Sushma Raman

President, Southern California Grantmakers

Sushma Raman is president of Southern California Grantmakers, a regional membership association of private-sector grantmakers supporting and advancing effective and responsible philanthropy for the public good. Sushma was previously with the Ford Foundation, as Program Manager of the International Initiative to Strengthen Philanthropy and also as a Program Officer in New Delhi, India, where she managed a grantmaking portfolio focused on building domestic philanthropy and the nonprofit sector’s capacity in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, she was Program Officer for the Open Society Institute in Los Angeles.

Sushma currently serves on the Council on Foundations’ Family Philanthropy Committee, Independent Sector’s Public Policy Committee, and the Foundation Center’s Research Advisory Board. She also serves as a Juror at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Additionally, she was an Adjunct Faculty member at the UCLA School of Public Affairs in the spring of 2009. In the past, she has served on various philanthropic boards, advisory boards, and committees, including the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Funding Exchange, and the Community Technology Foundation of California. Sushma was an American Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Sushma received her Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in Massachusetts and her Master’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.