Researching and advancing young people's role in politics, policy, and democracy.
Meet the people behind the Centre for Youth Policy.
Founder
Sudhanshu Kaushik is a civic entrepreneur, policy leader, and author whose work focuses on youth political participation and democratic engagement around the world. His work increasingly focuses on how political parties and institutions communicate with and incorporate younger generations across democratic systems. He has spearheaded efforts to register more than twenty-five million first-time voters and has supported the election of over one hundred young candidates to public office while prodocuing comparative research and policy insights on how institutions can better integrate young people into democratic governance. He is also the founder of Exalt Data, a venture that uses data-driven analysis and diaspora insights to help organizations, campaigns, and institutions better understand emerging communities and political behavior. Sudhanshu has collaborated with global organizations including Meta, The Body Shop, ZEE5, MTV, and Qatar Airways on initiatives that empower youth and bridge technology with civic participation. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in international affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is a Civic Scholar MBA candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, having previously studied at University of Oxford, Columbia University, and New York University. He is the author of The Future is Ours: The Political Promise of India’s Youth (HarperCollins India, 2023) and is currently writing a new book on youth politics around the world to be published in 2027.
Lead, Engagement
Kaushar is a first-year MA student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she focuses on comparative politics, governance, and the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. At SAIS, she is deepening her academic research on foreign interventions, post-war governance, and international human rights, and plans to pursue law after graduation to continue working at the intersection of law and public policy. She also works as a Research and Events Assistant at the SNF Agora Institute, where she supports faculty research and helps organize policy roundtables. She earned a BA in Political Science with a minor in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and brings experience across the nonprofit sector, a congressional office, and a policy and public affairs consulting firm.
Lead, Events
Sanjay Srivatsan is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he earned a BA (Magna Cum Laude) in Economics and Law, Letters, and Society. His academic interests center on political institutions, law, and the intersection of economic policy and governance. Sanjay grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and Bangalore, India, which shaped his interest in international policy and comparative politics. At the University of Chicago, Sanjay served as Co-President of the International Policy Program at the Institute of Politics, where he helped organize programming on pressing global issues with international policy experts from around the world. He was also a Senior Editor for the Chicago Journal of History and a writer for the Undergraduate Law Magazine.