Bindiya Patel grew up in the liberal college town of Iowa City where she learned that there were a lot of problems in the world and that she could have an impact. She studied environmental engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and spent one semester in India. After graduating from Cornell, she spent three years in Washington, DC working at ICF Consulting, an environmental consulting firm, and the Bank Information Center, a small NGO that monitors World Bank projects and policies. Bindiya earned her master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 2002. At WWS, she focused on issues of gender and development, reproductive and child health, and program evaluation. During that time, she conducted internships with UNICEF Ghana, the National Women's Law Center, and the Center for Gender and Health Equity. After finishing at WWS, Bindiya re-launched the Gender and Development Policy Network, and now serves as a board member. She spent one year in England working as a grants officer at a community development organization called Action in Rural Sussex. She then moved to South Africa to manage an outreach program for child health and nutrition at the Philani Nutrition Center in the townships outside of Cape Town. In 2004, she plans to move back to Washington, D.C. to continue work in the field of reproductive and child health.