Kajal Sharda brings to Athena a strong research background, exemplified by a gold medal in Integrated MSc in Economics from the Central University of Rajasthan. Prior to joining Athena, she worked in Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals, Delhi and CUTS International, Jaipur as a Research Associate, where she executed economic and policy research projects funded by various esteemed government and non-government institutions for impact evaluation, and provided them with actionable insights and policy recommendations through primary and secondary research.

During her full-time work experience in the policy sector, she gained momentum in actively engaging with government and private stakeholders, along with conducting focused group discussions and awareness-generation campaigns for the local masses. She has done extensive field research, secondary research, report writing, presentations, and literature reviews. She also has experience with data extraction and analysis of huge data sets.