Dr. Fiona Dias-Miranda - Sex Educator and Trainer Dr. Fiona Dias-Miranda has her doctoral degree in Microbial Physiology and Genetics from the University of Dayton, Ohio, USA. She is a sex educator and a master trainer. She is an active board member at SOA and plays a key role in all it`s projects. She is a director on the boards of other education organisations as well.

Shrirang Sarda - Entrepreneur & Mentor

Shrirang Sarda heads the Sarda Group of companies which was founded almost 100 years ago and has 18,000+ employees. He has been a mentor to SOA and has been involved in all its integral decisions.

Durgaprasad Durvvi - Senior Management Consultant -

Durga Prasad has been consulting on organisational assessment, formulation of policy initiatives, strategies, and institutional changes for private and public-sector corporations, governments at state and national levels for more than two decades. He has played a pivotal role in helping shape the purpose and direction of SOA and its activities and continues to mentor SOA.

Leena Yadav - Filmmaker

Leena Yadav is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Her first international feature film, Parched, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2015. She is the force behind the digital program of SOA. She and her cinematographer husband, Aseem Bajaj have directed, shot and produced films for SOA.

Bharathi Pradhan - Journalist and Author -

She was the first Indian journalist to face the camera when she started doing a column for Lehren which was back in the late 80s. Senior journalist and best-selling author, she has been editor of several magazines like Savvy, Movie, Star & Style and Showtime. She has been an author of fiction and non-fiction books and also is a columnist with The Telegraph. She has been an active supporter of SOA`s work.

Vivek Sisodia - Entrepreneur and Mentor

Vivek Sisodia heads Sisodia exports and multiple other companies run by his family. He is an active board member and contributes generously to SOA in diverse ways.

Dr. Anvita Madan-Bahel, Ph.D., Counselling Psychology, Columbia University

• Co-Founder of Seeds of Awareness
• Created and continues to develop the comprehensive sexual health program
• Trains and supervises trainers, facilitators and teachers
• Author: Sexual Health and Bollywood Films: A Culturally Based Program for South Asian Teenage Girl (Cambria Press New York)
• Individual and group counselling psychologist
• Specialisations include multicultural and cross-cultural psychology
• Research interests include sexual health, gender issues and immigrant mental health; Co-authored articles in the Journal of Multicultural Counselling and Development, and in the Journal of Counselling and Development
• Currently teaches at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. Previously taught at Columbia University, New York and City University of New York, New York
• Cross-cultural consultant to non-profit organisations in London

Shalaka Sisodia - Managing Director

Shalaka Sisodia has been a CSE facilitator and Dance Movement Therapy practitioner for more than a decade. She co-founded Seeds of Awareness and Research Foundation. She manages all operations at SOA and also is the programme anchor for the TOT done in collaboration with TISS. .
 

Mayuree Pandit, Consultant

Mayuree has worked extensively with Tata Institute Of Social Sciences on projects involving curriculum development and co-creating and facilitating art based playshops for various student groups. She is also associated with Seeds of Awareness for organisational growth, curriculum development and co-facilitating multiple courses in the certificate course like Introduction to CSE and Effective Facilitation, Gender and Power, Abuse and Violence, Working with Organisations and Field workshops

Sandy Dias Andrade, Director, Just Being

Sandy Dias Andrade is a psychotherapist and the director at Just Being. Departing from the field of journalism, she trained in Clinical Psychology from Mumbai University. Over the years, she has assimilated and synthesized various psycho-spiritual approaches within psychotherapy and group process work and has intuitively moved towards a holistic, transpersonal and integral approach. She has developed an approach to psychotherapy “Presence Oriented Psychotherapy” and trains psychotherapists and counsellor in this approach. Sandy facilitates courses on Self Awareness and Active Listening skills for Effective Facilitation.

Siddharth Singh, Founding Partner, Paradigm Unlimited

Siddharth is a facilitator, coach, designer and traveler. He co-founded ‘Paradigms Unlimited’, a business leadership-consulting firm, in 2001, which is committed to working with people to create personal and organisational transformation. His personal vision is to see a world that works for everyone and not just a privileged few and hopes to use his life working towards this idea. He believes he is a student of life and nature, and that most of the important lessons lie in how nature works. He is a facilitator for the course in Communication and Attitudes for Effective Facilitation.

Lahar Mehta, Expressive Art Therapist

Lahar is an architect from CEPT. She has been actively involved in several service based community projects like Moved by Love. She specialises in art based modalities for adult education. She has trained in mindfulness and practises lay counseling. She is a facilitator for the course in Use of Art modalities for CSE and Effective Facilitation.

Romana Shaikh, Curriculum Consultant

Romana was a part of Teach For India’s first cohort of Fellows (2009). Her belief in the power of leadership led her to join the Training & Impact team at TFI. She designed the literacy curriculum & assessment, led the development of the leadership framework for the Fellowship and worked to establish a stronger impact evaluation at TFI. She facilitates the course in Classroom Management for Effective Facilitation

Dr. Lata Narayan, Retired Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dr Lata Narayan has been a faculty member at TISS, since 1984. She joined the Unit for Child and Youth Research in 1984 and shifted to the School of Social Work, Centre for Equity for Women, Children and Families in 2006. From 2011 till she retired Dr. Narayan had been with the Centre for Lifelong Learning at TISS. She has worked on the thematic areas of children, social work, and human rights. The current thematic areas of her interest are social work education and practice, youth, lifelong learning and dance movement therapy. She facilitates courses on Group work and Adult Education in the certificate course.

