Indira Desai, the President/CEO of Waterview Lodge, a Resident Care Rehabilitation and Nursing Care facility in Ashland MA won the Indian New England Woman of the Year award. Shobha Shastry, founder of Alankar Décor won the Lifetime Achievement Award.
This was the 16th year of the event organized by Upendra Mishra and Dr. Manju Sheth.
The twenty finalists were Lakshmi Balachandra
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Nilanjana Bhowmik
Co-founder, General Partner, Converge, Poppy Awasthi Charnalia
Author & Artist, Yeh Sach, Anwarath (This Relentless Truth), Indira Desai
President & CEO, Waterview Lodge, Deepa Jacob
Founder, DeepaJacob Photography, Shiva Kashalkar, Founder, Green Piñata Toys, Sheetal Kelkar, Actor & Model, First Mrs. India New England, Vineeta Kumar
Civic Activist & Board of Advisors, Boston Business Women, Kumkum Pareek Malik
Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Malik & Associates, Sindu Meier, Senior Associate, William Rawn Associates Architects, Sangita Murali, National Representative, American Association of Women Dentists, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Meenakshi Narain, Professor of Physics, Brown University, Sumathi Narayanan, CEO/Broker and Pageant Director, Sumathi Narayanan Realty & Miss India Connecticut, Priya Samant Parulekar, Social Entrepreneur & Founder, EarthFrendz, Urmi Samadar, Director, Action Learning, MIT Sloan School of Management, Performing Artist and Instructor (Kathak and Odissi Dances), Dr. Rosy Sandhu, MD
Founder, Neem Medical Spa, Physician, Melrose Wakefield Hospital and Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Kanan Sachdeva, Financial Advisor, Northwestern Mutual, Sunanda Sahay, Artist, Color of India, Essence of India, Supriya Saurabh
President, Saheli and Ramila Thakkar, President, Gujarati Association of New England (Gurjar).
The awards were made at the 16th Annual Woman of the Year Gala held at the Burlington Marriot, in Burlington, MA on June 1, 2018. Mandy Pant and Jharna Madan served as the MCees for the event.
Upendra Mishra and Dr. Manju Sheth spoke passionately about the importance of supporting women and recognizing their work. Other distinguished speakers included Rep. Kay Khan and Robert H. Nelson, District Director. Performances included a lovely dance by Asthithva a Mom’s group and Raghu Saranathan, a local singer.
Raj Sharma, the chief judge said it really was hard to choose one candidate. Thus two other candidates, Dr. Kumkum Mallik and Dr. Meenakshi Narain got honorable mention.
The evening ended with all the guests dancing away to the music of DJ Yogz. We look forward to the event next year.
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