About Prashanthi Raman:
Prashanthi Raman is Advisor to the Co-founder at Rula. Before that, she led global government relations at Cruise, was Lyft’s Head of North America Government Relations, and earlier worked in the Illinois Governor’s office running health policy and legislative affairs. She studied social policy at Northwestern, where she now serves on the Alumni Admissions Council and the Farley Center advisory board. What’s cool is how she blends her professional life with her Indian American identity, her community work, and even her childhood background in Carnatic music.
“Learning Carnatic music gave me an internal metronome. That rhythm ended up shaping how I speak, and it even led to me being the voiceover for Cruise ads.”
What was most fun about this conversation:
I liked how she described showing up at school smelling like masala, or having to explain to her friends why her dad wore a lungi to get the mail. Those small, funny details made the bigger themes of culture and identity way more real.
“I grew up with a dad who wore a lungi to get the mail, and I had to answer, ‘why is your dad wearing a skirt?’”
Also, hearing that her Carnatic music training accidentally made her good at public speaking cadence and eventually landed her as the voiceover for Cruise’s ads. That was just unexpected and really fun.
What I was inspired by:
Prashanthi talked about resilience being a kind of “superpower” she inherited as a first-generation Indian American. Whether she was in the governor’s office negotiating health policy or working in tech, she leaned on values like hard work, truth-telling, and relationship-building.
“My secret power has been relationship building and the resilience that comes with being first-generation.”
It inspired me to think about how culture can be more than just heritage—it can actually be fuel for impact.
“Being Indian American became a superpower because I understood what it meant to struggle and also what it meant to build something out of nothing.”
And when she talked about Seva—the idea of service to others—it hit me that this is one of the deepest values many of us inherit from our community. For her, it’s been the guiding theme of her career: to use her skills to create change that helps people, especially marginalized communities.
What many of us Americans can relate with:
So much of what she said felt familiar, even beyond the Indian American experience. Things like growing up feeling different, having parents with accents, worrying about whether your major or career will make sense to your family, and trying to balance what you inherit from your parents with who you want to be. That tug between fitting in and standing out is something a lot of Americans can connect with.
“We’re not new anymore. We’re not the strange exhibit in the museum. There’s more representation, and that makes my kids feel like they’re part of the larger society.”
What I will think more about:
Her worry about Indian culture and language fading with each generation really stuck with me. She pointed out how English often takes over at home, and unless kids are spoken to in their grandparents’ languages, those connections might disappear.
“What I worry about is the beauty of our culture, especially language, being lost generation by generation.”
It made me think harder about how culture gets passed down, and what role we each play in preserving it while also adapting it.
How this connects with other conversations:
Like Dr. Nirav Pandya, she talked about trying to hide her Indian identity when she was younger, then later realizing it was something to be proud of. And like Gagan Biyani, she pointed out how Indian immigrants in America represent just a slice of the diversity in India, which explains a lot of the stereotypes. And similar to Dr. Neha Gupta, she highlighted how subtle cultural norms, like food, language, or the way families show respect, can be invisible unless you live inside them.
Together, these conversations show how Indian American stories overlap in some places but are also really diverse in others.
“Hold on to your history, your culture, your lineage. Not just for yourself, but so you can pass it forward.”
And maybe most importantly:
“In policy and government, the most influential lever isn’t statistics. It’s people’s stories.”
Prashanthi Raman’s Bio:
As an established, award-winning attorney and public policy executive, Prashanthi Raman has nearly 20 years of experience navigating challenging, highly charged, and complex political environments at the international, federal, state and local levels. Honing her skills in both the public and private sector, Prashanthi has earned the reputation of building trust quickly and utilizing her political astuteness to shape and ensure regulatory certainty for multiple organizations. Prashanthi is able to see around corners to stay ahead of legislative and regulatory trends and demonstrates the vision to solve tough problems, particularly in the emerging tech space. As a woman of color working in government, tech and transportation, and other complex regulatory industries, Prashanthi brings her passion to make meta policy changes to have an impact on everyday people.
She has created and built emerging regulatory industries four times that have opened up commercial and revenue generating pathways. Her career has been divided between significant industries - energy, healthcare, transportation, AI and tech - navigating some of the most complex regulatory environments to produce change, business growth and common sense and business friendly policy frameworks. Prashanthi is known for assembling dynamic and diverse teams, being an innovative and inspirational leader, and a critical, effective and analytical strategist. Her public affairs campaigns and social impact initiatives have been some of the most innovative and sustainable throughout the company’s lifecycle. She is also a highly sought after and regarded speaker, keynote, panelist and also utilizes those skills off the stage as a voiceover.
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