Title: Financial Inclusion, Ethical Leadership, and Fiction Writing: Spotlight on Professor Mohini Malhotra

As part of the Global Human Development’s initiative to feature the diverse voices and perspectives of our students, faculty, alumni, and as well as provide program highlights and a glimpse into life at GHD, we sat down to talk with one of our professors, Mohini Malhotra.

Professor Mohini Malhotra’s work experience is as interesting as she is. Having worked as a development economist for the World Bank, she has also founded a social art venture that supports women and girls. From leading CGAP towards increasing access to financial services for the world’s majority working in the informal sectors, to serving as Senior Advisor to Imago Global Grassroots, Professor Malhotra has done it all. Even though she has published many times on economic and development issues, she says her recent steps into fiction writing is one of her more daunting undertakings.

For many years Professor Malhotra worked in the space of financial inclusion, which provided a basis for expanding to the inclusive delivery of other services like sanitation, housing, and water. Recognizing that human behavior has the power to both assist and hinder development solutions, she works to better understand and combine technical skills in development with adaptive leadership skills.

Professor Malhotra first came to Georgetown by teaching Principled Leadership in MSFS, GHD also recognized the need to prepare students for leadership roles in development. Now she teaches the core class in the second year of the program, Ethical Leadership and Development.

Improving development and making it more ethical begins at the university. Not only does Professor Malhotra strive to bring these questions to the forefront, but she often sees discussions happen on their own. What particularly stands out to her about GHD are “the fabulous thoughtful students who come to GHD with interesting experiences, and who are passionate about making our world more just.”

Although the students make her job easy, the ethical discussions and considerations about development are not, and everyone has things to learn from each other. Her advice to students: “Be curious, be empathetic, be solution-oriented, and always be cognizant of what you don’t know.”