Khyati Modgil

Programme Manager, Government Innovation

Khyati was a Programme Manager in Nesta's Government and Community Innovation team. She is interested in democracy. civic participation and nurturing inclusive organisational cultures.

In 2020, she led the development of Nesta’s first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy. Through a series of stretching goals and practices, the strategy aims to nurture a more representative workforce and equitable culture where people at Nesta feel they belong and can flourish. It also considers the systems and ways of working needed for Nesta to make informed choices about the problems and solutions it identifies and their impact on minoritised and disadvantaged groups.

Throughout her time at Nesta, Khyati delivered multiple programmes with civil society organisations, local authorities, the Office for Civil Society and Cabinet Office. In 2019, she launched the Democracy Pioneers Award. From musical theatre and lived experience in policy-making, to mini-publics debating the climate emergency; the award recognised 19 projects working in radical ways to shake up civic participation in the UK and supported the development of a network of organisations challenging the view of democracy as a ‘tick one box every five years' exercise.

Working across the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund, Khyati coached and supported multiple organisations putting ‘People Power’ at the heart of their work, inside and alongside public services; be it in reducing electronic waste, boosting the sharing economy or supporting local authorities to co-produce initiatives with local people as part of their COVID-19 recovery. Through the delivery of the Inclusive Economy Partnership, a joint initiative between government, civil society and the private sector, Khyati supported innovators and big business to coordinate their efforts in tackling society’s biggest challenges.

Before joining Nesta, Khyati worked at Edelman where she delivered a variety of global communications campaigns for tech brands such as Samsung Mobile, as well as purpose-led initiatives for charities and NGOs including Heads Together and Women in the World. Prior to this, she was part of the founding maker team at Impact Hub Birmingham - the team behind Civic Square. She curated a Kickstarter campaign to establish a co-working space for local people in Birmingham and the first Impact Hub outside of the capital in the UK.

In her spare time, Khyati can be found eating her way through London, cooking any and every recipe she can get her hands on, singing with her acapella group and canvassing all things second-city as a proud Brummie and member of the TEDxBrum community.