Chitra started her graduate career by conducting research at the Columbian educational foundation known as FUNDAEC.  Later, while pursuing her graduate degree, she co-founded the UCLA branch of the Paulo Freire Institute. She is now a faculty member of the Institute for Humane Education, although she is taking a leave of absence to devote her time to an associate directorship at the Wilmette Institute. She explains how all these phases in her career represent a progressive, evolutionary process in her understanding of the potential for education to change humanity and the world.