Pema Abrahams

Pema Abrahams has always been drawn to mission-driven projects with vast social impact potential. She initially joined 84000 as a volunteer in 2017, gradually stepping-up her contributions and commitment year-on-year, until she began full-time as communications director in 2020.

Pema comes with 10-plus years of nonprofit leadership experience in strategy, fundraising, and marketing and communications, and enjoys working at the intersection of culture and education. Previously, Pema founded northeast India’s first independent archive and research center in a project funded by The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme; worked on investigative research and high-level advocacy for almost a decade with leading international organizations on systemic rights and post-conflict issues across Asia; and prior to that, in New York City, she held a range of positions in the arts.

With roots in Sikkim and raised between New York City and the UK, Pema has lived and worked across South and Southeast Asia since 2010. And as a lifelong student of Tibetan Buddhism—fortunate to have entered the Dharma as a child under the guidance of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche—Pema embodies a balanced approach to the meeting of Eastern philosophies and Western progressivism.

In her own time, she sits on the board of Middle Way Education, and is co-creative director of Dhyana—a multidisciplinary space exploring ‘mind’ at one of Asia’s largest festivals of culture and music.

Pema holds an MSc in Conflict Studies, with a certificate in international human rights law and practice, from the London School of Economics; and a bachelor’s degree in History and Art History from NYU. She also holds a certificate of Leaders of Learning, via Harvard Online's Graduate School of Education.