Geeta Raj

Geeta realized the importance of global citizenship first-hand while working and living in countries such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, Colombia, Serbia, and Kosovo.

Geeta was further inspired to make Global Sleepover a reality after learning about the unequivocal power of education through her father. A refugee from the 1947 ethnic partition in India, he overcame economic and social adversity through earning five higher education degrees – truly transformative education.

A seasoned professional, Geeta has worked and lived in Albania, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Colombia, England, Egypt, Ireland, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, South Sudan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. She possesses 15 years of experience working in international development and humanitarian assistance. This includes over 9 years as a Senior Program Analyst with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Since launching Global Sleepover, Geeta has gained 11 years of experience designing, creating, and implementing social-emotional learning and positive youth development education programs in 7 countries.

Geeta created, designed, and wrote 25 children’s interactive storybooks and accompanying curricula for Global Sleepover that were subsequently nominated for a 2017 UNESCO Prize in Literacy and translated into 5 languages (Serbian, Albanian, Roma, Turkish, and Bosnian).

Geeta’s expertise ranges from entrepreneurship, creative direction and visual design, interactive and multi-media technology, creative writing, international development project implementation and management, and cultural, global, and literacy education. Currently serving on the Leadership Team for the Association for International Leaders of Color, Geeta is also a Leadership Team Member and Global/Cultural Literacy Advisor at Chance Academy, a community-based educational program in Washington, DC focused on social, and emotional learning.

Additionally, Geeta has served as the 2018 Co-Chair for the Virtual Exchange Coalition, was selected to serve on a selection committee for the UN High-Level Sustainable Development Goal Meeting on Education in June 2017, and assisted in writing and eventually finalizing a $10 million Scope of Work for a Positive Youth Development program for USAID/Kosovo in 2018.

Under her leadership, Global Sleepover entered a partnership with Starbucks and Prince George’s County, MD to improve digital literacy for children from underserved communities (2019); graduated from an Accelerator program with Amazon Web Services and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) (2017); was selected as an original member of the Google for Entrepreneurs Campus in London, UK (2014); was selected as a member of the National Endowment for Arts Gateway Arts District Program in Washington, DC (2016) and was a finalist in a Telefonica and UK Gov’t Social Enterprise Competition (2014).

A 2003 graduate of the Presidential Management Fellowship program in Washington, DC, Geeta is a two-time recipient of the Washington, DC Commission on the Arts Folk and Traditional Arts Grant and speaks Hindi, Urdu, and basic Spanish. Geeta holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston and a MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC.