Long before she became a changemaker in American media, Amisha Padnani was cultivating a deep respect for truth, storytelling, and intellectual rigor. A graduate of The Bronx High School of Science and New York University, she sharpened her analytical instincts and journalistic curiosity in classrooms that demanded both excellence and integrity.
Her early reporting career placed her on the ground, chasing stories in crime, politics, and education for respected metropolitan publications such as Newsday, The Star-Ledger, and The Staten Island Advance.
Amisha Padnani: Joining The New York Times – From Editor to Innovator
In 2011, Amisha Padnani joined The New York Times, initially serving in various roles including home page editor. By 2017, she became digital editor of the Obituaries desk—a position that would ultimately redefine her career and impact journalism worldwide.
Working inside one of the most influential newsrooms in the world, she noticed a pattern that had gone unquestioned for generations: since the paper’s founding in 1851, obituary coverage had been overwhelmingly centered on white men.
For many, this might have been a statistic.
For Amisha Padnani, it was a call to action.
Overlooked: A Historic Correction
On International Women’s Day in 2018, Amisha Padnani, alongside gender editor Jessica Bennett, launched what would become a landmark editorial initiative: Overlooked.
The mission was simple yet revolutionary:
To publish obituaries for remarkable individuals whose deaths had never been reported by the newspaper.
The opening declaration was candid and powerful—an acknowledgment that history had been unevenly told. The first installment featured 15 women. Soon, the scope expanded to include people of color, LGBTQ+ trailblazers, and individuals from disability communities.
Figures such as Ida B. Wells and Sylvia Plath were finally given the space and reverence they deserved.
For Amisha Padnani, this was more than an editorial experiment. It was a moral imperative. As she has shared publicly, being a woman of color sharpened her awareness of how powerful narratives are often left untold. “Overlooked” was her answer to that absence.
Amisha Padnani: Beyond Words – A Movement in Journalism
The impact of Amisha Padnani and Overlooked rippled far beyond the obituary section.
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Readers flooded the newsroom with nominations of forgotten pioneers.
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Students at Northwestern University created a musical inspired by the series through the Waa-Mu Show.
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The project sparked difficult but necessary conversations within journalism about accountability and representation.
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The series is now being adapted into a Netflix project and expanded into books.
In November 2023, she brought the movement into bookstores with Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World, published by Ten Speed Press.
Expanding Access and Inclusion
In 2020, Amisha Padnani co-produced a special section with reporter Julia Carmel titled “The A.D.A. at 30: Beyond the Law’s Promise.” What made this project extraordinary was not just its content, but its accessibility:
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Every story included an audio version.
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The section was available in Braille.
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It led to the creation of a newsroom style guide for alt-text descriptions online.
This was journalism not only reporting on inclusion—but practicing it.
That same year, she contributed to the children’s book Finish the Fight! The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote, which later received a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor.
Recognition and Influence
The work of Amisha Padnani has earned widespread recognition. In 2018, she was named “Incredible Woman of the Year” by Porter magazine. She has appeared on NPR, the BBC, CBS, and CBC, discussing diversity, storytelling, and the future of journalism.
Her voice has resonated from global media platforms to live audiences at:
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TED
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CreativeMornings
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The National Museum of Women in the Arts