Dr. Sumathi Mukkamala

Site Director, CORD orphanage, Chinmaya Vijaya

Dr. Mukkamala began her medical studies in India, finished her pediatric residency at Hurley Hospital in the USA, and then worked at Hurley for 20 years. She has been in the US since 1970. In 2006, she fulfilled her childhood dream of opening Chinmaya Vijaya, an orphanage for girls. It began in a small building with three girls taken in by her and her husband, Dr. Appa Rao Mukkamala, and has grown into a successful, well-operated facility for young girls since 2007.

Priya Arunachalam

Site Director, CORD Thiruvallur

After her Master’s in Computer Science in the US, Priya worked with JP Morgan & Chase, a multi-national bank, for five years. She and her husband left their job in the USA to study Vedanta in Mumbai for two years. After her orientation and training at CORD Training Center Sidhbari in 2014, she joined the CORD site at Thamaraipakkam (since 2023 known as CORD Thruvallur) in 2014 and became its site director in 2016.

Swami Kevalananda

Site Director, CORD Lathikatta

Inspired by the vision and work of Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Kevlananda is an Acharya in the Chinmaya Mission and works presently as Secretary of the Chinmaya Seva Trust in Rourkela, Odisha. He is involved in educational, tribal, and social development work besides being the site director of the CORD site in Lathikatta since its inception in 2005.

Alok Ranjan Padhi

Site Director, CORD Deuladiha

Alok’s journey in CORD has been interesting. He joined the Chinmaya Samaj Sevak Course in December 2009. On July 1, 2010, he joined the CORD site at Deuladiha as a Community Development Worker (Senior). In 2012, he was promoted to Community Development Officer. In 2019 he became the Deputy Director and in April 2023 Alok became the site Director for CORD Deuladhia.

Dr. Meera Krishna

Site Director, CORD Siruvani

Dr. Meera Krishna, an obstetrician, and gynecologist, is a long-term Chinmaya Mission member and devotee. She joined CORD as Coordinator in CORD Siruvani in October 2006, since its inception, after her orientation and training at CORD Training Centre Sidhbari. Since 2016, Dr. Meera has been working as the Site Director of CORD Siruvani to implement CORD’s comprehensive integrated rural development program. Her husband, Dr. Krishna Venkateswara, joins her on holidays too, voluntarily, to serve the underprivileged rural masses in preventive, promotional, and curative healthcare services. Her work through CORD in the area of women’s empowerment has been recognized locally as well as by the Women Commission in New Delhi.

Pawan Kumar Mukhija

Chairperson, CORD Board and Trustee

He joined CORD in 2018 and working as Office Manager in CORD’s office in Delhi. His responsibilities are to assist Ms. Suruchi Thapa in CORD’s Accounting & Financial Management of all CORD Branches and consolidation of all records and timely reporting to CORD Management Trustees and statutory Auditors. He assists CORD’s Management in investments and fund management.

Seema Thakur

Senior Community Development Leader

Smt. Seema Devi has been associated with CORD since 1993. She is a pioneer in training bankers, women, and SHG leaders in the area of microcredit and economic empowerment. Being a strong and empowered rural woman herself, she has enabled thousands of rural women to empower themselves in the area of their socio-economic development. Seema has trained women in SHG concepts in different districts of Himachal Pradesh, especially tribal areas. She remained a big part of livelihood promotion in rural areas for needy and marginalized people. She is currently also working as a resource team member with the national team for CORD sites in Tamil Nadu.

Veena Devi

Senior Community Development Leader

Veena Devi joined CORD as a team at 18 years old in 1989. He first works as a dynamic young lady in CORD’s adolescent girls’ program. Later she joined the nodal program of CORD in organizing women’s groups called Mahila Mandals. She has been a dynamic leader of a team of grass-root women workers of CORD. Veena is very competent in building leaders of the Mahila Mandals. She has been a front-line team member in nurturing the Self-help Group within the Mahila Mandal since 1994. She has been a trainer for the institutional building of Mahila Mandals and Self-Help Groups not only for CORD but for other stakeholders.

