Deepa Iyer is this year's Lorwin Lecturer. Over the course of two decades supporting social movements, Deepa Iyer has played many roles: weaver, frontline responder, storyteller, and guide. Currently, she is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Building Movement Project where she builds projects, resources, and narratives around transformative solidarity practices. Iyer’s primary areas of expertise include post September 11th policies, civil rights, and Asian American/South Asian histories of community building. She has previously held positions at Race Forward, South Asian Americans Leading Together, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center.
She is the author of two books, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future (The New Press 2015) about post 9/11 America, and Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection (The Thick Press, 2022) about the social change ecosystem framework that she developed. She also hosts a podcast called Solidarity Is This featuring storytellers, disrupters, and builders around the world who are experimenting with solidarity during a time of polarization.
Iyer has received fellowships from Open Society Foundations and the Social Change Initiative, and in 2019, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Emergent Fund, which resources grassroots organizing and power building in communities of color.
An immigrant who moved to Kentucky from India when she was twelve, Iyer graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and Vanderbilt University. More information about Iyer’s work is at www.socialchangemap.com and www.buildingmovement.org.