India : Avanti Fellows, a social education nonprofit, welcomed Vandana Goyal to the team as an Executive Trustee. Vandana comes with two decades of leadership experience in enabling children from disadvantaged backgrounds to access high-quality education. Vandana will be responsible for enabling the organization to scale Avanti’s blended learning approach in the field of STEM. Vandana has been inspired by Avanti’s efforts to reimagine secondary education for all kids in India through the use of high-quality technology, content, and pedagogy.
Vandana previously served as a Chief Executive Officer of Akanksha Foundation, a Mumbai-based non-profit organization in the education space. She managed a team of 500 employees and over 500 volunteers that currently runs 21 schools, educating over 9,000 children across Mumbai and Pune. She led Akansha’s growth to become one of the largest networks of public private partnership schools in urban India. Vandana continues to serve on the board of Akanksha Foundation.
Speaking of the development, Akshay Saxena, Co-founder Avanti Fellows said, “We are excited to have Vandana spearhead the scale and depth of impact we would like to achieve in our purpose of bringing equity to education. Her years of expertise working in the education sector will add immense value as Avanti gears up for its next phase of journey.”
Her new role at Avanti will be focused on scaling the high-impact work the organization has begun over the last decade. These include merging technology with traditional education modules, working closely with the government to reshape the secondary education model and most importantly continue to support meritorious and deserving students to crack competitive examinations.
“There is a paucity of high-quality organizations working in the secondary education space in India. Akshay and his team are innovators who have developed blended learning models that have demonstrable impact within government systems. I am energized to join the team to help the organization achieve its ambitious goals for the future.” said, Vanadana Goyal.
Vandana is a graduate from Claremont McKenna College, California, with a degree in Economics. As part of her undergraduate studies, she spent a year at the London School of Economics. She spent four years with Citizen Schools, a Boston-based non-profit organization dedicated to changing the life trajectory of underprivileged urban children, before moving to India and joining Akanksha. In 2012, she was appointed by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader.
