Social worker and founder of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective, Jaishri Abichandani, 30, is a partnership specialist for the Bureau of Census and heads the bureau's community outreach in New York.

Census data is used as a basis to allocate federal and state benefits to communities, such as building schools, hospitals and playgrounds, hiring teachers, and providing services for the elderly. "One person left out of the count means, in money terms, $250 in federal benefits lost to the community," Abichandani said. "Everyone should fill out his census returns, irrespective of his immigration status."

Mumbai-born Abichandani earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Queens College in 1991. She was a special education teacher in Queens from 1991 to 1993, and worked as a case manager for children in foster care for the Administration for Children's Services from March 1993 to September 1997.

In March 1997, Abichandani founded the South Asian Women's Creative Collective (pronounced SAUCY) with the goal of providing "an alternative space for progressive South Asian women interested in the arts." In less than three years, it has acquired an active membership of over 250 members.

She joined Asian Americans for Equality, a 25-year-old nonprofit civil rights group, in October 1997, where she worked alongside activists lobbying for correction of the errors and systemic flaws that led to an undercount in the 1990 census.