About
She is a Fulbright Specialist, author, speaker, certified mediator, intercultural communication and leadership trainer, and a faculty member of Conflict Resolution and Adaptive Negotiation in TC at Columbia University. She is also the founding president of “The World Women Global Council” and Lead 2 Empower, a global platform to empower women by engaging men who facilitate the power of change. This unique advocacy model is fueled by a viable support system focusing on AI, Art, Cultural Diplomacy, Education, Leadership, and Economic Empowerment. Her role as a course developer and lead faculty at the School of NYTimes brought her in direct contact with the global voices of the youth, where she shared the power of diverse voices and how digital media influences and shapes our identities and narratives.
This year, she wants to focus on AI. Art, Algorithms & their Ethical Governance, and spoke at an event in Columbia University alongside Microsoft’s innovation officer, Michael. Jabbour. She also collaborated with the German Consulate to drive education and economic empowerment capacity-building initiatives, empowering young men and women from different countries. Through the Learn & Earn Program, spearheaded by the SHAMS FOUNDATION, this collaboration aims to create a lasting impact and open doors for a brighter future for he youth worldwide. On June 1st, 2025, she is honored to speak at the Canadian Center for Cultural Diplomacy alongside the cultural minister of Peru in Vancouver, B.C. Dilshad has served three decades of civic leadership in gender equity as an immigrant. She was the Founding Vice President of advocacy for the United States National Commission-UN WOMEN Dallas Chapter. She was also a UN correspondent and president of the National Diversity Council for the W-Dallas Chapter. Dilshad has served at the State Department for nine years, building citizen diplomacy and coordinating international diplomats. She has been a communication coach for Fortune 500 companies and a community board advisor on media for PBS (Public Broadcasting) for nine years.
As a strategic collaborator, she loves to connect resources that impact scalability. Her mission and passion to impact disadvantaged girls started at the age of 13 when she saved and tutored victims of child abuse in Pakistan and later created youth intervention modules to support girls in Karachi. When she arrived in Los Angeles as a young married woman, she supported immigrant mothers by visiting their homes and educating them on various issues and struggles from child development to legal services. After 2 years, she moved to Dallas, TX with her family and started serving disadvantaged multicultural women through the following organizations: Dallas Association of Parenting, Practical Parenting, Plano Educational District, and Dallas International Alliance. Later, her diverse affiliations enabled her to bring awareness, educational tools, and resource mobilization to Empower immigrant families and women of color through her decade-long nationally run radio shows.
She started a talk show on informed choices in Dallas, a radio talk show with experts to empower immigrant women coming from multicultural backgrounds. The talk shows incorporated research-based information compatible with culture-specific issues. She was determined to help and serve the voiceless women who were underserved by many social agencies due to gaps in relevant skill sets, communication, and cultural bias.
The specific media initiative brought cost-effective interventions reducing mental health issues and aided as a bridge for social institutions looking for answers to support immigrant parents. She has delivered close to 400 shows influencing more than a million listeners, nationally. Her topics addressed cross-cultural parental communication, awareness of multicultural women’s issues, advocacy campaigns against domestic violence, and strategic communication. Through this process, she collaborated with local law enforcement support initiatives bringing cultural understanding to promote the effective delivery of services and initiatives.
She has won several awards from media to academia. She was honored with the prestigious award for “Outstanding Mentor in Texas” by the Women’s International Network, for her untiring efforts as an advocate, community leader, and broadcast journalist for minorities. She has won distinguished community service awards from “Leading Women America” and outstanding communicator by the Asian Chamber of Commerce. She was also recognized as the best women empowerment storyteller by South Asian radio stations in NY and Dallas and Global Women Advocate by Our World Media. Recently in July, she received the Obama’s Immigrant Journey award for Professional Excellence in civic leadership for 25 years by Cowles and Thompson in collaboration with Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office.
Dilshad is also the founder of the Lead 2 Empower institute: an impact-driven leadership training platform to bridge the gap between business skill sets and job opportunities. The certificate programs build sustainable leadership, gender equity, economic empowerment, and global diversity. She works with academia, corporations, and civil societies to develop and deliver training programs and seminars in order to bring the best experiential learning outcomes. Her Youth Initiative for Women Leadership program continues to empower girls’ leadership and STEM programs both here in the US, and in developing regions like India.
Dilshad Dayani has also been an active member on local and national advisory boards, including NPR, KERA, Asia Initiatives NY, Child Literacy NY, Mosaic Human Rights, Global Diversity and Leadership exchange, and the Asian Chamber of Commerce Dallas chapter. She has also served as a consultant for a few UN projects and mentored as a global thought leader for Kappa Delta Pi, where she did online sessions for teachers around the globe.
Dilshad holds a Master’s degree in educational leadership from Columbia University and a Doctorate from Northcentral University. She plans to teach Gender Equity in Communication and Business at George Town University this summer. Dilshad lives with her husband and two adorable sons in NYC.
Dr. Dilshad has recently launched her mindful life skills channel with a guided meditation in Urdu/Hindi to help women, children, and families of South Asian origin. She aims to enhance cultural roots, and local languages, with peacebuilding tools, contributing to family and community empowerment. She believes in equity and wants to make her research and learnings accessible in the local dialect for everyone regardless of socio-economic barriers. Her talks on growth mindset, conflict resolution strategies, cultural nuances of negotiation, and adaptive parenting with faith-based interventions have been highly successful in Trauma Informed Schools in India, Pakistan, and Africa.
Read Reviews By My Clients
Dilshad worked with IBM as a consultant for new university hires during a ‘Communications Camp’. She coached our employees to improve their written and presentation skills through role play exercises. Her leadership experience and insight helped ingrain individual excellence when communicating in client situations. Her sensitivity to the diversity of our audience was vital to creating effective, perceptual improvements for each person she interacted with. She is a dedicated, driven professional and it was my privilege to work with her.
Richard Turner
University Hiring Manager at IBM
Dilshad has worked with me for the North Texas Council for International visitors under the State Department as both a professional resource, speaking authoritatively and eloquently on the many issues and challenges faced by new American women, and as a programmer -citizen diplomacy for the organization, putting together professional visitor programs on subjects as diverse as Domestic Abuse and Violence, Women as Institutional Change Agents, and Trafficking in Persons.
Conrad Ornstein
CEO of North Texas Council
Newsmax Contributor and Newsmax Financial Brain Trust Participant; Economic Consultant to Dick Morris (former advisor to President Clinton), Former Consultant to Oppenheimer Capital, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York, and Mellon Bank
Barry Elias
Economic Policy Analyst, Economist and Journalist
Speaking with the diverse young women at the parish academy
Speaker at the Annual Peace Conference with Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and Abigail Disney.
United States National Commission on UN Women’s annual event with advisory board members (Dallas, TX)
Dilshad’s love for print journalism motivated her to contribute to several media outlets and add to her advocacy profile for human rights.
