Shanthi Kalathil is currently acting as a consultant to the Communication for Governance & Accountability Program (CommGAP). Shanthi is an expert on media, civil society, and political transitions. Previously, she was a Senior Democracy Fellow based in the Office of Democracy and Governance at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she served as an advisor on civil society and independent media development for Washington-based programs and planning, as well as for various USAID missions around the world.

Her 2003 co-authored book, Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule, examined the political effect of the Internet on eight authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries. She holds a B.A. in Communications from U.C. Berkeley and a M.Sc. in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Shanthi is particularly interested in issues of voice and accountability and their impact on political transitions.