Dr. Anjali Sastry is Faculty Director of J-WEL and Associate Dean for Open Learning. She brings a history of leadership and thinking about the interface of academia and society, particularly where learners are involved. Her longstanding interest in education has led to teaching innovations for entrepreneurs, undergraduates, graduate students, and executives along with her close engagement with J-WEL since its founding and enthusiastic support for MIT Open Learning.

A three-time graduate of MIT, Dr. Sastry's past research draws on her grounding in system dynamics, organizational theory, and action research to investigate organizational designs for delivering needed services and goods in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere, including via extensive field work. As Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Sastry shares her findings on new ways to reach the underserved through classes that range from accessible MITx offerings co-developed with Solve to MIT Sloan’s “Breakthrough Ventures” course on effective business models in frontier markets, which she has offered for over a decade.

Dr. Sastry’s publications span academic and conference papers and books, including "Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner" (HBR Press), a guide to orchestrating learning in the workplace. She serves on the Board of Directors of TomorrowNow.org and educational non-profit ResearchILD. A former advisor in residence to Mumbai-based Tata Trusts, founding advisor to shift7, member of the global nonprofit Board at Management Sciences for Health and Boston’s The Learning Project, Lecturer in Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and Faculty Advisor to the MIT Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship and Development, she works with collaborators everywhere to find and support ideas that offer the promise of bringing the best of MIT to many.