Vijendra Agarwal - Co-Founder & President
An IIT Roorkee educated physicist, born and raised in rural settings, he has held various positions in the US for over 35 years, including a faculty member, researcher, Department Chair, Assistant Vice President, Associate Vice Chancellor, Dean of Science and Engineering, Fellow of the American Council on Education and an Executive Fellow at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He currently lives in greater Minneapolis, St. Paul, with deep roots in his home village in India.
He has widely traveled as a researcher and educator. He understands how public policy, politics, public-private partnerships, relationship building, and systems function together for the greater public good. Coming from a middle-class background, he experienced challenges in furthering his education. Still, he was blessed with an exceptionally supportive family, teachers, and community to make his dream come true.
As a co-founder and President of Vidya Gyan, an educator at heart, he is committed to supporting aspiring individuals/institutions determined to follow their passion and expand educational endeavors. Quality education for all in the interconnected world is his lifelong dream. Paraphrasing the words of Nelson Mandela, he firmly believes that education is the most potent weapon to affect a positive and progressive change even in rural settings.
Indu Agarwal - Co-Founder & Treasurer
A physician with MBBS from the King George Medical University, Lucknow, and resident/fellow training in the United States, she was blessed to be raised in an environment where education for daughters was highly valued. She has practiced intensive care medicine in the US since 1979 and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the Prenatal section. She is currently a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. Previously she spearheaded a pediatric outreach program on an Indian Reservation in the U.S. where there was no health care available for children. She also served on the national advocacy group for the health promotion of Native American children.
Throughout her career, she followed her passion for caring for newborn babies. Now, as a Co-Founder and Treasurer of Vidya Gyan, she plans to dedicate her energy to fostering excellence in education and overall well-being through health, nutrition, and hygiene education among girls- the future mothers. She believes that all children deserve to be born healthy and be well educated to realize their full potential. She currently lives in greater Minneapolis-St. Paul with regular annual visits to remain connected with her roots in India.v
Anurag Mittal - Vice-President
Anurag graduated with a Ph.D. in chemistry from IIT Roorkee. This was followed by post-doctoral research at Queens University, Canada, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He holds an MBA from Saint Mary’s College, California. He has published over 25 technical papers in international journals.
For the past 20 years, he has been working in Silicon Valley, California, in companies such as Apple and Intel, applying his knowledge of chemistry to the electronics industry, integrating new materials into various electronic products, and solving manufacturing problems.
He is actively involved in providing higher education to students in his native town in India. He is interested in providing career counseling to students who often do not know about opportunities they could avail of or the means to access this information.
Amit Gupta - Secretary
Amit graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics from Pune University and worked in IT/Management consulting for most of his career. He has worked with Ericsson, Tata Consultancy Services, and UnitedHealth, and currently works for Accenture. Amit hails from New Delhi and has been living in the USA with his family since 2005. He considers himself very fortunate to have been born in a family where community service was given much importance and the seeds of “Giving Back” were sown. While growing up, he accompanied his parents to gurukul’s, distributing meals to kids and Animal hospitals caring for birds and animals. These values of helping other humans and animals have taken substantial precedence in his life. He is proud to be associated with Vidya Gyan and its mission in helping improve the lives of underprivileged children through means of education.
Nidhi Kansal
A Chartered Accountant (CPA equivalent) by profession from India, She joined General Electric (GE) in 2001 and then joined GENPACT. Currently, she is working as Vice President of finance. Throughout her career, she followed her passion for being associated with the development sector. She has been part of the Corporate Social Responsibility group (CSR) and volunteers across multiple social causes, primarily education, mentoring projects, feed a million, and various other initiatives.
She is blessed to be part of a family where her daughters’ education, self-confidence, and independence are highly valued. She is passionate about girl education and believes that “education” empowers gender quality and is a crucial factor influencing internal and external social transformation in a developing society. She is recognized as a passionate gender equality advocate, always striving for excellence. Her primary interest is in finding solutions to those issues that affect children, especially girls. She is currently a core team member of Vidya Gyan and is responsible for managing all financial aspects.
Puneet Saxena
Puneet completed his Master’s in Computer Science from Aligarh Muslim University, India. After working for many MNCs in India and the US, he has been living in the greater Minneapolis areas and working with Oracle for the past 13 years. He is passionate about motivational speaking and community service work and helps out different organizations working on social causes. He is also actively involved in empowering young kids with mentoring and doing leadership workshops.
Dhruv Jain
Dhruv hails from New Delhi and holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Maharishi Dayanand University, India. He has been working in IT Consulting in cross-sector domains, primarily in Energy/Utilities, Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sectors. While he has spent a few years in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, he is currently living in the USA since 2009 with his family.
He has watched both his maternal and paternal grandparents and his parents helping the underserved sections of society during his childhood. His father ran a free medical clinic for the underprivileged. Having observed the compassion and virtues, he has imbibed the practice of selfless social work as an integral part of his life. In India, Dhruv has been part of other charitable organizations, which organize charitable clinics and fundraising for the physically or visually challenged and help them be financially independent by giving them basic supplies like bicycles, sewing machines, etc. For Vidya Gyan, Dhruv is actively involved in the planning of Fundraising and Youth Board initiatives.
Amber Gupta
Amber identifies Education as one of the core values that he inherited from his family. He saw his grandfather founding and nurturing a school in his hometown, which progressed from Primary school to intercollege, where he actively participated. He found a natural connection to the Vidya Gyan mission and contributed to several capacities (spanning from thought leadership to grassroots volunteering) since his engagement as Board Member starting in 2017.
Amber earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Information Technology. He worked in major consulting firms and startups before joining Medtronic in Minneapolis, USA. Having seen many cultures and societies through his professional and personal life and connecting to the needs of the underprivileged, he brings his unique perspective to Vidya-Gyan initiatives. He firmly believes that with better child education and hygiene, poverty can be eradicated. He is closely engaged in corporate fund-raising activities through his circle of influence for the Vidya-Gyan cause. Most recently, he was instrumental in pulling together a campaign for COVID-19 relief funds and arranging O2 concentrators to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in India through Vidya-Gyan. He has motivated many to give back to the cause of education, a value that he thinks brought a better quality of life to us.
Welcome to Vidya Gyan!
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