcased on global platforms including UNICEF Innocenti and the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival.

At SEWA Bharat (2020–2023), she built branding and communication solutions for women-led collective enterprises within a multi-state program supported by the Gates Foundation and CoImpact. Between 2024 and 2025, she led strategic communications for Pratham’s initiative on foundational literacy for children with disabilities — shaping narratives, curating events, and developing knowledge products to foster inclusive mindsets, resources, and practices.

While the creative hats have kept switching, what has remained constant is her commitment to enabling pluralistic voices in an increasingly inequitable world through hyperlocal, participatory, and community-centric design.

She has served as a visiting faculty member at her alma mater, the National Institute of Design (NID) — making a case for more design students to explore social design. She is also a published poet, featured in Peacocks in a Dream: An Anthology of Contemporary Indian English Verse.