30 Days of Pride!

June 22: Anu Bhagwati, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Service Women’s Action Network

Anu is the first Executive Director of the Service Women's Action Network.  SWAN is an organization dedicated to supporting, defending, and empowering today’s servicewomen and women veterans of all eras, in order to transform military culture and secure equal opportunity and the freedom to serve in uniform without threat of harassment, discrimination, intimidation or assault.

A former Captain and Company Commander, Anu served as a Marine officer from 1999-2004 and was the second woman to complete the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program instructor trainer school, earning a black belt in close combat techniques. Under Anu’s leadership, SWAN has spearheaded legislative reform and litigation to end military rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence, and to eliminate all barriers to equal opportunity for service women.

Anu has testified before Congress, advised the White House and the United Nations, and has spoken to countless audiences on challenges faced by military women, including the Combat Exclusion policy, Military Sexual Trauma, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and the VA health care and benefits system. A regular contributor to the media, Anu has been featured on Piers Morgan Tonight, the CNN Situation Room, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, NPR, the BBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time and Newsweek. Anu founded and still teaches free weekly yoga and meditation classes to veterans in New York City. She has a Bachelor of

Arts in English from Yale University and a Masters of Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government, where she focused on international human rights policy. Anu is a 2010 Petra Fellow.