Ms. Santhi Karamcheti- President, SERPA
Santhi holds Master’s degree in Human Genetics and Bachelor’s degree in Special Education. Santhi worked with various International schools in the beginning of her career and later started her own school for special needs children, called EDventure Academy. Her experience provided her opportunity to work across disabilities and age groups. Her work mainly comprises on increasing children’s capacities in essential areas like personality development, socio-communication skills, self-esteem, self-belief, academics, activities of daily living, vocational and pre-vocational skills. Mainstreaming children and young adults into schools and employment are her mission in life and she intends to further her aim by making inclusion a smoother process. Santhi has conducted several workshops and training for teachers, corporates, parents, educators, therapists etc on various special needs topic, especially on showing inclusion as an attainable concept. She volunteers in other organisations to empower the staff, so that they can render better quality of service.
Ms. Uma Hrishikesh- Secretary, SERPA
A commerce graduate, Uma spent a decade selling and marketing IT products before moving into the special education space. She is a Professionally Certified Educational Therapist (National Institute for Learning Development) and REBT Professional (Albert Ellis), with a demonstrated history of working with children with Learning Difficulties. A passionate education professional with a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education focused on Learning Disabilities and a Masters in Psychology, Uma believes that the child is the most important factor in the equation and the system and everyone involved is there for the child. After having worked with children from different environments, she has a strong realization of the effort and distance one needs to travel to make every child feel included.
Ms. Deepa Krishnananda- Treasurer, SERPA
Ms. Deepa started her career as an financial planner and a tax consultant in the US. She became a Counsellor and a Special Educator on returning to Bangalore. She has a Diploma in Specific Learning Disabilities and Psychological counseling. She has also completed her Master’s in Inclusive Education from the University of Northampton, UK. Deepa has been course coordinator for the Diploma in Specific Learning Disabilities at Karnataka Parents’ Association for the Mentally Retarded Citizens since 2009, where she trains budding educators by sensitising and equipping them to understand children with varied needs for a positive impact. Deepa had also worked as a special educator at Brindavan Education Trust for 4 years. Deepa finds teaching children, training teachers, conducting workshops, conducting informal education evaluation, participating in seminars, setting resource rooms as rewarding experiences. Children stand for patience, empathy and unbiased thinking, hence Deepa has made it her mission to sensitize people to be empathetic and embrace inclusion as a human right.
Ms. Kalpana Srinath- Executive Member, SERPA
Kalpana’s journey into the field of special education started after her son was diagnosed with Learning Difficulties and Sensory Integration Disorder with the comorbid of Dysgraphia and ADHD. A desire to help her child, led her to get a professional qualification in Learning Difficulties at Brindavan, Bangalore. She has also completed Master’s in Inclusion and Special Education from the University of Northampton, a course, as per her has been very beneficial to her personally and professionally. Kalpana started working at Brindavan on completion of her course in the year 2009. She strongly feels that the children she had the opportunity to work with have also helped further her knowledge in this field.
Ms. Jayasree Venkatesh– Executive Member, SERPA
Jayasree a Molecular Biologist by qualification, found her true calling in working with children with different needs 2 decades ago. After completing her Post-Grad Diploma in Special Education from University of Mumbai, she worked in mainstream and special schools in various parts of India. Practicing as a Professionally certified Educational Therapist ( PCET from NILD,Virginia) Consultant and Coach for the last many years has helped in reaching out to many children and empower teachers as well. Additionally she has been practising REBT with young adults as well. She believes in constantly upgrading skills to effectively reach students who encounter challenges in learning.
Ms. Sharmila Jois Vellal- Executive Member, SERPA
With the Masters’ Degree from Bangalore university (Child Guidance) and University of Northampton (Inclusive Education) and Diploma from KPAMRC (Learning Disability), Sharmila has experience of working in both Inclusive and Exclusive institutes for over 12 years now. This has broadened her understanding of varied perspectives when it comes to working with children with various Disabilities. She firmly believes that for inclusion to become a reality in educational institutes, organisations as well as in society; parents, educators, Special educators and child with disability need to work in coherence with each other, this means taking realistic measures that are attainable, affordable and accessible.
Mr. Inayath Ulla- Executive Member, SERPA
Inayath Ulla N, worked as Senior Pediatric Physiotherapist and Sensory Integration Therapist at the Spastics Society of Karnataka. He has Masters in Physiotherapy from M.S.Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore. He has also completed the course 1 and 4 of the Sensory Integration Therapy Certification Program from The University of Southern California and Aquatic Therapy Foundation course by ATNI. He has been working with children with ASD, ADHD and learning disabilities for the past 10 years. Inayat has received the ‘Young Achiever Award’ in year 2014 from the Bangalore Physiotherapists Network for his outstanding achievement in Physiotherapy professional practice.
Ms. Sonal S Raja- Executive Member, SERPA
Ms. Sonal S. Raja has been working in the area of child well-being for past eighteen years. She is a trained Clinical Psychologist, from USA, and a Special Educator. She has worked in settings like International Schools in Bangalore and NCR; Rural government schools with Azim Premji Foundation, Apollo Hospitals, & also Children psychiatric hospital in the USA. At present, she practices as an independent consultant to different schools, where she provides counselling services for behavioural, academic and emotional issues of children such as Depression and Anxiety. She conducts workshops on study skills, adolescent issues and life skills to help children in developing positive & desirable skills. She does assessments for identifying children with special needs and does remediation for learning disabilities like dyslexia, attention deficit and hyperactivity. She conducts teacher workshops to help teachers in supporting students in their overall growth and academic achievements. Her passion is to work extensively with parents to help them understand their child’s emotional and academic needs by building a loving and nurturing atmosphere for their children.
Malini began her journey in the field of special education in 2006 when she moved to Singapore. She holds a Double Diploma in TEACHING AND DYSLEXIA, awarded by the University of Cambridge and Dyslexia Association of Singapore. She is an Orton Gillingham practitioner, having attained her certificate from Singapore.
She completed her Certificate in Dyscalculia and Numeracy Teaching from the Dyslexia Association of Singapore.
Malini has worked as an Educational Therapist with the Dyslexia Association of Singapore and as consultant with international schools in Singapore. She has worked across age groups helping children with varied Learning difficulties both in English and Math.
An energetic, passionate and dedicated Educational Therapist who has worked in a cross-cultural environment, Malini has achieved a high level of success with students, as evidenced by their academic progress and emotional development. She is able to help students with complex and challenging academic and behavioural issues in a holistic manner, effectively changing the student’s attitudes to learning, and enabling them to develop more adaptive and positive coping strategies.
She continues her work as an educational Therapist, after returning to India in 2016. She is also visiting faculty at The Spastics Society of Karnataka and has conducted workshops for teachers, educational Therapists as well as parents , on various aspects of LD.