Sanjeev Kumar Gupta

Senior Community Development Leader

Since 2004, Sanjeev has worked in CORD’s Community Based Inclusion and Development program as a field facilitator for the inclusion and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. He has now grown up as a strong team leader in this program of CORD and helps in the promotion of the abilities of children with disabilities, leading him to enable many young disabled people to participate nationally and internationally in Special Olympics and sports activities.

Rupa Makecha

Chairperson, CORD Board and Trustee

Rupa Makecha started her volunteer work with CORD Training Centre’s Balvihar program in 2009. She has been now voluntarily leading CORD’s Community Based Livelihood program in the non-farm and service sector since 2018.

Arvind Kumar

Community Development Trainer

Arvind started his career with CORD in 2002. Arvind joined CORD’s Participatory Natural Resource Management program in 2004 and worked until 2009 with CORD under its agriculture and allied sector program. He left his job for Junior Basic Teacher Training and again joined CORD in 2013 in its agriculture and allied sector program with a special emphasis on natural farming. Since then, Arvind has been working in CORD’s Community-Based Livelihood: Farm and Related Sector Program nationally. He is also striving hard to build Mahila Mandals, SHGs, and a Farmer Producer Company. Besides this, he is working on spring-shed management in mountain areas. He is the main resource team member with the National Director office to operationalize, support and monitor CORD sites in Odisha.

Onkar Singh

Community Development Trainer

Onkar started his association with CORD as its youth club secretary in the local village. He was inspired to join CORD in 2004. He has worked earlier in CORD’s youth program as a facilitator and leader. Currently, he is leading CORD Training Centre Sidhbari’s Mahila Mandal and Self Help Group Program nationally. He is also striving hard to build community institutions for farmers through a Farmer Producer Company with the use of farm technology, marketing of produce, etc. He was the chairman of the block-level farmer committee in Kangra block. He is a main resource team member with the National Director’s office to operationalize, support and monitor CORD sites in Tamil Nadu.

Vinod Pathania

Community Development Trainer

Vinod is a postgraduate in rural development. He has been working since 2000 with Dr. Metre in the area of socio-economic empowerment of rural women through CORD’s women’s groups (Mahila Mandals) and Self-help Groups for microcredit. He has been a key player for CORD, which has been a NABARD resource center on financial literacy and SHGs for four states in northern India since 1999. Since then, he has been instrumental in leading Mahila Mandals and SHG programs including sharing and training for over 50,000 bankers, government officials, NGOs, CORD sites, and related stakeholders nationally.

Balbir Singh Guleria

Community Development Trainer

Balbir has worked with a team community of frontline team members and professionals. Since 2000 he has been working in CORD’s community-based inclusion and rehabilitation program for persons with disabilities. For the past decade, he is leading this program nationally. He is a postgraduate in commerce, and psychology, a qualified Special Educator (Hearing Impairment), and trained in speech therapy under the late Shri (Dr.) J.C. Nigam (audiologist and speech therapist, AIIMS New Delhi). Balbir is highly inspired by the community’s inclusion of rural people with disabilities in all spheres of their lives. Balbir is striving hard to scale CORD’s grassroots activities in disability inclusion and development at the field level and center-based services. Moreover, he works with other organizations nationally for inclusion and advocacy for persons with disabilities.

Sunil Kumar Mishra

Community Development Trainer (Senior)

Post-graduate psychology and sociology and a qualified lawyer, Sunil leads CORD’s program nationally in social justice, gender, legal aid, and Panchayat Raj Institution. Moreover, he is in charge of satellite sites of CORD Training Centre Sidhbari in district Chamba Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, and Punjab as his specific responsibilities, besides his integral role in Panchayati Raj, Social Justice, and the Adolescent Girls Group. Sunil is a member of committees of the government and banks as CORD’s representative. He has been working since 2007.

Suruchi Thapa

In charge of Accounts and Administration

Working since 1986 with Dr. Metre Suruchi a key responsible person for accounting and administration management with the team in the CORD Training Centre, Sidhbari. She monitors accounts with her team at the national office and is currently managing CORD office work in Delhi too, besides regularly visiting CORD sites in Odisha and Tamilnadu with the resource team.

