Member Profile

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes faced two life-altering turning points: the sudden loss of her father to COVID-19 and her own spiral into deep burnout after years of driving high-stakes global marketing and strategy roles. Having built a career across CPG, life sciences, and media in APAC, the EU, and the Middle East, Nivi had managed major brands, overseen innovation pipelines, and directed large-scale consumer research. But when her father passed and she herself reached breaking point, the urgency of personal and planetary health became more than professional curiosity — it became her life’s calling.

Determined to understand the roots of burnout and its links to lifestyle and food systems, Nivi left corporate life to found The Virsa Foundation Inc., a Boston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Bringing together experts in anthropology, psychology, lifestyle medicine, filmmaking, and creative advocacy, Virsa designs climate-conscious, plant-powered initiatives to prevent chronic illness and nurture emotional well-being.

At Virsa, she led The GAIA Study — the largest U.S. nonprofit study on burnout, lifestyle, and nutrition, conducted with Ipsos Public Affairs. GAIA’s insights became the backbone of her award-winning hybrid-format documentary, Third Degree Burnout – A Survivor’s Guide, which blends lived stories, scientific research, and cinematic skits to explore the intersection of personal burnout and planetary crisis. The film premiered to acclaim, winning Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Greenpoint Film Festival, becoming a semi-finalist for Seattle’s Audience Choice Award, and screening internationally at festivals in the UK and U.S.

Nivi has since become a sought-after speaker, presenting at the Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine Conference at King’s College Hospital, London; the University of the Arts London Sustainability Team; Harvard Kennedy School; and as a guest lecturer in Harvard University’s inaugural Food Systems Transformation course (2023). She also serves on the board of Food4Thought, Harvard’s student-led nonprofit behind the popular Food4Thought Festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Her journey — from corporate strategist to nonprofit founder, researcher, and filmmaker — is rooted in both grief and resilience. By channeling her personal loss and lived experience of burnout into research and creative advocacy, Nivi now works to connect the dots between individual well-being, collective healing, and the urgent need for food systems transformation.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes faced two life-altering turning points: the sudden loss of her father to COVID-19 and her own spiral into deep burnout after years of driving high-stakes global marketing and strategy roles. Having built a career across CPG, life sciences, and media in APAC, the EU, and the Middle East, Nivi had managed major brands, overseen innovation pipelines, and directed large-scale consumer research. But when her father passed and she herself reached breaking point, the urgency of personal and planetary health became more than professional curiosity — it became her life’s calling.

Determined to understand the roots of burnout and its links to lifestyle and food systems, Nivi left corporate life to found The Virsa Foundation Inc., a Boston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Bringing together experts in anthropology, psychology, lifestyle medicine, filmmaking, and creative advocacy, Virsa designs climate-conscious, plant-powered initiatives to prevent chronic illness and nurture emotional well-being.

At Virsa, she led The GAIA Study — the largest U.S. nonprofit study on burnout, lifestyle, and nutrition, conducted with Ipsos Public Affairs. GAIA’s insights became the backbone of her award-winning hybrid-format documentary, Third Degree Burnout – A Survivor’s Guide, which blends lived stories, scientific research, and cinematic skits to explore the intersection of personal burnout and planetary crisis. The film premiered to acclaim, winning Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Greenpoint Film Festival, becoming a semi-finalist for Seattle’s Audience Choice Award, and screening internationally at festivals in the UK and U.S.

Nivi has since become a sought-after speaker, presenting at the Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine Conference at King’s College Hospital, London; the University of the Arts London Sustainability Team; Harvard Kennedy School; and as a guest lecturer in Harvard University’s inaugural Food Systems Transformation course (2023). She also serves on the board of Food4Thought, Harvard’s student-led nonprofit behind the popular Food4Thought Festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Her journey — from corporate strategist to nonprofit founder, researcher, and filmmaker — is rooted in both grief and resilience. By channeling her personal loss and lived experience of burnout into research and creative advocacy, Nivi now works to connect the dots between individual well-being, collective healing, and the urgent need for food systems transformation.