Get to Know Saritha

July 6, 2022 | Interview by Emilia Charno

Near Saguaro Lake in the Greater Phoenix area.

With family in Arizona at the Desert Botanical Garden.

What was your journey to become an Associate at Kyanite Partners?

I grew up in Arizona and have lived in Boston and New York City since completing college. These geographies are vastly different – spatially and politically. Given the range of urban challenges both physical and political, I’ve long been interested in questions around the built environment in a number of contexts.

During the summer of 2019, I completed graduate school at MIT and worked for Conservation Law Foundation, a Massachusetts-based environmental advocacy organization. I learned so much about climate resilience, environmental justice, and transportation policy during my two years there and how research and information becomes actionable. For a number of reasons, I found myself wanting to move to New York City and after doing so, started at Kyanite Partners in 2021 as its first employee! Working at Kyanite has also allowed me the freedom to pursue independent writing and research projects.

What is a memorable moment you’ve had with a Kyanite client?

In doing strategic communications for MIT CoLab’s Mel King Community Fellows Program, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the country’s long term care systems - including complex, urgent challenges and promising solutions. I was able to learn more about the work of labor leaders and other advocates in the field, and even interview Adria Powell, the President of Cooperative Home Care Associates, one of the largest worker cooperatives in the country. It’s also been exciting to support MIT’s RFP response to construct a center for climate change solutions on Governors Island - a real once-in a generation opportunity.

What makes the Kyanite team uniquely capable of executing projects in service of our clients and the communities it serves?

Our overall sensibility to be generous, creative, and flexible. It’s important for us to take the time to plan, to strategize, and to create together with the organizations and people we work with. We’re very action oriented. A key value-add is our demonstrable ability to figure out how to take clients’ big ideas, articulate them, and move them forward.

What are some of Kyanite’s achievements?

Kyanite Partners had a monumental first year, growing the size of its team and network. Figuring out how we all work together, organize, and conceptualize ourselves is a milestone for our company. There’s a lot of variety in our portfolio of projects - from providing technical assistance to 20+ Build Back Better Regional Challenge applicants and finalists from across the country, to collaborating with faculty from MIT on the Governors Island climate hub - we’ve worked with so many kinds of stakeholders. Looking ahead, Kyanite has the opportunity to continue developing our expertise in service of our clients.

What challenges did we face this first year in business?

In our first year, we had to figure out how we work together internally, and externally with clients. This demands a level of adaptability from any new organization and is an exciting and ongoing journey for Kyanite.

How would you describe the company culture at Kyanite?

Kyanite is - personally and professionally - an incredibly supportive environment. We’re obviously a small team and it’s nice that everyone does approach every day and task with optimism and a clear sense of buy-in to the projects and clients, which we care deeply about. We also value collaboration as a cornerstone of our work. I get the sense that we try not to be constrained by what’s seemingly possible on paper, and instead try to see what’s possible when you get to know people and the larger landscape in which your work is conducted.

What motivates you? How do these motivations show up in your work at Kyanite?

My background is in climate adaptation, resilience, infrastructure finance, and environmental finance, and a lot of that is really critical to the larger planning field, and is highly motivating. Through our work on Governors Island and with the Afro Interamerican Forum on Climate Change, we are supporting adaptive, climate-forward work that carries a sense of urgency and an orientation towards solutions. Outside of the office, I volunteer for a tenant’s rights organization, and spend time writing and reporting on planning issues as well as writing creatively. Working at Kyanite has also allowed me to pursue these and other interests.

“My background is in climate adaptation, resilience, infrastructure finance, and environmental finance, and a lot of that is really critical to the larger planning field, and is highly motivating.”

After having taught a class on public finance, housing and climate change in Boston.

Attending a show in a church as a temporary venue space in Boston.

Who are the people that have been instrumental in getting you to where you are today?

I have been fortunate to work with a number of great mentors over my career. I met Rana in 2019 before I started working at Kyanite, and both Rana and Cali have been incredibly generous, thoughtful, and supportive mentors to me. In addition to supervisors and coworkers at Conservation Law Foundation and Industrial Economics, my professors at MIT were important guides in blending my skills as a planner and a writer.

Outside of my mentors, I feel really grateful to have so many kind and brilliant friends living close to me in Brooklyn - a lot of us from grad school at MIT ended up living around the same neighborhood - it’s been really valuable to have this sense of community. And of course, my family in Arizona.

What is something not many people know about you?

Outside of Kyanite, I am a writer and reporter and have always incorporated this sensibility into my work. In Boston, I became involved with a local art gallery and - in addition to meeting lots of friends there! - dove into writing about music and performance spaces.