WALTHAM, MA—Reena Patel is a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. She works for the U.S. Department of State and has served overseas in Spain, Mexico, the Sinai Peninsula and Iraq.
In addition to serving in the U.S. government, Patel is the author of Working the Night Shift: Women in India’s Call Center Industry (Stanford University Press, 2010).
She holds an M.S. in Global Technology and Development from Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in Geography from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to graduate school, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, worked in the IT sector in Massachusetts, and the travel industry in Hawaii.
As a young and fearless woman, Patel loves to accept any challenge and sacrifice her country would require to serve as a patriot. She is the first-generation Indian born in Waltham, MA. Her parents of Indian origin migrated to USA from Africa. She was raised in a family with traditional Indian values and following traditional social customs.
Keeping all these values, exceeding and sometimes defying, Patel has tried to explore the dynamic interaction between space, time and gender. As a feminist scholar, she has had the opportunity to work with women in different cultural settings and contexts. That led her to five- year research project that resulted in the publication of her first book, which is probably the only book that is centered on the challenges and opportunities for female employees in India’s call centers.
