Sunita Leeds

Background

Sunita Leeds is a longtime resident of Washington, D.C. who identifies as Indian and Jewish.  ^{4 3} Leeds earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s in math from Cornell University. ⁴

Sunita Leeds is married to Dan Leeds, whom she met at Cornell. As of 2026, Dan Leeds was the president of Fulcrum Investments LLC, a private investment firm. Dan Leeds has been involved in numerous education-related nonprofits; he is the co-founder of the National Public Education Support Fund, the National Public Education Action Fund, and All4Ed. He previously was the president of CMP Media, then-publisher of Newsweek, which was established by his father, Gerry Leeds. Dan Leads supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the workplace. ⁵

All4Ed, which was co-founded by Dan Leeds, and his parents, Jerry and Lilo Leeds, established the Leeds Society, a donor collective for top education donors. ^{5 6}

Career

Sunita Leeds lived in Paris, France for many years, where she was the president of the Parent Faculty Association at Marymount School and co-founded and worked as the treasurer of Kehilat Gesher, an Anglo-French Jewish congregation. ⁴

For over a decade, Leeds headed a software development team at Bell Labs, which has been a corporate lab of Nokia since 2016. ^{4 4}

Leeds is “very active” with Planned Parenthood and was on the Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s board and the board of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. ³

Sunita Leeds co-chaired the Enfranchisement Foundation along with her husband, Dan Leeds. The Enfranchisement Foundation, which serves as the Leeds’s primary philanthropic outlet, is a grantmaking foundation that supports left-leaning approaches to countering poverty. In the 2000s, the Foundation had most of its assets deposited in Bernie Madoff’s investment fund, which, in 2009, was revealed to be Ponzi scheme. ^{3 5 7}

Politics

Sunita Leeds is a Democratic activist and a champion for Indian Americans in the Democratic Party. Leeds “has hosted many events for the Democratic Party at her home and has traveled to Israel and India with Democratic Party leaders.” While living in Washington, D.C., Leeds allegedly “helped increase the number of Indian Americans in Congress from 0 to 5 and Asian Americans, overall, from 7 to 17.” ^{4 3}

As of 2026, Leeds was a board member of the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group that surveys Jewish voters. ⁴

In 2019, Leeds was reportedly a board member of the Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy Democratic donors, and of the League of Conservation Voters, a left-wing environmentalist advocacy group. ²

In 2016, Leeds was one of 26 superdelegates from Washington, D.C. at the Democratic National Convention. She supported former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) for the party nomination for president. Under party rules at the time, superdelegates were not bound by voters in choosing their selections and had full discretion to support any candidate. ⁸

In the 2016 election cycle, Leeds contributed $200,000 to the Clinton presidential campaign and other liberal groups and campaigns. ⁹

Leeds was a member of the Democratic National Convention’s Indo-American Leadership Council. ³

In 2008, Leeds opened the Democratic National Convention in Denver. She also co-chaired the convention’s Rules Committee. ³

Jewish Women International (JWI), a Washington, D.C.-based Jewish advocacy organization, has named Leeds as a “Woman to Watch.” JWI has described Leeds as being “involved with” the League of Education Voters of America, NARAL (now Reproductive Freedom for All), and the executive committee of the National Jewish Democratic Council. ¹