Sandhya Sekar never intended to lead a newsroom.
Trained as an ecologist, with a Ph.D. in the sciences and a later pivot into journalism, she simply followed her curiosity—first as a writer, then as an editor, and eventually, as the founding program director of Mongabay India. In the process, she helped create one of the country’s most credible sources of environmental news: A lean, remote, and highly collaborative operation that has produced thousands of stories across India’s diverse ecological and social landscapes.
When Mongabay launched its India bureau in 2018, it was an experiment: Could a global environmental news outlet localize its journalism to a country as complex and varied as India? Sekar, then a former intern and freelance contributor, was selected to help answer that question—not from the sidelines, but from the center. As the bureau’s co-lead, she assumed responsibility for everything from staffing and fundraising to social media and strategic planning. And with her counterpart, editorial director Gopi Warrier, she’s helped guide the operation through its formative years.
Sekar’s path to journalism was shaped by dissatisfaction with academic silos. While completing her Ph.D. in ecology, she discovered that research alone could not satisfy her expansive curiosity about the natural world. Journalism offered a broader lens.
“I didn’t want to work on just one topic,” she recalls. “I wanted to explore multiple facets of environmental science—evolution, wildlife, animal behavior, and more. I also wanted to learn about what others were doing in the field, not just focus on my own research. Journalism seemed like the best way to stay engaged with all the topics that fascinate me.”
After retraining as a science journalist and interning with Mongabay, she returned years later to build something much bigger.
Her leadership style is both pragmatic and understated. Sekar’s work is mostly behind the scenes—hiring, planning, solving problems—but her influence is unmistakable. She is often the first point of contact for collaborators, donors, and global colleagues. Internally, she is the person the team turns to when something goes wrong.
“If they run into issues, they know I’ll help sort them out,” she says. That reliability, coupled with strategic clarity, has been a stabilizing force in a fast-growing organization.
Under Sekar’s leadership, Mongabay India has prioritized not just journalistic impact, but accessibility. One of her proudest achievements is the launch of Mongabay-Hindi, a project she championed after identifying the barriers English-language journalism posed for millions of Indian readers.
“We were already producing strong stories in English,” she says, “but I knew language was a major barrier in India. I wanted to address that, and launching Hindi was a key step.”
The Hindi site now has hundreds of original and translated stories, expanding the reach and relevance of Mongabay’s reporting.
Sekar is particularly adept at navigating the intersections of science, policy, and storytelling. A natural systems thinker, she considers the audience carefully—whether it’s a policymaker, donor, or forest dweller—and crafts narratives that resonate accordingly. Her approach blends hard data with lived experience, grounding the science in the real world. It’s a skill she has sharpened through years of practice and reflection, and it’s central to the Mongabay India ethos: Journalism that bridges divides—between people and nature, between languages, between the global and the hyperlocal.
Though reluctant to label herself a leader, Sekar has become a visible figure in a field where women are still underrepresented in senior roles. Team members have told her that her presence makes the organization more approachable, especially during hiring. She’s embraced that role, not as a symbol, but as a facilitator—someone who builds systems of trust and communication. Her frequent one-on-ones with team members aren’t just management exercises; they are acts of care.
What motivates her, she says, is a deep love for nature—but also for the people who study, protect, and live within it. Having grown up in rural southern India, Sekar retains a grounding in both ecological and social systems—something she believes is missing in many urban narratives. She hopes that through storytelling, these intersections can become less jarring, and more generative.
Mongabay India now stands as a model for what environmental journalism can be: rigorous, responsive, inclusive. And while Sekar rarely seeks the limelight, her fingerprints are all over its growth. In an age of fragmentation and noise, she offers a reminder that some of the most lasting work is done behind the scenes—and that leadership, at its best, is about making sure the team, the mission, and the story all move forward together.
