Annanya Panagala

Annanya Panagala

IDEAS Committee Research Assistant

Bloomberg Center for Cities

annanya_panagala@gse.harvard.edu

About

Annanya Panagala is a full-time graduate student in the learning design, innovation, and technology program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. With an academic background in social work and management, she has worked at the intersection of education, technology, and organizational development across diverse sectors.

Annanya began her journey as a founding member of Volunteer for India, designing structured volunteering programs to drive sustainable social impact. She led global digital learning initiatives at Freshworks—India’s first SaaS unicorn to go public—before joining Peakflo, a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup based in Singapore, where she built the people and culture function from the ground up. She is now deeply exploring the intersection of AI and social impact, focusing on how emerging technologies can drive meaningful change in education, healthcare, and community development.

Outside of her professional work, she is an avid trekker, having completed 19 Himalayan treks and now planning her next adventure in Patagonia.

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