Finding Her Power Began at Mason
Indira Kaur Ahluwalia, BS Psychology ’90, is a fighter. While a student at George Mason University, she was president of the International Student Association, where she advocated for herself and her fellow international students. They pushed to embrace multiculturalism on campus, because while the campus was diverse it didn’t always feel like different groups were treated equally. Ahluwalia did her best to fight for equality across the student body and pushed to make sure Mason was a space where everyone’s voices could be heard.
“I loved being at Mason, and engaging with individuals who believed in their own identity and could speak from that perspective. It was so evident that there was so much diversity and different walks of life were represented on campus,” said Ahluwalia. “I really found myself and my voice at Mason. I learned to be fearless. You had to fight the battles, but you could actually win them. This was a huge lesson for me to learn as an undergrad.”
From her time at Mason fighting for her fellow students and promoting equality on campus, Ahluwalia went on to fighting for equality around the globe. After working in international development for a decade, she founded Development & Training Services, Inc. (dTS) in 2002. The organization led initiatives in social and economic development with a focus on building equality, accountability, and sustainability.
Ahluwalia was motivated to create dTS because she noticed the identities of the people served by international development were not often reflected in the design and implementation of the programs meant to benefit them. Accordingly, she incorporated diversity and equity into dTS’ mission to create reforms with respect. dTS brought its expertise—like building strategies for gender and social inclusion, creating vocational training programs for women so they could join the workforce, and encouraging women to run for offices in their local governments—to 90 countries in partnership with multiple U.S. federal agencies.
After a good run, Ahluwalia sold dTS in 2015 and founded KAUR Strategies. Her new company focuses on providing advisory services to augment equity and inclusion, strengthen strategy and management, and build effectiveness and growth to enable transformational shifts. KAUR Strategies also offers business and life coaching in addition to leadership coaching at the emerging, senior, and executive levels.
“In the work that I'm doing now, I get into the inner workings of an organization and guts of a leader to help them grow,” Ahluwalia said. “For a person or an organization to open themselves up like that because they want to achieve the growth they envision for themselves—and to give me that place to mirror for them what is possible and show them their options—is an incredible place of trust.”
In addition to running her own business, Ahluwalia has written a book, Fast Forward to Hope: Choosing to Build the Power of Self, about her experiences of being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. It follows her journey of facing the challenges that come with a stage IV cancer diagnosis and how to move forward in a meaningful way with truth and gratitude.
The seed for writing a book had actually been planted at Mason when Ahluwalia’s advisor, Dr. Hamdesa Tuso, told her she should write a book one day. She had brushed off the comment then because she couldn’t imagine what she would ever have to write about. After Ahluwalia’s diagnosis, her cousin—who is a publisher—also encouraged her to write a book about her experiences because it could help others. Ahluwalia wasn’t ready to consider it then either. Years later, she decided to put the pen to paper when she reflected on the lessons she had learned through her cancer journey, and realized she wanted to pass them on to her children, who were very young at the time of her diagnosis.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned as I've gone through the cancer—and as I still continue to live with it 14 years later—is that when the worst happens and you have no control, you still have power. You have power in deciding who you're going to be in that moment and knowing that that moment will shape the next.”
Written by Kristen Greiner, MFA ’20