About
Meet Ishan Daya
Organizer, strategist, and policy builder. Co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Institute for the Public Good in Chicago.
Ishan Daya has spent fifteen years in Chicago as an organizer, political strategist, and entrepreneur. He began his career at McKinsey & Company, working on agricultural development, food security and business model innovation.
He then co-founded Crafty with three fellow Northwestern alumni and served as Co-CEO for nine years, growing it from an idea to more than 250 people across technology, operations and hospitality. Crafty earned an Inc. 5000 listing, a Chicago Top Workplace designation and a Fifty on Fire award.
Today his work centers on economic and health justice for working-class communities: building public mental health infrastructure through Treatment Not Trauma, advancing progressive revenue and fiscal reform at the Institute for the Public Good, and building civic tools that make government easier to understand and shape. He's committed to building institutions that support effective progressive governance that translates rhetoric and ideology into real policies and programs that can be seen and felt by working class people.
Experience
Policy research and legislative strategy on tax policy, municipal finance, and the public systems that support everyday people.
Help lead a city-wide campaign to expand non-police crisis response and re-open the public mental health centers in Chicago
Helped lead the national effort that turned uncommitted primary votes into convention delegates to end weapons funding for war and shift to funding housing and education
Independent political organization in Chicago's 32nd Ward connecting residents with local legislation.
Scaled from an idea to 250+ employees, operating across the globe; Inc. 5000, Chicago Top Workplace, Fifty on Fire.
Agricultural development, food security and business model innovation.
Education
Northwestern University
Music & Business