Ravi Ramaswamy
Managing TrusteeRavi Ramaswamy has ten years of work experience in rights based development organizations and since 2011 has been a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, trainer and Trustee at the Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (CCDC). He has conducted workshops for children, youth, women, LGBTQIA+, medical professionals, prison inmates and young farmers. Some of the issues that he has worked with are diversity and privilege, masculinity and violence, social justice, gender and sexuality, mental wellbeing, harassment-free campuses, social inclusion through sustainable development, environment and waste management. A major focus of Ravi’s work has been workshops in Medical Humanities and Mental Health. Using Theatre of the Oppressed to encourage medical faculty and students to reflect on the need for humanizing healthcare is one of CCDC’s pioneering activities. He has co-authored a chapter on the use of Theatre of the Oppressed in Medical Education in the Routledge Handbook of the Medical Humanities, published in September 2019. Ravi has taught courses in “Pedagogy and TO”, “Development Communication” and “Social Psychology” to students of Mount Carmel College, Jyoti Nivas College and Jain University, Bangalore and a Credit Course on Life Skills and Sexuality with Christ University and Enfold. In probably the first initiative of its kind in the country, the Department of Prisons, Government of Karnataka with the NGO Peacemakers, invited Ravi to lead a week long workshop for inmates of Bangalore Central Jail, focusing on their emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Besides facilitating workshops, Ravi has also been offering beginners’ and advanced level trainings in Theatre of the Oppressed, in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. As part of CCDC’s continued learning initiative, Ravi has been mentoring people in furthering their TO practice.
Ravi also conducts Drum jams for children and youth where they make music with everyday objects. Ravi uses the concepts of rhythms and Synchronicity to promote community building, listening and emotional wellbeing.
Ameya Nagarajan
Managing EditorEditor, writer and podcaster, Ameya has worked in communication for over 15 years. Her interests include mental health, language, organisation structure, and cats.
Anirudha Koshy George
Senior Research FellowI started my training as a clinical psychologist with a dream of becoming a psychotherapist. But by the time I had finished my MPhil in clinical psychology from NIMHANS in 2010, my interests had shifted towards neuroscience and neuropsychology. I spent the next ~11 years working as a clinical neuropsychologist in a busy multispecialty hospital.
During the COVID pandemic I came across HNI for the first time. Inspired by experiencing their academic groups I also became a member of Mosaic, the Therapeutic Community and partner community to HNI. Both experiences were revelations in group processes and their potential for therapy. Since then, while I’ve continued my ‘day job’ as a neuropsychologist (although now more in research than practise), I’ve been trying to explore how groups and group therapy work.
Joining the Board of Trustees of HNI was a way that I felt I could support the exceptional team at HNI and try to contribute to their dream of developing group therapy and therapeutic communities in India.
Anupama Sharma
TrusteeAnupama Sharma is an expert in the field of leadership consulting. Her extensive experience is backed by relevant knowledge and academic qualifications. She started her career as an academician and later on moved to corporate world and Consulting. She has a strong understanding of people processes and behaviors and is known for her amicable style of delivery combined with her excellent ability to coach others. She has over 28 years of experience. In the 8 years she has been associated with NGOs in various capacities with the intent of serving the cause.
She has been designing and executing projects on organizational change through leadership development. Some of her key consulting projects was with clients like Nestle, Britannia, Cadbury, Tata Consultancy Services, Oracle, Unilever, Accenture, YUM, Glaxo SmithKline, Max New York life, Schindler, Pepsi, Royal Bank Of Scotland etc.
Anupama has conducted workshops in India, Sri Lanka, Philippines Mauritius and China. She has trained over 4,500 leaders at mid to senior levels. She has been internationally certified in the area of emotional intelligence, MBTI and Kenexa leadership development tools.
Anupama has put in over 500 hours of T-Group participation and facilitation and is a professional member of ISABS.
Anuradha Daswani
TrusteeAnuradha is an engineer turned mental health professional and educator. She is part of the core team at NavGurukul and is experienced in creating and co-creating self-learning and self-governing communities. She dreams of creating learning communities which give maximum agency to learners and focus on physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual development of individuals. She enjoys writing, reading, cooking and dancing in her free time.