Since the fall of 2019, sourav (pronounced “Show Rob”) has served as executive director of the Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS). He has two decades of professional experience across a broad variety of roles in the public, nonprofit, and postsecondary sectors, including many years working on issues pertaining to access, inclusion and representation in higher education.
A staunch advocate for fairness, transparency, and frank conversations regarding advantage and opportunity, sourav speaks openly about the many ways privilege operates at elite institutions. He is a featured expert in the 2023 documentary film, EXCLUSION U, currently available to view for free (with ads) on Tubi. He is also quoted extensively in The New York Times Magazine article, “Affirmative Action Is Still in Effect. For Men.”
In addition to his administrative role at CHAS, sourav recently joined the Cinestudio Board of Directors. He is also an adjunct instructor of government and international relations at Connecticut College. In spring 2024 and in fall 2024, he is teaching Environmental Activism and its Political Impact Around the Globe. Previously, he has taught courses on Contemporary Indian Politics (fall 2022) and Asian American Politics (spring 2023).
When opportunities present themselves, sourav enjoys occasionally writing and speaking in public venues. In 2020, he penned an opinion piece for his hometown Columbus Underground, entitled “Anti-Blackness on a Pedestal – Why Columbus Statues Must Come Down in Columbus.” The following year, he wrote an essay, “Sustainability Without Justice Just Sustains Injustice,” for Volume II of No Sustainability Without Justice: An Anthology on Racial Equity and Social Justice, published by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). He has participated as an invited panelist at equity and justice themed conversations at Penn State (“English and Equity”) and Virginia Tech (“Intersectional Environmental Justice: Interdisciplinary Conversations”). In 2023, he was an opinion contributor to The Connecticut Mirror, as a member of their Community Editorial Board.
Prior to joining CHAS, sourav was a research analyst for Vassar College’s Engaged Pluralism Initiative, a Mellon Foundation-funded project aimed at fostering a sense of affirmation and belonging on campus, particularly among students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Before Vassar, he led the enrollment management team at the Yale School of Nursing, where he focused on improving the demographic representativeness of the student body and successfully doubled the proportion of students of color in the incoming class to nearly forty percent.
Earlier, as Assistant Provost at Wesleyan University, sourav tirelessly advocated for expanding the breadth of curricular offerings and for standardizing faculty hiring practices to improve fairness in hiring across academic departments. At Wesleyan, his undergraduate alma mater, he also served in a number of other capacities over the years, including as Visiting Instructor of Quantitative Analysis and Government, as an Institutional Research Associate, and as Assistant Dean of Admission.