Prof. Shubhada Maitra, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Prof. Shubhada is the dean of School of Social Work at TISS, Mumbai campus. She has an M.A. in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work, TISS, Mumbai and a Ph.D. in Social Work from Mumbai University. After graduating from TISS, she taught at the Matru Seva Sangh Institute of Social Work, Nagpur, worked as a School Counsellor in a school in south Bombay, and as a coordinator with the Council for International Fellowship (India) till she joined TISS in 1991. At TISS, she is involved in teaching, field action, research and training. Her areas of interest include mental health, gender, sexuality and violence with a focus on women and children. She facilitates parts of the course in Introduction to CSE.

Venil Ali, City Director, Teach For India, Mumbai

Venil joined Teach For India as a Fellow in its first cohort of 2009 where she taught Grade 3 students in Mumbai. Inspired by the impact that Teach For India Fellows are capable of, she joined the City Operations team in Mumbai as a Program Manager. She subsequently moved to the role of a Senior Program Manager, and now takes charge of the city as the Director. Venil facilitated parts of the course of Working with Organisations.

Ujwala Kadrekar, Advocate, Senior Legal Consultant

An advocate by profession she has been working in the Social sector field for past 25 years on women’s rights issue with rights based approach. She is an Independent Socio-legal Consultant and a National Trainer. At CEHAT she is working on sexual assault examination protocol to enable comprehensive care to survivors of violence against women in 13 states. She has also conducted trainings on POCSO, CLAA, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act and PWDVA at national level for Judicial officers, Police and empanelled lawyers and developed training modules for the stakeholders on various laws under British High Commission and UN Project. Ujwala facilitates the course on Working with Legal systems.

Abhilasha Rawat, Director - Healing Services, Arpan, Mumbai

Abhilasha Rawat is a trained counsellor/therapist working in the area of trauma and holds an MBA in social entrepreneurship. She has been working in the sector for over twelve years and has an experience of working with varied target groups and other stakeholders which include government and non-government. In her role as a healing manager at Arpan, she effectively leads a team of dedicated therapists to facilitate the overall healing of Child Sexual Abuse victims. She facilitates parts of the course on Abuse and Violence and Working with Organisations.

Nikhil Mehta, Trainer

Nikhil is passionate about creating socio-emotionally-safe environments for people to deeply engage with each other, bond with each other, and learn effectively. He loves doing so through the Play for Peace process, which helps build a sense of community through laughter and joy. Nikhil facilitated parts of the course Classroom management for Effective Facilitation.

Timira Gupta, Art Based Therapy Practitioner

Timira is a trained Arts-Based Therapy practitioner and uses different artistic forms like drama, storytelling, visual art and circus arts to work with children from different backgrounds. She is currently the Executive Director of an ICSE school in Mumbai. She also volunteers at the observation home for boys in Matunga doing sessions in arts-based therapy. While Timira’s heart is immersed in the lives of children, her secret desire is to leave everything and join a circus! She is a facilitator for the course in Use of Art modalities for CSE and Effective Facilitation

Dr. Fiona Dias-Miranda, Ph.D., Microbial Physiology and Genetics from University of Dayton, Ohio

• Developed and teaches sex education modules in Human Development and Reproduction
• Taught undergraduates as a doctoral candidate: Human Physiology and Reproduction
• Professor of Microbiology at St. Xaviers College, Mumbai (1993-1994)
• Volunteered as a teacher with the NGO, Akanksha, with the Beyond School Program for youth
• Works with youth of international, low income, municipal and government aided schools in Mumbai imparting workshops (and follow-ups) on Reproductive Human Development and Sex Education
• Conducts workshops for parents, teachers and mentors of adolescents: Human Reproductive Development with a focus on transitions from adolescence to adulthood11.

Name:Reshma

Professional Qualification: Facilitator

Educational Qualification: MBA (HR), Bachelors (accounting and finance), certified Dance Movement Therapy practitioner.

Something about yourself: I am called the baby of the group, which I am. I also enjoy playing around with a particular idea, looking at different angles and exploring the depths of it.

I love working for SOA because:
I love the space that is provided to me as an individual to grow. There is space to question and to debate and think deeper. I also like the opportunity that we get to connect with beautiful children and be with them in their lives listening to their ideas.

Name: Pradnya

Professional Qualification: Facilitator

Educational Qualification:MPhil in Political Studies, Certified CSE facilitator

Something about yourself:I love to work on concepts in depth and be as articulate as possible

I love working for SOA because:
I love to work for SOA because: The culture at SOA allows me to explore, try tasks and activities that need me to get out of my comfort zone. The orientation in SOA welcomes questioning and critical thinking making learning a fun and dynamic process for me.

Name:

Professional Qualification:

Educational Qualification::

Something about yourself:

I love working for SOA because: