FRENY TARAPORE

​An education and social services academic, Freny is the founder and former Dean of the Faculty of Home Science, SNDT Women’s University, Pune. She serves on the advisory boards of several universities, professional bodies, and educational and health organizations in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

MALATI KALMADI

Secretary of the Kannada Sangha’s Kaveri Group of Institutes for over twenty years, Malati initiated training programs in education and mental health to help children and adolescents. She has served in organisations such as 2morrow 2gether, Connecting, and the Indian Federation of University Women’s Association (IFUWA) that work for the benefit of women and youth.

JYOTSNA YARGOP

As a member of Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), Jyotsna supported the welfare of families of troops. She has worked with Spectrum for over twenty-five years to enrich the lives of its members by organizing learning programs and implementing welfare programs in disadvantaged communities.

SONALI RAO

​Sonali has a background in Computer Engineering & Telecommunications. She returned to Pune to work on traffic, waste management and sustainability after studying, living, and working in the United States for twenty-two years. She organized the first large scale TEDx Pune event in 2013 and subsequently founded “Pune Inspire” to host an annual event around civic issues to effect change at a grass-roots level.

SHARMILA BRAHME

​​A chartered accountant with over 30 years’ experience in audit and taxation and seven years of experience in information system audits. She has her own chartered accountancy practice and has served as visiting faculty in Accountancy and Statistics at the SNDT college of Arts and Commerce and on the boards of Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha and Maharashtra Girls Education Society and is also associated with some other NGOs

MRUNALINI PAWAR

Mrunal Pawar is a Director at Sakal, a Trustee of Pune Blind School, Sakal Social Foundation, Sakal Relief Fund, Social For Action – A onestop crowdfunding platform and Nirdhar Trust. Being a part of Sakal Media Group, with its strong foundation of service and ethical journalism, she is deeply committed in making this world a better place by pushing boundaries, giving opportunities to others, following her convictions, helping others make better choices and to tell powerful stories that will help reshape the world we live in.

VIPIN GHATE

Vipin has over 35 years’ experience in leadership roles within Corporate HR / IR, Administration & CSR with a strategic & business-oriented HR approach. Vipin is currently Founder Director, Trans India Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Pune (a premium HR consulting company at Pune). Prior to establishing Trans India, Vipin was HR, Lear Corporation (a global US MNC). Vipin has also previously worked with global MNCs, large & reputed Indian business houses like Kalyani Group where he was Head- HR (SEZ & Infrastructure), Suzlon Group where he was Head- HR (India Business) and Trenton Group where he was Head Group HR. Vipin also maintains associations with a number of reputed Indian and international companies and professional organisations.

SHAMIN MEHROTRA

Shamin has a master’s degree in applied psychology from the University of Mumbai and a master’s degree in psychological services from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been with Ummeed since 2003.She is the Senior Director: School Outreach Services, Mental Health and Awareness and part of the Ummeed Leadership Team for over 20 years now. She is also a Sr. Mental Health Therapist, leads the Mental Health team at Ummeed. More recently, she has also been heading the Awareness vertical at Ummeed and has been working with the team to build awareness in the space of Developmental Disabilities, especially in the contexts of early intervention, self-advocacy and inclusion.

SIDDESH SARMA

Siddesh is an Educationist and Entrepreneur with 13+ years of experience in the education and non-profit sector, who strives to co-create an equitable society and thriving life for all living beings. He has an academic background in Clinical Pyschology from Christ University and Education from TISS Mumbai. He has represented SCERT, Maharashtra on various NCERT Committees and has worked for the past 7 years consulting with the School Education Department, Govt. of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. He is presently leading a state-level teacher development project with the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh supported by the World Bank. Siddesh started his work in education through Teach For India Fellowship in 2011 . He serves as a founder-director of Leadership for Equity.