Sunita Rao
Full professor · Runs a 20-person lab
Offline · replies within a day- Role
- Professor of Chemistry · Indian Institute of Science
- Based in
- Bangalore, India
- Experience
- 23 years in education & academia
- Speaks
- English, Kannada, Hindi
In her words
Grant panels, authorship order, and the colleague who keeps putting himself second on your paper. I have fought all of it and won some. Also good on going back after maternity leave in a lab that did not wait.
What she can help with
Claiming Credit for Work
Making your contributions visible when others take the spotlight.
Lack of Sponsorship
Finding advocates who champion you in rooms you are not in.
Return to Work After Leave
Re-entering confidently after parental, medical, or caregiving leave.
Raising Money
Pitching investors, banks, and grant panels that fund far fewer women.
Performance Review Bias
Countering vague feedback and gendered evaluation patterns.
Others who cover similar ground
Nkechi Obi
DI · Twenty years, two of them on secondment
A career in an institution that was not designed for me, and I am still here and senior. Good on formal grievance processes, surviving a bad posting, and promotion boards that reward a style you do not have.
Claire Dubois
Producer · Funds and makes documentaries
Freelance for sixteen years, which means sixteen years of negotiating fees with no HR to appeal to. I will help you name a number and stop apologising for it.
Jordan Blake
Chief of staff · Leadership pipeline coach
The gap that matters is not the ceiling, it is the first rung into management. I sit in the rooms where those promotions get decided, and I can tell you what is said about candidates who do not get them.