Chavi Khanna Koneru (born 1983) is an American journalist and lawyer who is the executive director and co-founder of North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT). [1] [2] [3] She worked for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in 2008 before going on to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. [4] She was also the a policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina (NaralNC) before she co-founded and directed NCAAT in 2016. [5] [6] [7] She has been honored by Cary Magazine and awarded the Gold Futures Challenge Prize. [8] [9] [10]
Koneru was born in 1983 in Oakland, California, into a Punjabi Hindu family. She moved to Durham, North Carolina, when she was six years old. [5] In 2006, she obtained her undergraduate degree in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [4] [11] She also earned a graduate degree in law in 2009 from the same university. [4] [10] [11]
In 2008, Koneru worked in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division while in her third year of law school at UNC Chapel Hill. [5] [11] [12] After graduation, she worked at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the pro-choice organization NaralNC before co-founding North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT) in 2016 with Ricky Leung. [5] [10] [11] [12] [13] NCAAT is a non-partisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase civic engagement in the Asian community in North Carolina. [10] In 2021, she was recognized as an Honoree of the Women of Western Wake by Cary Magazine. [8] In 2022, Gold House awarded her the Gold Futures Challenge Prize. [9]
Koneru is a 2023–24 council member for the North Carolina Council for Women. [14] She is also an executive committee member of the Asian American Power Network. [11]