Gira Vibhakar

Board of Director

Gira is an accomplished educator and community leader in the Indian community of Minnesota. She has been actively involved with the Hindu Society of Minnesota (HSMN) and the Hindu Youth of Minnesota (HYMN) for several years, co-running the Hindu Mandir Camp and serving as an adult advisor for HYMN. Her contributions have provided valuable learning experiences for the participants, and she is known for her outstanding commitment to the betterment of the community.

Gira is the daughter of immigrants Atul and Chandani Shroff, who have been actively involved in the Indian community in Minnesota for over 40 years. Growing up in a family that prioritized community service, Gira learned from a young age the importance of giving back to society. Gira is married to her college sweetheart Nirav and has two teenage children Aditya and Esha. When she is not busy with her community work, she loves to read, travel, and explore new experiences with the people she loves. She has a passion for learning and believes that every opportunity is an opportunity for personal growth.

Hasmukh Patel

Board of Director

Mangala Acharya

Board of Director

Mangala is originally from Karnataka, India, and a transplanted Mid-Westerner for most of her adult life. (She still complains about the Minnesota winters). She is very passionate about doing her part for my community to the best of her abilities.

Mangala was a Treasurer and Board Member for SILC (School of India for Languages and Culture) for almost 10 years, and is currently on the board of Mississippi Park Connection.

Manoj Voona

Board of Director

Manoj is an IT professional and works for Medtronic Plc. He was born and brought up in the southern part of India and moved to twin cities 17 years back. He believes in giving back to the community and is very passionate in building strong and healthy communities. He is an active volunteer and member of Medtronic ERGs and co-chair for Medtronic Global IT ID&E taskforce for Culture workstream. He lives with his wife and 2 boys in Maple grove . He likes gardening, cooking and loves spending time with friends and family.

Mihir Madhaparia

Board of Director

Mihir is a third year student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He strongly believes in community service and has several experiences in his home country, Kenya. He is a new board member of IAM.

Mihir enjoys hiking, surfing, and camping with friends and family. He also plays soccer and is a big formula 1 fan.

Puja Gaur

Board of Director

Ram Rajagopalan

Board of Director

Ram is a VP of MedTech Consulting at Virtusa and a Board Member of Trellis Area Agency for Aging. He strongly believes in Community Service. He is a new Board Member at IAM. Ram is married to a non-profit professional and they have 2 teenage daughters. Over the last 25 yrs, Ram and family have lived in the deep south for the initial 10 yrs and the midwest north for the recent 12 yrs.

Ram holds a MBA from Carlson School of Mgmt and MS from Clemson University. He enjoys playing tennis with friends and with his high school tennis team daughter. He enjoys Chinmaya Mission Balavihar and participates in Hindu Mandir activities.

Ramla Hasanali

Board of Director

Ramla was born in India but raised in a small country in the Middle East, “Oman”. Her roots are from Gujarat and Bombay and that’s exciting because she is multi-lingual (about 4 and ½ languages). Ramla moved to the US in 1999 to pursue a degree in Computer Science and has called Minnesota home for the last 12 years (but is still not very fond of the cold). She is an active member of the Dawoodi Bohra Community that practices in Plymouth, MN and helps run Public Relations and Outreach for her group. She has served on the Edina Race and Equity Task Force for years that drove systemic change in the City of Edina and helped her build deep connections in the school and government system. She’s passionate about the Non-profit world and is currently a leader in product management at CaringBridge where she helps ensure “no one goes through a health journey alone!”

When she’s not working, volunteering, serving she enjoys watching Bollywood movies, hanging out with her friends and spending time with her tween son Burhanuddin. Ramla has this infectious smile and has a humorous and light approach. She goes out of her way to make people feel included and serves on the board to bring that passion and inclusiveness to IAM.

Rupali Gupta

Board of Director

Rupali holds a Master of Science in Regulatory Affairs from St. Cloud State University, MN. She is a seasoned regulatory professional, and currently works as the Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs at Beckton, Dickinson and Company. She was born in India and immigrated to the United States in 2008. Rooted in her cultural identity, Rupali became involved with non-profit organizations having a mission to support child education, women empowerment and community engagement. Following her great interest in dance, Rupali choreographed theme based dance performances to promote awareness of these topics and was even awarded the prestigious award from HSMN for one of her performances. She follows the saying, "each person should try and leave the world a little better than how they found it". She joined IAM to enrich our community and support people who are dedicated to bettering the world.

Rupali resides in Maple Grove with her husband and two kids. She loves traveling, running, cooking, listening to music, dancing and spending time with her family.

Sayali Amarapurkar

Board of Director

Sayali has a BA in Psychology, Masters is Human Development and graduated with a Ph.D in Family Social Science from University of Minnesota in 2004.

After pursuing teaching and research in the department of Family Social Science for a few years, since 2014 she has been on the board of AshaUSA, a local Minnesota based non-profit organization with a mission to promote health and harmony in the South Asian community.

Currently she is the Executive Director of AshaUSA (www.ashausa.org) where she conducts community research, provides community education and culturally specific programs that proactively address acculturation challenges for the South Asian community in Minnesota. Sayali has collaborated with University of Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Health and other organizations to carry out research on physical and mental health and resource needs of South Asian families.

