Saheli held its board elections on Saturday, June 10th, electing seven new community members to serve on the Saheli Board from 2023-2025. Saheli will now have a 17-member board which includes ten continuing members.

Neelam Wali was elected to continue to serve as Saheli Board President, Aditi Soni as Vice President, Ruchika Yadav as Treasurer, and Tanu Phoenix as Secretary. Shweta Agarwal, Meenakshi Garodia, Shehla Gul, Sumathi Madhure and Usha Vakil will continue to serve as Board Directors.

Saheli thanks community leaders—Dr. Kaplesh Kumar, Rita Shah, and Dr. Anil Saigal for serving as our election commissioners. Special thanks to our Advisory Board members who were able to attend.

This Board will work with the Saheli staff, Renu Tewari and Priya Murali, to further expand and strengthen services to South Asian and Arab women and children. They hope to strategize new fundraising initiatives and build relationships with the community to increase awareness about domestic and sexual violence in the community.

New Board Members include:

Reena Patel

Reena Patel is a writer, poet, social justice, DEI, and feminist activist. She advocates for equity in K-12 education through various volunteer roles in her local school district. She also serves as a local Human Rights Commission member and sits on the board of the Hingham Unity Council. Reena is currently obtaining a social justice-centered M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy at Boston College. While pursuing her undergraduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and DeSales University, Reena wrote for several South Asian publications advocating for candid educational conversations for South Asian families around sexual assault and consent.

Anushka Patel

Anushka is a licensed clinical psychologist doing her postdoctoral training at Harvard. She is also a Global Mental Health fellow for the World Health Organization. Anushka’s interests lie at the intersection of trauma, culture, and psychosocial care. She has conducted original research on the assessment and treatment of Indian women from slums exposed to gender-based violence; additionally, she leads systematic reviews and treatment outcome research. Anushka earned her BA from Carleton College (MN), completed her doctoral studies at The University of Tulsa (OK), and her clinical internship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to her current position.

Aruna Krishnamurthy

Aruna Krishnamurthy is a Professor and Chair of the English Studies Department at Fitchburg State University. She has also served as President of the Faculty and Librarians Union (MSCA) at Fitchburg State for four years. Aruna has volunteered with Saheli at the Shrewsbury and Acton chapters for many years, organizing and running workshops on issues relevant to the South Asian community. As a Board member, she looks forward to using her writing skills and literary background to help further the mission and vision of Saheli and shape new initiatives for the organization.

Luluah Safri

Luluah Safri is currently the Senior Director of Global Mobility & HR Integrations, at Northeastern University. In her role Luluah overseas the Global Mobility Program, Mergers and Acquisition, and HR programs across all functions to create operational efficiency. Prior to her HR career Luluah was a Social Worker and headed the Foster Care and Adoption program at Catholic Charities in Chicago. Luluah has her bachelor’s in psychology and Masters in Psychiatric Social Work as well as an MBA. Luluah lives with her husband and son and enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, being outdoors and sometimes binge-watching shows.

Sangeet Srikanth

Sangeet prides herself in building her life in the US in spite of all adversities since the last 20 years. With a B.Sc & B.Ed in Chemistry, she is a passionate chemistry teacher at Newton North High school. Sangeet has been teaching for 30 years out of which 10 have been in a school Mumbai- her hometown. She holds a Masters in Sociology and a Master’s in education from BU. She is also a Scoutmaster for a Girls & Boys BSA troop in Newton and serves on the board for Mayflower council as a Diversity Chair. She strongly believes that empowering girls & women to be strong leaders is the only way to revolutionize a patriarchal society.

Anita Lavakumar

Anita holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Tufts University, a masters degree in education for Mathematics from UMass Lowell, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Regis College. She is the Program Director for Computer Science at Boston Public Schools where she manages the district’s computer science curriculum and programming and also supports and inspires teachers, students, and families across the district. Community is extremely important as well for Anita - she is active in the education system in the city of Framingham, where she lives; she actively volunteers for Indian Family Network, with the hope of keeping her children connected to their Indian Heritage; and is a member of the board of directors for Jewish Family Services of Metrowest.

Sowmini Sampath

Sowmini Sampath is the senior director of documentation and user experience at MathWorks, a leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists. She is grateful to lead and be a part of talented, collaborative, global teams at MathWorks. Her prior board and leadership positions have provided valuable lessons and experience in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and consensus building. She is committed to serving as an ambassador and steward of Saheli Boston's mission and strategic growth.

Ritu Kapur

Ritu has her master’s in occupational therapy from Boston University and has worked as an OT for over 25 years in various healthcare settings. She is currently following the path of yoga, teaching yoga and meditation to people of all ages and abilities. After managing her yoga studio in the Boston Suburbs for seven years, she is teaching online and leading yoga, meditation, and trekking Retreats worldwide.

|