Educating the World: Dr. Geetha Murali

Geetha Murali, CEO of Room to Read, talks with Jesse about her work in ending illiteracy and gender inequality, the importance of consistent skill building in one’s career, reflections on a career shift, and her vision for the future of education. Geetha shares how her mom refused a marriage at 13, leaving home to become a nurse and move to the United States. Geetha shares how her mother’s determination and father’s affable serenity helped shape her growth and values in ways that helped her become an effective builder. She shares insights into how education changes and benefits children, and their communities, including success stories she has helped build at Room to Read. 

Geetha shares practical insights on how she collaborates with local leaders, governments, and schools to create sustainable change, and about how Room to Read has scaled with the goal of impacting 40 million children by 2025. She shares her transition from statistician to non-profit leader to CEO and her thoughts on how to have a positive impact no matter where you work. She shares her secrets to success, including how she views the importance of education and relationships. 

How does education influence your success and the success of the people you care about? How do relationships and cooperation factor into your success? How do you plan your career to include meaningful impact? How do you rethink your strategy to scale into the future?

Guest Bio:
Dr. Geetha Murali is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Room to Read, an organization that believes World Change Starts with Educated Children.® Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality by helping children in low-income communities develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and by supporting girls to build skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions. The organization collaborates with governments and other partner organizations to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. Room to Read has benefitted more than 18 million children across 16 countries and 37,000 communities and aims to reach 40 million children by 2025.

As Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Geetha oversees Room to Read’s global operations, which include programmatic work in 16 countries, a global network of investors and volunteer chapters, and a worldwide staff of approximately 1,600 employees.

Geetha on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gkmurali

Room to Read Website: https://www.roomtoread.org/

Building Blocks:
Think about a two-step of skills that combine to form a secret sauce for you. Step #1, the hard skills, the tools of the trade. Step #2, the soft skills, the things you can apply in any context or situation. 

For Geetha, her hard skills are mathematical fluency and her soft skills are around relationship building. What's your 1-2 step that gives you your secret sauce? Maybe you're the kind of person whose hard skill is that you can write incredibly well and your soft skill is you're great at reading people. So your secret sauce combines those things and ... you're an incredible writer! Or maybe it's a two-step of being an unbelievable co-writer and being incredibly patient. And those combine to make you an unbelievable technical teammate. Whatever your two step and your secret sauce are, write them down and think about what kinds of things you could go do with that combo that's unique to you. I bet you're already doing some unbelievable things as a result, but maybe there's some untapped magic that this exercise can help you unlock in your quest to become an ever better builder. 

Helpful Links:
So Good They Can’t Ignore You, a book recommended by Geetha that was seminal to her early in her role as Room to Read’s CEO
“How to Citizen” podcast by Baratunde Thurston 
Room to Read success story of Kamla
BBC World Radio interview on COVID-19 impact on girls’ education
Geetha op-ed on the power of books on our mind
“Six Terrific Book Ideas for Getting Girls into Tech” interview with Geetha Murali and Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki in Wired Magazine
Geetha’s background and story, shared by the Shakti Collaborative
Michelle Obama & Julia Roberts meet with Room to Read kids in Vietnam
Award from the Library of Congress for Room to Read’s special response to COVID-19