Narender Paul

Chief Operating Officer, CORD

Narender is a young and determined man living and serving rural India through CORD’s vision of comprehensive community-based and driven programs since 2002. He joined CORD as an occupational therapist but has acquired various post-graduate degrees in rural development, management, research, training, and development to meet the multi-disciplinary approach of CORD. Narender has worked tirelessly with Dr. Metre to scale and replicate CORD’s vision nationally and internationally. He has initiated and endorsed many innovative ideas and models for CORD’s growth. Inspired by Gurudev, he has completed the basic, advanced Vedant, Bhagavad Gita, and Upnishad online courses from Chinmaya International Foundation. Inspired by his learning other team members at CORD Training Centre Sidhbari to study and delve into Vedant.

Swami Prakarshananda

Trustee

Swami Prakarshananda joined CORD as a trustee in February 2018. He is an alumnus of Sandeepandy Sadhanalaya, Powai, Mumbai. With a Master’s in Veterinary Science, he previously worked for seven years as an assistant professor at the Bombay Veterinary College. Presently, since 2016, he is in the Delhi Chinmaya Mission after an illustrious record of service to the Chinmaya Mission, earlier in Goa from 2004 to 2016. Swami Prakarshananda conducts regular Vedanta classes and discourses for devotees and on specific relevant topics in jails, hospitals, schools, and corporate offices. He is a dynamic spiritual guide with command over Hindi, English, Marathi, and Sanskrit.

Dharamvir Malhotra

Trustee

Dharamvir Malhotra worked in his family business in 1961 Kuwait, retired from active participation at the age of 75, and is now acting only as an advisor. He is an active member of the Chinmaya family in Kuwait, Kolwan, and Gurgaon. He joined CORD as a trustee in 2017. Besides this, he is actively engaged in charitable organizations in Delhi to help underprivileged children with education and sports.

Purnima Daulet Singh

Trustee

Purnima Daulat Singh received her Master’s in English Literature from Bombay University in 1984. After that, she taught at “Happy Home School for the Blind” for five years, then at the American School in Bombay for five years, and then at a government school in Delhi for five years. Purnima Daulet Singh has been a trustee of CORD since 2008 and has been instrumental in raising resources for CORD’s work nationally.

Appa Rao Mukkamala

Trustee

Dr. Mukkamala earned an MD (Radiology) at the age of 22 from Guntur Medical College, Andhra Pradesh. He immigrated to the United States in 1970 and completed his radiology residency in Flint, Michigan, in 1975. He served as the Chairman of Radiology from 1975 to 1989 at the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where he continues the practice of radiology. He is also the chairman of the radiology residency program and has trained numerous radiologists. He is the president of Chinmaya Mission West and director of CORD USA. He and his wife, Dr. Sumathi Mukkamala, are founders of CORD’s Chinmaya Vijaya, an orphanage for girls. Dr. Appa Rao is among the 32 NRI doctors from the USA who established the NRI Academy of Medical Sciences at Chinakakani near Vijayawada. He is also a managing director of Chinmaya Viswavidyapeeth.

Dr. Kshama Metre

National Director of CORD and Trustee

Dr. Kshama Metre, MD (Pediatrics), from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, has been the trustee and National Director of CORD since its inception in 2003. Dr. Metre joined the earlier predecessor of CORD, inspired by Swami Chinmayananda, in 1985 in Sidhbari. Over almost four decades, she has pioneered and led CORD’s comprehensive need-based rural development program. Dr. Metre is an eminent member of various committees and institutions working in the development sector. Dr. Metre is fondly called “Dr. Didi” by the many people associated with CORD.

Navin Bahl

Treasurer, CORD Board and Trustee

Navin Bahl worked for two years post-qualification with reputed firms of chartered accountants in Europe. He worked for six years as a finance manager for large industrial companies in India. Mr. Bahl commenced his practice as a Chartered Accountant (CA) in 1974 and was a Senior Partner of the firm for 25 years. He set up a company for the manufacture and export of soft home furnishings to large stores all around the world. The company also has two retail outlets in New Delhi. Currently, Mr. Bahl is a member of the Managing Committee of the Blind Relief Association, New Delhi; President of the Association of Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, and a Trustee of Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India.

