Seema led electoral integrity-related research and advocacy for a coalition of Kenyan civil society organizations in Nairobi. As the Director of Research, she managed a team of data analysts in the development of evidence-based advocacy reports for national election reform campaigns and for Supreme Court cases challenging the credibility of the 2013 and 2017 Kenyan elections. Seema has also worked on election violence, media development, campaign finance reform and standard-setting for electoral integrity at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Stockholm, Sweden and with civil society organizations in Sri Lanka and the United States. She holds a PhD in Political Science from UCLA, where her dissertation focused on patterns of intra-ethnic election violence in Sri Lanka, Kenya and Iraq.
“I hope to have convinced you that deepening our democracy is a crucial struggle, not just for our future prosperity and peace, but also for our fundamental human aspiration to live as free men and women. At the end of the day, what matters is not so much which candidate or which party wins an election, as long as the country wins."-Kofi Annan