Sheela Ahluwalia is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Transparentem. In this capacity, she leads efforts to pursue accountability and achieve systems change, related to human rights and environmental abuses in supply chains. She previously served as Director of Labor Investigations and Senior Labor Analyst.

Prior to joining Transparentem, Sheela served at the US Department of State for nearly a decade, where she helped develop and implement policy across Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. In the Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, she advised senior-level US officials and foreign counterparts on policies and programs, produced country assessments for the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, and exposed previously hidden forms of forced labor. She also negotiated human rights resolutions in the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, and managed almost $10 million in foreign assistance to promote justice in West Africa. Previously, Sheela worked for the World Bank, the US Department of Labor, human trafficking NGOs in India and the United States, and an indigenous rights organization in Ecuador. She has been part of the antitrafficking movement since 2002, when she began volunteering for a community group in Washington, DC.

Sheela earned an M.A. from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from Tufts University.

“In a moment of regulatory flux and rising trade protectionism, companies must not lose sight of their responsibility and obligation to protect the workers who power global supply chains. Preventing labor exploitation isn’t a “nice-to-have” — it is necessary for conducting business responsibly and in accordance with the law.”