Uma Mishra-Newbery is a movement strategist, feminist leader, and somatic abolitionist whose work bridges global systems change with deep relational care. With a career spanning international advocacy, organisational transformation, and values-driven philanthropy, she brings a steady, people-centered approach to leadership that prioritises integrity, co-creation, and justice. She currently serves as the Interim Executive Director of FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund and was previously the Executive Director of Women’s March Global. Uma is also the initiator of the Racial Equity Index and a former senior consultant with The Better Org, where she guided philanthropic and nonprofit institutions through profound culture change, racial equity integration, and systems-level transformation.

Across two decades and multiple sectors—from military service and academia to global movements and philanthropy—Uma’s leadership has been consistently people-centered, values-driven, and unapologetically rooted in justice. She brings a grounded, firm, and compassionate presence to her work, using embodied and somatic approaches to support individuals and institutions navigating complexity, discomfort, and deep change.

Uma has built coalitions and movements around women’s human rights defenders, racial justice, bodily autonomy, LGBTQIA+ liberation, and the freedom of assembly. Her advocacy has reached global platforms, including the United Nations, and she was instrumental in the international campaign to release Saudi activist Loujain AlHathloul. Uma is co-author of the award-winning children’s book Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers, written with Loujain’s sister Lina AlHathloul.

She has been featured in TIME, Ms. Magazine, CNN, Al Jazeera, Devex, and Newsweek, among others. Uma speaks English and Hindi fluently, conversational French, and continues to be anchored in a leadership practice devoted to naming what’s hard with clarity, holding discomfort with care, and always centering the humanity of those in the room.