As a South Asian cultural consultant, she focuses on increasing awareness about South Asian culture and family dynamics among American professionals in the fields of education, law, healthcare and government agencies. She is an invited speaker about South Asian parenting practices and culture to various K-12 schools in Minnesota. She also works as a South Asian Cultural Liaison with Edina Public Schools. She lives in Edina with her husband and two sons

Shivangi Pandey

Board of Director

Shruti Joshi

Board of Director

Somewhat of a global citizen, Shruti has lived on three continents before finally making Minnesota her home. Raised in Delhi, India, she completed her post-graduate education in the UK, and worked in New York before moving to suburban Minnesota over a decade ago. She is a proud mother of two incredible school-age children. She has been an active volunteer at their school for several years in various capacities (Communications Chair for the Parent Association,Grade level parent representative, InterCultural Life Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee member, Art Adventure volunteer, Lego League Jr. coach), and is also actively involved at the School of India for Languages and Culture (SILC) as Director of Internal Outreach and a member of the Board. Shruti is a recipient of the 2006 People to Watch Award by the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester for advocating for women’s rights and racial justice. She strongly believes in service above self and living life with integrity. Shruti is passionate about the Earth, all its inhabitants and all the myriad intricate ways in which we are connected in this web of life. She enjoys the arts -both performing and visual, yoga, the outdoors, sunsets, books and travel.

Sohini Sarkar

Board of Director

Having lived in four countries and multiple cities, Sohini moved to the Twin Cities in 2015. With over a decade in the pharmaceutical industry, she decided to transition to the world of Medical Devices and is currently working as a Principal Regulatory Affairs Specialist at Medtronic. Her work provides her an opportunity to merge science with innovation for the betterment of human lives. She holds two MS degrees- one in Biotechnology and other in Regulatory Affairs.

Sohini loves to travel, explore new cuisines and play local league cricket. She believes there is no end to learning and thus tries to expand her learning curve by reading about varied topics.

Sohini lives in Maple Grove with her husband and during her stint intends to bring inclusion and facilitate a pan-USA visibility to the mission of IAM.

Sunitha Pillai

Board of Director

Inspired by her dad at a very young age, Sunitha’s interest in this uniquely vibrant cultural heritage has led her to seek opportunities to participate in and organize cultural events. Subsequently, it led her to join as the National Women’s Rep (2022-2024) for the Federation of Malayalee Association of North America (FOMAA), an umbrella organization of all the regional Malayalee Associations of North America. Sunitha Pillai was also on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Malayalee Association (2016-2018).

Over the last 13 years, Sunitha has volunteered her professional expertise to International Professors Projects and BENNU Legal to help out their noble initiatives. Ms.Pillai is currently working for the State of Minnesota.

She is passionate about arts and culture and loves to spend her free time doing theater, exploring Indian Classical and Bollywood dancing, doing fun reels, TikTok videos, etc... When not working, Pillai enjoys spending time with family, which consists of her husband, Suresh Pillai, daughter Krisha, and their Cavapoo Cooper, watching movies, & traveling. Sunitha is excited about continuing to serve the community through IAM and would like to welcome everyone to unite in supporting IAM’s mission and causes.

Fun Facts: You can always find a case of LaCroix in the back of her car- for emergencies, of course!

Suyash Jain

Board of Director

Suyash is an IT Professional at Target in the Big Data and Analytics space. He joined IAM to contribute to the local Indian community, and has served on the board since 2014. Originally from Vapi, Gujarat, he currently lives in Downtown Minneapolis with his wife Aishwarya.

Suyash holds an MBA from Pace University, NY, and his love of numbers inspired him to serve as IAM Treasurer for 2019 & 2020. He likes traveling, hiking, and gaming.

Swapna Haldar

Board of Director

Swapna holds an MS in Management Information Systems from University of Houston, an MBA from IISWBM and diploma in Fine Arts from Rabindra Bharati University. Though by day she is a Product Manager, her passions lay in giving back to the community and in various creative pursuits. Active member of the Pangea World Theatre, MN, Chinmaya Mission, Bengali Association of Minnesota and Bengali Association of DFW. She won the best costume award by the Purple Magazine for the play '5 Weeks' in 2017, and a national prize for the Durga Puja mandap in 2014 for Dallas Fort Worth. Outreach lead and founder of youth organization of Bengali Association of MN having led multiple fundraising efforts across the metroplex benefitting Missionaries of Charity, Autism foundation and Children's hospital of MN.

Swapna loves to paint, dance, cook and travel with her husband Joydeep, sons Rishab and Gaurav and their dog Oreo.

Vineet Pandey

Board of Director

Vineet is a healthcare executive in Accenture's Health Strategy and Consulting practice advising top 25 health systems around the country. He’s also passionate about mental health and founded www.anxietyasset.com as a platform for inspiring others to coexist with their anxiety. Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for his alma mater's Alumni Association, the University of California - Berkeley. Vineet resides in Plymouth with his wife Shalini and their daughter.

• vineet.pandey@iamn.org