S. MITRA KALITA is an education reporter at The Washington Post, with a special interest in immigration, race and youth culture. Mitra is also president of the South Asian Journalists Association, a group of 800+ journalists of South Asian origin in the United States and Canada.

She previously worked for Newsday as a business reporter, carving a beat out of the intersection of immigration and the economy. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, she did extensive reporting on the backlash faced by Arabs and South Asians in the New York area. She has also reported from India.

Mitra graduated from Rutgers University cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a bachelor's in history and journalism. She received her master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Mitra has received numerous awards for her work, most recently named Young Journalist of the Year by the New York State Associated Press Association.

Her book "Suburban Sahibs: Three immigrant families and their passage from India to America" will be published by Rutgers University Press in the fall of 2003.

She started her journalism career when she was 11. Using construction paper, a pencil, a then 3-year-old brother and some creativity, she launched the first and only issue of "The Kalita Times." With a circulation of one and readership of five, the publication unsuccessfully campaigned against her father's decision to move the family from their Puerto Rico home back to the United States in 1988.

Her personal site: www.desiwriter.com

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