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Puni Kalra

Executive Coach & Consultant in Leadership Development; Community Organizer & Activist

Eradicate Hate:
2021

Puni Kalra has a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in cross-cultural trauma. For over two decades, she has been working with children, women, families and communities of color who have faced traumatic events. She founded the Sikh Healing Collective as a mental health relief effort following the mass shooting in a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin that took place on August 5, 2012. She was primarily responsible for stabilizing the community over an 18-month period after the leadership team of six members were murdered in their house of worship.

For the past 12 years, Kalra has been providing leadership development and executive coaching to clients across a wide range of industries and cultures that span five continents and 20+ countries. She uses her psychological expertise to drive organizational and community leaders in understanding the root of their leadership challenges so they may have greater impact and effectiveness within their roles. She specializes in executive leader assessment and development, team building, emotional intelligence, organizational and cultural change, and strategic planning. She is in private practice and serves as adjunct faculty member at The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL).

Kalra was founder and chair of the Division on South Asian Americans within the Asian American Psychological Association. Kalra recently co-authored the chapter titled, “Implications of Immigration, Racism, and the Current Socio-Political Climate” for the textbook, Counseling South Asian Americans: Psychological and Clinical Implications, published by Routledge.

eradicate hate logo

The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.

Nick Rasmussen
Nicholas Rasmussen Counterterrorism Coordinator, Department of Homeland Security