Aruna Raman

Aruna Raman is a social innovation mentor, coach, educator and community-builder, with more than 18 years of experience in the social enterprise, nonprofit, and corporate sectors. She is currently founding partner and Director of Innovation at ILK Labs.

Until recently, she was India Program Director at Acara, an interdisciplinary impact entrepreneurship program at the University of Minnesota, a role she now plays under the aegis of ILK. In her role, she develops curriculum and co-teaches classes, coaches and mentors students from interdisciplinary and cross-geographical backgrounds, sets up internships and fellowships, facilitates research, and develops Acara's network in India and several other countries, including those in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific. She has also been resident mentor with the IDEX Accelerator, Ashoka Innovators for the Public, The Do School (Germany), and Shetab (Afghanistan), among others.

Aruna is a mental health and wellness champion. She deals with her own struggles related to depression and anxiety through a combination of writing, therapy, laughter, travel, relationships and honest conversations. She hopes to write a mental health-related play someday!

Meenakshi Kushwaha

Meenakshi graduated with an MPH (Environmental and Occupational Health) from University of Washington, Seattle in 2015. She has worked on a range of environmental health issues including lead poisoning, air pollution, and water quality in Malawi, US, Vietnam, and India.

As the Director of Research, Meenakshi strives to position ILK as a platform for cross-cultural collaboration to produce policy-relevant health and environmental data, and engage with multi-disciplinary stakeholders to address global grand challenges.

Along with conducting research with University and non-profit partners, Meenakshi also coordinates ILK's study abroad efforts by way of curriculum development, mentorship, and partnership building. In the past, Meenakshi has co-taught environmental health courses at University of Washington and Azim Premji University. Meenakshi's early career was as a Biomedical Researcher, the learnings of which continue to guide her research work in public health.

Adithi Upadhya

Adithi completed her MSc. in Geoinformatics from Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune in 2018. Her research interests lie in data science, spatial analysis, and remote sensing. She is a certified RStudio tidyverse instructor and has also developed multiple packages in R. Her previous work included web application development using geospatial technology, glacier dynamics with SAR images, and classification using high-resolution images. She has had rich experiences working as a summer research fellow at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and as an intern at WAi Technologies, TATA Power, Pune, and the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa. Her desire to work with environmental issues and primary data has drawn her to ILK. She likes to read, to dance and to make codes and life simpler. Visit her personal website for more information.

Pratyush Agarwal

Pratyush completed his Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Botany. His work interest lies in sustainable development and air quality monitoring and ILK provided a platform to pursue his dream. His expertise lies in measuring major air pollutants and working with various low-cost/affordable air quality monitors. He is a big foodie and likes to watch movies in his leisure time.