A non-profit tax-exempt Florida charity
Seven Initial Directors of the HOPE Foundation
The Ashram has seven initial directors effective January 2005. Subsequently in October 2005 five (5) more directors were added.
Mr. Tarsem Lal Aggarwal is a 66 year old professional engineer licensed and registered in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. His area of practice is mining engineering. Mr. Aggarwal came to USA from Hoshiarpur, Punjab in 1975. Currently he is a Sr. Engineer with MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) U.S. Department of Labor, at Madisonville, Kentucky. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife Pervin. He has a son, Shailendra, practicing rehabilitation medicine in Huntsville, Alabama; and a daughter, Rinkoo practicing Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dr. Gopi Mavankal is a 46 year old, PhD in Chemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a MS in Computer Science. He has worked as a lecturer in Bombay University, a researcher at the University of Kentucky in plant virus research, and later at the University of Texas South-western Medical School on HIV. Since changing careers, he has worked with Accenture, a telecom startup worked with Network Associates, Inc. and is currently with PepsiCo. He lives in Plano, Texas with his wife Jaya who is a software engineer/architect in telecommunications.
Dr. Krishan Nagda is a 36 year old, graduate of University of Alabama at Huntsville in electrical engineering in 1990, and a doctor of medicine from University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky in 1995. Dr. Nagda completed his residency at the University of Cincinnati and University of Kentucky. He has served in varying capacities -from a quality Assurance engineer with General Electric, to a physician with V. A. Hospital. Currently he is a hospital physician at the Winter Park Hospital with a group of 26 other physicians. Krishan came to USA in 1979 from Udaipur, Rajasthan. He lives in Longwood, Florida with his wife Sheetal and a 7 year old daughter Priyanka.
Mr. Yugal Nagda is a 43 year old graduate of electrical engineering from University of Kentucky, in 1985. Mr. Nagda came to USA in 1979 from Udaipur, Rajasthan. Yugal has served in many capacities varying from the customer support engineer in Intergraph Corporation to sales director, Eastern United State, Canada and Europe. Currently he is a CEO of Medhlth Inc. promoting automation of medical practice including scheduling, billing, transcription, record keeping, and recruiting medical staff. Yugal lives in Oviedo, Florida with his wife Shikha and two sons (16 and 13 years) Vishal and Neel. He can be reached at 407-971-1600 or 407-466-6815 (cell) or yugalnagda@yahoo.com
Mr. Ajay S. Patel is a 40 year old graduate of University of Kentucky in computer science in 1989. Mr. Patel came to USA from Bombay, India in April, 1985 to pursue higher education. Ajay has served in many capacities as System Administrator with Lexus-Nexus to Regional Preemptive Support Engineer with Sun Micro System. He is currently serving in Cincinnati, OH. Ajay lives in Centerville, Ohio with his wife Pushpa and two sons Neel (14) and Akash (12).
Mr. Gunvant C. Shah, a professional engineer registered in Kentucky, is Chief Engineer with the Department of Correction, State of Kentucky. His area of practice is civil engineering with interest in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and environmental engineering. Mr. Shah came to USA from Gujarat, India in 1969 for further studies. He is a Master in Civil Engineering from the University of Louisville with licenses in HVAC, Water Plant & Sewage Plant operations. He is president of the BIACS (Bluegrass Indo American Cultural Society), a non-profit organization registered in Kentucky, that carry out educational, civic, social, charitable and cultural activities to improve the quality of life of the entire community. He is actively involved with the construction of a Hindu temple in Lexington, Kentucky. He has initiated a project of collection of used clothes and shipping it to India for free distribution to poor and needy. He lives in Frankfort, Kentucky with his wife Daksha. They have a son, Rajesh, pursuing a career in medicine at the Harvard School of Medicine; and a daughter, Shalini, employed as a Project Manager with Humana Health Care System.
Ms. Dimple Sharma is a 32 year old graduate with a M.S. from University of Kentucky in Psychology in 1998 and a MBA in Strategic Human Resource Management and Marketing from Rutgers University, New Jersey in 2002. Ms. Sharma has served as counselor to underprivileged children at the Methodist home and Mental Health/Mental Retardation Board. Currently she is serving as Sr. Human Resource Assistant in Houston, Texas. Ms. Sharma lives in Houston, Texas with her husband Sumeet, a three year old daughter Asha, and one year old son Rohin.
Ms. Niti Gupta: a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, came to USA from Modinagar, Merut, U.P. India. Ms. Gupta was advisor to foreign students at the University of Kentucky, Office of International Affairs for over 5 years. She arranged many community programs -such as Garba, NavRatri, etc. She was president of Bluegrass Indo American Cultural Society (BIACS) in 2003 and a chairperson in 2004. She provided aid to Tsunami, and Katrina victims. She serves once a month at the Salvation Army. Ms. Gupta lives in Prospect, Kentucky with her husband- Dr. Ramesh Chandra Gupta -a renowned professor of toxicology at the University of Louisville Medical Center. They have two daughters -Nikita and Shilpi. Her email is nitilg@hotmail.com.
Dr. Vinod Malhotra: a 1974 medical graduate of King George Medical College, Lucknow, India. He had his postgraduate training in orthopedic surgery in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, Austria and Switzerland. He is post doctoral fellow in Neurosurgery at New Jersey medical School, Newark, NJ (1991-96) and M. P. A. (2003). He is licensed to practice in health care in many countries and states of the USA. He has published many scientific papers and provided many expert witnesses. He is on the board of directors of the Anthony House since May 2005 helping the homeless, women, children, disabled, and elderly. He lives in Maitalnd, Florida with his wife Karon. He can be reached at vinodkmalhotra@aol.com
Ms. Shalini Shah: a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, a bachelor of health Sciences from the University of Kentucky and M.B.A. from the University of Louisville. She is currently an I. T. project manager with Humana Inc. She had been on the board of directors of the American Cancer Society and co-chair for Making Strikes Against Breast Cancer for Humana, Inc. She is vice president of the board of directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of Kentucky as well as a fundraising committee chair and Epilepsy Walk Chair. She is member of YPAL (2003 -present), Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America (2001-02), Junior League of Louisville and committee chair. She is runner up in 2004 -Regional Award for Business Professional Women's Young Careerist Speech Competition and a recipient of Top 40 under 40 Business Leaders by Business First magazine. She can be reached at sshah@humana.com
Dr. Rajiv Tangri: a resident of Orlando, Florida, got his medical education (M.D.) from New York Medical College, NY and B.S. from the City College of New York, NY. Dr. Tangri is a physician with a group of other 26 physicians in a hospital based practice. He is interested in helping poor and needy people. He has volunteered his service and gave donations to Hindu Temple of Orlando. He can be reached at jeff32757@yahoo.com
Mr. Subhash Mehta: a senior most member of the board of directors of the Ashram, was a resident of Chicago. He was B.A., LL. B., M. P. A., a philanthropist who helped many handicapped people around the globe. He was the cofounder of Health and Happiness Inc. -a tax-exempt charitable organization to serve the poor and needy, with his wife Dr. Madhvi Mehta. He was a board member of GOPIO (Global Organization of People of Indian Origin). He was disable for many years and he promoted the cause for disabled and poor through his foundation. He was a member of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Masonic Lodge of Ajmer, India, and Global Institute, Ajmer, India. Mr. Mehta had a strong will power and he was the mentor of the Ashram during his very brief tenure on the board. Please visit www.healthhappiness.org for detail of his work. Mr. Mehta passed away in June 2006 after a brief illness. The entire Ashram community miss him and would remember his contribution to the humanity.
A non-profit tax-exempt Florida charity
