Sunil Jain
founder trustee + chairman
Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Sunil is a practicing Chartered Accountant in Bangalore, specializing in the area of Tax & Corporate Consulting, Audit & Assurance functions for 15 years. For 10 years, he was faculty at Landmark, an international personal and professional growth, training and development company. Creating ASTHA was an outcome of his participation in the Curriculum of Living, that is offered by Landmark.
Sunil is a recipient of the Karmaveer Chakra constituted by the International Confederation of NGOs with the UN that recognizes people who have the courage of conviction to think differently and to act on ideas which make a difference in our world. He was among the first India Inclusion Fellows by the India Inclusion Summit.
He mentors and guides para-athletes and students to excel in their chosen fields.
Priyanka Shylendra
Trustee + Director Operations
Priyanka graduated with a Masters degree in Forensic Science from the UK and worked in forensic labs in UK and India. She was also an Assistant Professor at Jain University, Department of Forensic Science.
In 2011, she took on a project to introduce the option to be identified as an organ donor on drivers’ licenses. She worked with the Government of Karnataka and had this implemented for the first time in India in 2012. Seeing the success of this in Karnataka State, she then worked with the Central Government and this project was made national in April 2018. This project brought her into the social sector and since then, there’s been no looking back. She is part of the Gift Your Organ Foundation that creates awareness about organ donation.
Priyanka believes that differently-abled people have as much a right to lead a fulfilling, comfortable life as anyone else in the community.
She is a recipient of the Karmaveer Chakra instituted by the International Confederation of NGOs with the UN and is also a recipient of the Leadership Award by World Women Leadership Congress for her contribution to the social sector.
Dr. SriPadmini Chennapragada
DIRECTOR, PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
Dr. SriPadmini Chennapragada holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Adapted Physical Education and Master of Science (M.S.) in Adapted Physical Activity from Texas Woman’s University, USA. She began her career as a Physiotherapist (Hyderabad, INDIA). She has created and leads the AdaptedSportsIndia movement in India.
Her work at IWTT is focused on program development to advance the footprint of wheelchair tennis in India. Using a cross-organizational approach, Dr. Chennapragada helps IWTT engage with diverse stakeholders who can increase their engagement with the initiative to create opportunities to develop the sport across the country. Beyond this, her research focus is on studying sport governance, barriers and challenges to create equitable opportunities for Indians with physical disabilities to enjoy access to wheelchair tennis within their own communities.
Nalani Buob
The First Serve Junior's program coach
Nalani Buob, born 2 Feb 2001, was introduced to wheelchair tennis at the age of ten. There has been no looking back since then.
Nalani resides in Switzerland with her Swiss father and Indian mother. Being half-Indian, she shares a special relationship to India.
She has won the Junior Masters Title in 2017 and 2019. Nalani’s goal is to make her Paralympic debut in 2020, in Tokyo.
Nalani‘s mission is to introduce the life-changing magic of sport to kids across India. She experienced first-hand how tennis has shaped her character and helped her become the optimistic and confident person she is today. Nalani wants to empower kids in India to push past their disabilities and to experience the huge physical and social benefits of playing tennis. She has her heart set on achieving this by engaging as one of the coaches for ‘The First Serve’. Nalani has started conducting workshops for kids in different parts of the country.
Somdev Devvarman
Advisor
After retirement from professional tennis in 2016, this University of Virginia alumnus moved back to India and has been committed to growing the sporting culture within every demographic in the country.
By co-founding a nonprofit and two startups that focus on sport development, Somdev already reaches over 100,000 people a year. With his world ranking of 62, he is the highest ranked Indian tennis player in over two decades. Somdev is also a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award, The Padma Shri, an Arjuna Awardee, a multiple gold medalist for the country, a National Observer for the Sports Ministry of India and one of the most successful NCAA tennis players of all time.