Rukmani has a deep passion for education equity. She has worked relentlessly for six years in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector developing sustainable and scalable solutions that have an impact at the systemic level. She has a Diploma in Engineering Business Management from University of Warwick in United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Instrumentation from Cummins College of Engineering in Pune, India. In her most recent role as Project Head at Civic Response Team in Aurangabad, she served as the liaison with the local government to create and execute a professional teacher training plan for teachers working in the public schools. She was responsible for building partnerships with government officials and nonprofits, fundraising, and building a strong team. Prior to this, Rukmani worked with a nonprofit and a social enterprise. At the nonprofit, Learning Links Foundation, she managed a STEM training project which was funded by IBM. She traveled across rural India training 2000 teachers, an experience that gave her a deep insight into the gaps of India’s educational curriculum. With the social enterprise, Varthana, she researched the needs of low-income private schools and developed a school transformation program that was linked to monetary benefits for the school. Through these experiences that fuels her passion for education equity, she has developed a strong skill set in project management, implementation, and building partnerships.
Host Organization: Dalai Lama Fellows
Role at Host Organization: Rukmani’s role will include Fellow coordination, curriculum support and marketing and selection support. She will work closely with team to ensure engagement with the Fellows on the online learning platform, provide ideas on how to improve engagement and review. She will also work closely with Director of Programs and Partnerships to prepare collateral and material, to research key areas, coordinate with external faculty, and continuously integrate key insights and expert guidance within the curriculum from the global network and expert faculty.