Nithya Raman- HER place is On the Ballot!- Episode 153

Today on the show we have Nithya Raman. Nithya is the first Asian woman and the first South Asian to be seated on the LA City Council. Nithya was born in Kerala, India and emigrated to the United States at the age of six. Nithya did not decide to run for office until she was 40 years old and she won a historic victory, becoming the first challenger in 17 years to defeat a sitting City Councilmember. We talk about the roadblocks to getting elected, how she broke into politics and defied the odds, and her plans to help eradicate homelessness in Los Angeles by changing peoples perspective. Connect with Nithya! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nithyaforthecity/ or https://www.instagram.com/cd4losangeles/ Schedule a free BREAKTHROUGH CALL with Liz! https://calendly.com/lizsvatek/breakthrough-call Take the FREE Limiting Beliefs Quiz and find out what's holding you back! https://www.lizsvatek.com/quiz Take Liz's Limitless Warrior 12 week program and change your life! www.lizsvatek.com/limitless-warrior/ Follow Liz on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liz.svatek/ Nithyas Bio: Nithya was born in Kerala, India and emigrated to the United States at the age of six. She attended Harvard as an undergraduate and received her master's in urban planning at MIT, after which she worked in urban slums in Delhi and Chennai, India, empowering residents to advocate on behalf of more equitable city services. After moving to Los Angeles to be with her husband in 2013, Nithya worked in the office of the City Administrative Officer. In her own neighborhood, she joined the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s Homelessness Committee as Co-Chair and co-founded the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition in 2017, which grew into one of the most active all-volunteer homeless services nonprofits in the city. More recently, Nithya served as the first executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, the organization that grew out of #MeToo activism, where she advocated for equity and safety for women in the entertainment industry. Nithya ran for office on a platform of delivering compassionate and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving faster to meet our city's climate goals -- and she won a historic victory, becoming the first challenger in 17 years to defeat a sitting City Councilmember. She lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles with her husband and five-year-old twins. Nithya Raman is a mother of five year-old twins, an urban planner, co-founder of the homeless services nonprofit SELAH (SEE-la), former executive director of Time's Up Entertainment, and the current representative for LA’s fourth Council District. She ran for office on a platform of delivering compassionate and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving faster to meet our city's climate goals -- and she won a historic victory, becoming the first challenger in 17 years to defeat a sitting City Council member.