Our Team

ElsaMarie D’silva is the Founder and CEO and leads the team. She is an experienced aviation professional who made a career switch about 2 years back to the social space in order to improve the lives of women, youth and senior citizens through awareness, interaction and education. Safecity is the first of her social projects. She is also a trained counsellor in both the directive and non directive methods of counselling. She is an Aspen New Voices Fellow, a Vital Voices Lead Fellow, a mentee at the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in Business and an alumnus of the Swedish Institute. She won the Female Entrepreneur Award by European Angel Investor 2013, Dusan Stojanovic in July 2015. ElsaMarie co-founded Safecity wkarith Saloni Malhotra and Surya Velamuri.

Elsa's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

A writer, film director, a gender activist and a yoga acharya, Supreet has transitioned from 15 years of corporate experience to being an award-winning filmmaker & running an NGO. A partner at Red Dot Foundation, Safecity, she overlooks the functioning of the organization and specifically handles the operations, marketing as well as creating campaigns to engage women and men in solutions and designing partnerships globally. She is a certified personal counsellor and conducts workshops creating awareness about sexual violence with children, communities and corporates. A Vital Voices VV Lead fellow, she was recently awarded as the Web wonder woman by the Ministry of Women (GOI), Woman of substance award by FICCI Flo and the Social Innovator Leadership award by Biz Divas. She has recently published her collection of poetry and is currently working on her first feature film.

Tania is the Director of Operations and Partnerships. She is a skilled professional, adept at working operationally and strategically to deliver business goals through leadership and motivation. She has 18 years of varied experience, most of which has been with Human Resources, in all aspects of people management along with excellent customer service skills. Her forte lies in building people capability and managing teams. In her last assignment, she headed a team of 35 staff to support the Human Resource, Recruitment and training requirement from on boarding to exit. Her past experience has been with the Service and Hospitality Industry. She looks forward to making a difference in the lives of women and children and making public spaces safer and equally accessible to all.

Ashwini Syed is the Director of Events and has been conducting workshops for adults, youth and children with Safecity in Maharashtra. Prior to this, she worked with Jet Airways for 15 years where she trained Pilots and Cabin crew on Safety and Emergency Procedures, Dangerous Goods Regulations, Human Factors and Situational Awareness. She also trained ground personnel on Ramp and AirSide safety. She is a mother of 2 young children and is passionate about gender equality and sensitivity.

Ashwini's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Naina Jha is the Program and Outreach Officer at Patna. She is a PR professional working with Greymatters Communications. She has worked with hospitals, advertising and PR agencies and has been working with ICWA to educate slum kids since 2005. She has also freelanced with Gender Resource Centre, Patna. She loves working for the uplifting of slum children and gender sensitisation and wishes to make this society a better place to live in. A movie buff, she loves music, painting, dancing, playing and cooking. She is a budding writer, avid learner, traveller, and a happy soul. A sociology graduate who holds a masters degree in human resources, she has a few more degrees up her sleeves but most importantly she is a mother to a beatific little angel.

Naina's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Nicole Joseph-Chin is a Caribbean based Social Entrepreneur, educator and innovator, using Breast Health as a catalyst to social change, impact and sustainability. Social Enterprise - Ms. Brafit, was founded in 2002 and now provides a diverse range of solutions that span education, consulting and retail products. Nicole firmly attests to how Women's Health, Adolescent Health and Breast Health all contribute to healthy cities, societies and economies. Nicole finds, creates and provides solutions to enhance esteem, build confidence and empower women, girls and families, ensuring that healthy breasts are the catalysts to a healthy world, sustainable food source for the newborn and healthier populations.

Nicole's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Mona has completed her Bachelors in Social Science, Masters in Social Welfare(MSW), Diploma in Child Counselling and is currently pursuing my Bachelors in Law. She has worked actively in communities in various areas like education, counselling, addressing the issue of harassment and with special children. Mona has been a part of various skits, rallies, worked as Police mitra (friend), participated in National conferences and conducted various awareness programs and sessions for children, women and youth. Mona is enthusiastic to keep learning new things. She enjoys driving, reading, discussing various topics, spending time with her family and watching movies.

Mona's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Marissa Borges is a Psychology graduate from Mumbai University and brings with her over 35 years of experience from the
Aviation Industry. She started her career in 1980, with Saudi Arabian Airlines as a Flight Attendant, moving up the ranks to an In-flight Supervisor; then into Training Flight Attendants with Jet Airways from 1993-2000; Qatar Airways from 2000-2018. She is a certified EQ (Emotional Quotient) Practitioner & a CQ (Cultural Quotient) qualified Trainer. Her trainings included Cabin Crew Service Processes, Leadership, Interpersonal Communication skills, Business writing, Conflict Resolution, Crisis Management, Coaching Counselling, EQ & CQ courses. She is also completed a Counselling Certificate course at the ‘Heart to Heart’ Counselling Centre in Mumbai. Marissa’s aim is to make the globe a safer harmonious place to live in and to carry out God’s work, by using God’s love which is a free gift that is unsolicited unconditional.
Marissa's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.

Gillian is an Economics and Sociology graduate, with a Masters in Marketing. She transitioned from a career in commercial airlines to Social Development and is the Director of Global Partnerships and Principal Representative to the United Nations for the Red Dot Foundation. She is currently pursuing dual certification in Sustainable Development and Mindfulness. In addition to being a member of the NGOCSocD, she is also a member of the NGO Committee on FfD as well as the NGOMG. She is an amateur gardener and a trained classical Indian (Bharatnatyam) dancer. Gillian also volunteers at her local church as a Eucharist minister and is PGC(Protecting Gods Children) compliant.Gillian's preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.