Sujata Mehra was born, brought up and educated in Amritsar. A post graduate in English literature, she started her teaching career in a little garage with five students and was swept off her feet by the unconditional love that she received from her students. This was the start of a lifetime of love for teaching!

Starting with Delhi Public School RK Puram and ending with The Shri Ram School, Moulsari, she taught in public schools for three decades. She taught English to middle school and Theory of Knowledge to IB students before taking early retirement to do voluntary work with EWS students at The Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar and Nai Disha. A life-long student she is enjoying sharing her love for the language with many around her!

A communications, campaigns and community strategist with a law degree, the thread in Soumya’s life has been her passion for both self-learning and helping other learn effectively. Most importantly she seeks to enable self-sufficient, empowered individuals who can identify and achieve their purpose in life.

In 2014, a fire was lit when she encountered the principles of learner-centred education while volunteering with the Teach India program and the Feedback Foundation. here, she was able to contextualise her own academic/professional highs and lows and understand the immense positive impact that well designed learning programs, have on individuals and communities.

She honed this passion into practical skills while working on Change.org Foundation’s training & community building program for women campaigners. During the course of the program she learnt how to design and deliver sessions using experiential education principles, mentor individuals, manage communities and contribute to the overall strategy/curriculum.

Soumya believes that authentic learning will only succeed when programs are inclusive and catering to diverse needs and learning styles – simply put, she swears by the mantras of ‘Safe Learning Spaces’ and ‘No Learner Left Behind’.

With friends, Soumya plays strategy board games and when with her partner she enjoys watching movies. When on her own, she devours regency romances, spy fiction and multiple cups of black coffee.

Simi Bhattacharjya is a lawyer by education and a founding member of the Angels Network Initiative, a pioneering platform that mobilized the skills and creativity of women—many of them stay-at-home mothers—to design innovative approaches to giving. She also leads the Vidya Foundation, a trust that supports deserving children pursuing their educational and vocational goals, and has enjoyed reading and editing for several publishing houses.

Simi has a natural ability to connect with children and young adults. She looks forward to the passionate and engaging discussions with the KARM scholars during their book club meetings.