Meet Sudeshna Chatterjee, Manomet’s new Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

You joined Manomet recently. Can you tell us about your background?

I spent a number of years in higher education. I earned my Ph.D. in Global Governance and Human Security and then I taught courses in political science at Lesley University and Babson College. I enjoyed my work and my colleagues, as well as the energy of academia but, as so many did after the pandemic, I decided to pivot and leave the teaching space. My next position still had ties to education, though: I joined a search firm with a higher education niche. There I had the opportunity to do a lot of training on DEIJ best practices, including hiring and recruitment strategies. I really felt drawn to the collaborative nature of that work, and after a few years at the search firm, I was hired as the Town of Reading’s first Director of Diversity, Equity, Justice and Belonging.

How was your experience working in municipal government?

The great thing about working for a town is that getting shared work done is only going to happen with a high level of collaboration and cooperation – so it was an excellent opportunity to practice my DEIJ-specific training. In town government there are a LOT of departments and a lot of moving pieces and if you’re not communicating well and building a shared sense of trust between departments then the project won’t succeed. I’m proud to say that during my tenure I helped create and sustain a set of values and norms that really advanced the way the people in town government viewed our collective diversity work. In addition, community engagement was a big part of my job, which included everything from organizing large-scale community events like a Juneteenth celebration, to designing and facilitating public-facing seminars, workshops, and group mediation sessions on difficult topics. During my time, I also spearheaded the formation of a community board called Partners and Allies for Inclusive Reading (PAIR), which now functions as a coalition of volunteers, municipal employees and partner organizations.

Tell us what interested you about Manomet.

Something I noticed right from the beginning about Manomet is how well the job description for my position was written. That might seem an odd thing to point out, but having worked for a search firm in the past, I can tell a lot about an organization by their job descriptions! Manomet’s was very well defined. And then when I got deeper into the interview process, I was really impressed to find out how willing Manomet’s team is to embrace new ways of weaving DEIJ work throughout everything we do, both on an internal and an external level.

Once you got here, is there anything that has surprised you?

I knew Manomet had an excellent reputation as a leader in the conservation space but I have been so impressed by both the level of knowledge scientists and staff bring to the current work, as well as the depth and breadth of partnerships that happen on so many levels. The willingness to share their time and talent, both with our own team and with external organizations, has really impressed me. Also, it’s kind of wild how geographically spread out everyone is at Manomet! There are people working in Maine, Georgia, Paraguay, Columbia, and so many other countries, and then fieldwork happening in Alaska, Texas, and the Amazon, to name just a few. It speaks well of Manomet that even with such a spread out team, so much collaboration and coordination happens in service of our conservation work.

When you’re not working, what do you do for fun?

I love traveling and my husband and I try to travel as much as we can – although he loves the beach and I love the mountains, so there can be a little fun family tension in deciding on our next destination together. I’m also a history nerd and I love watching historical documentaries – it’s interesting to get a different perspective of a time period other than the one we’re experiencing now. Oh, and I do love experimenting with cooking. I love South Asian cuisine and learning recipes from my mother and my aunts and trying to perfect those. Interview by Jeanne O’Rourke