For Our Future: NextGen Elected Leaders Impact Summit 2026

For Our Future: NextGen Elected Leaders Impact Summit 2026 — The Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC

At a time when belonging itself is being questioned, a new generation of South Asian American leaders is stepping up to shape what comes next.

At the 2026 Impact Summit — the premier national gathering of Indian and South Asian American changemakers — Deepti Sharma moderated For Our Future: NextGen Elected Leaders, a plenary conversation featuring some of the most consequential South Asian voices in American politics today.

The panel brought together elected officials serving across county, state, and federal government to explore how political power gets built across generations — from navigating institutions that weren't designed for them, to governing as parents of young children, to actively building the pipeline of South Asian leadership so they are not the first and only, but part of a growing movement.

Panelists included Rep. Ranjeev Puri, House Minority Leader of the Michigan State House; Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, Vermont State Senate Majority Leader and the first woman of color to serve in that body; Commissioner Nida Allam, the first Muslim American woman elected to office in North Carolina; and Pavan Parikh, Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, Ohio.

The session was followed by a keynote from Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, U.S. House VA-10.

Delivered at: Impact Summit 2026 | The Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC Organization: Impact — South Asian American Action Fund

Audience: National gathering of South Asian American elected officials, organizers, advocates, and community leaders

Format: Panel moderator | Plenary session

Topics: South Asian American political representation, NextGen leadership, multigenerational civic power, running for office as a parent, resilience after electoral loss, building the South Asian political pipeline