Nishka Chandrasoma

Nishka Chandrasoma is vice president, chief legal officer and secretary of the foundation. She is responsible for managing the overall legal affairs of the foundation relating to its governance, grantmaking, global operations, and investments.

Nishka joined the foundation in 2015 as assistant secretary and deputy general counsel before being named vice president in 2019. Prior to joining the foundation, she practiced law with the tax-exempt organizations group at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where she represented clients ranging from universities and museums to private foundations and community foundations.

Nishka is a member of the Nonprofit Forum of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at NYU School of Law, the American Bar Association’s Exempt Organizations Committee, and the Government Relations Committee of Nonprofit New York. She serves on the board of the Foundation for Detroit’s Future. Nishka is a frequent speaker at programs for tax-exempt organizations on topics including social media and nonprofits, fiscal sponsorships, international grantmaking, and foundation governance.

Nishka earned her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley and her law degree from Yale Law School.