Rinku Sen

Rinku Sen is a writer and social justice strategist. Since 2020, she has led the design of Narrative Initiative’s vision and flagship programs to strategize with social justice movements to make equity and justice the foundations of multiracial democracy. She is formerly the Executive Director of Race Forward and was Publisher of their award-winning news site Colorlines. Under Sen’s leadership, Race Forward generated some of the most impactful racial justice successes of recent years, including Drop the I-Word, a campaign for media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as “illegal,” resulting in the Associated Press, USA Today, LA Times, and many more outlets changing their practice.

She was also the architect of the Shattered Families report, which identified the number of kids in foster care whose parents had been deported. Her books Stir it Up and The Accidental American theorize a model of community organizing that integrates a political analysis of race, gender, class, poverty, sexuality, and other systems. As a consultant, Rinku has worked on narrative and political strategy with numerous organizations and foundations, including PolicyLink, the ACLU and the Ford Foundation. She serves on numerous boards, including Hedgebrook, the residency for women authoring change, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, the home of Mother Jones magazine and the Reveal podcast. From 2019-2023, she was chair of the Women’s March Board of Directors.