Sunil Sachdeva

Secretary, CORD Board and Trustee

Sunil Sachdeva worked for over 30 years in the advertising industry. He was a co-founder of Capital Advertising, which became a part of the Publicis Group, one of the global leaders in the communication business. Sunil is passionately driven by the power of communication to impact human lives. Sunil is the founder and director of Social Capital, a communications consultancy focused on working with companies on their transformative CSR programs.

Swami Swaroopananda

Chairperson, CORD Board and Trustee

Swami Swaroopananda is the current Global Head of Chinmaya Mission and the current Chairman of CORD since 2017, after Swami Tejomayananda, who was the Founder Chairman of CORD. Swami Swaroopananda was earlier the Regional Head of Chinmaya Mission in the UK, Australia, and the Far East and the Director of Chinmaya International Residential School in Coimbatore. In his early twenties, inspired by Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, he became a monk and left his successful business career in Hong Kong.

58-year-old Umamaheshwari Kulandaivel started as a conventional farmer 25 years ago. All these years, she found that the profits were very low and the soil fertility and productivity were coming down.
She joined the Thennamanallur Vennila MM in 2008 and is now the treasurer. She is also an active member of the Women Farmers Group facilitated by CORD, a member of the Farmer’s Club and a shareholder in the Siruvani Farmer Producer Company. She attends all meetings and uses the knowledge she acquires as much as possible. She is very participatory, shares her opinions, and clears her doubts promptly.
During the meetings facilitated by CORD, she met several successful organic farmers and decided to go the organic way. She has shifted to organic farming for the past three years and found that she is getting a better price for her vegetables and also spending less on her inputs. She sells her vegetables door-to-door using her bicycle. She raises around 200 hens and has a cow and two calves, one of which is an indigenous breed. She makes and uses Panchagavya, Dashaparni, Jeevamrutam, and other biopesticides like ginger garlic tobacco solution.

50-year-old Vasanthamani, who has studied up to the 7th standard, has been a farmer for as long as she can remember. Since she joined CORD’s MM, she has been very participatory and enthusiastic in all the activities. She is the treasurer of Velmurugam MM. She has 3 acres of rain-fed land, which has a borewell. Since 2009, she has been trying to get an electrical supply for this piece of land; her attempts were not successful. In June 2017, she attended a capacity-building meeting facilitated by CORD. The resource person, Mr. Pradeep Kumar, a senior official in the Consumer Forum, guided the farmers on how to approach the problem. She and others managed to get the electricity connection under the Tatkal scheme by paying Rs. 3 lakh. She is very happy that she is not totally dependent on the rain now. She has a hen and a cow, and she uses pheromone traps and other inputs. She supplements her income by making paper covers, which she sells to nearby shops.

Raghunathan of Nelvoy Panchayat suffers from severe muscular dystrophy and extremely constrained movement of the limbs. His elder sister Kaveri also suffered the same and could not move her limbs. Restrained in their house, they became completely dependent on their mother and elder brother for their basic needs.CORD Thamaraipakkam started the community-based inclusion and rehabilitation (CBIR) program in Nelvoy in 2011. When Sri Silambarasan (CORD staff) first visited Raghunatan’s house, he was shocked to see the two siblings living in such poor and neglected health conditions. There was not even a toilet in the house. At first, Raghunatan’s brother, Raja did not like Silambarasan visiting their house and looked at him as an intruder, as he felt that the condition of his siblings could never be improved by anyone anymore. But after some counseling, Silambarasan gained entry into their house and was welcomed into their family. He enabled the siblings to get disability ID cards and a monthly pension of Rs. 1000 each. This little money helped ease the burden on Raja’s shoulders to run the family and take care of their unending medical needs. Gradually, CORD enabled Raghunatan and his sister to get a scooter and a wheelchair to improve their mobility within and outside the house. But they are too crippled to use these themselves. So CORD facilitated a CBR VVRP to visit the house at least twice a month to walk them out of the house in a wheelchair. Further, CORD facilitated a physiotherapist’s visit once a month to teach them simple breathing exercises and mild movements