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2013 VPA Convention

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Womens Forum

The Women’s Forum Committee, VPA 2013 - Chicago, is excited to invite all VPA members to attend the convention and to participate in the various events that are being hosted by our committee on Friday July 5th at 2:00 p.m.

I would like to introduce the committee members from our chapters

Midwest – Mrs. Poornima Cholenahalli , Dr. Chitra Gowda , Mrs. Jayashree Kumar, Dr. Thribhuvana Murthy, Mrs. Meena Muni, Mrs. Sucheta Shantamurthy, Mrs. Manjula Gowda.
Tennessee – Dr. Kalpana Chandrashekar.
Texas – Mrs. Roopa Gowda.
Maryland – Mrs. Sudha Prakash.

We have a distinguished guest speaker, Geetha Ravindra, who will address our Forum and shares ideas for how parents and younger generations of Indians can approach the idea of marriage more practically in the 21st century, blending key Indian values with more modern expectations, to have more successful marital relationships.

We have a ‘culinary demo’ hosted by Sunil Kumar. Sunil Kumar hosts a ‘recipe and travel website’, www.OnGoingFeast.com. He also works with ‘Slow Food NYC’ to help educate people and make good, healthy food available to all people. He has developed recipes, tips and helpful methods for the ‘second-generation’ Indians to ease into Indian cooking and will provide a demo.

The above two are some of the activities from our panel. We have various other exciting activities planned that will provide a platform to showcase our legacy.

I request anyone interested in being part of the committee as a member or having an interest to speak or to showcase any activity, to please contact me via phone or e-mail.

Sincerely,

Jayashree Kumar
Women’s Forum Chairperson
Phone: 630-728-8206
E-mail: kumar.jayashree@gmail.com

Speakers & Presenters

Geetha Ravindra is an attorney, mediator and trainer with over 20 years of experience in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. She is currently the Mediator for the International Monetary Fund. Geetha served as Director of the Department of Dispute Resolution Services at the Supreme Court of Virginia from 1996-2007 and managed the Dalkon Shield Arbitration Program at the Private Adjudication Center 1992-1996. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and the College of William and Mary Law School teaching mediation. Geetha is a short term consultant with the World Bank and provides both mediation services and conflict resolution training.

Geetha has mediated family cases for the Richmond City Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court for over fifteen years. She also provides legal advice and guidance to dozens of Indian families dealing with difficult marital issues. Geetha has mediated workplace matters for the Navy, Veterans Administration, Department of Energy, and Virginia Employment Dispute Resolution Agency. Geetha provides communication and conflict resolution training for NASA and several Virginai agencies including the Workers Compensation Comission, Department of Health, Virginia Employment Commission, and the Department of Justice Services. Geetha facilitates management retreats for several organizations such as the Washington D.C. Department of Health.

Geetha is Vice Chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association, Chair of the Joint ADR Committeee (which is a joint committee of the Virginia Bar Association and Virginia State Bar), past President of Virginia Mediation Network, and the past Chair of the Virginia State Bar Attorney Client Fee Dispute Resolution Program. Geetha has several published articles on court-connected dispute resolution. She also conducts training programs and presentations related to alternative dispute resolution around the country and in India.

Geetha Ravindra was born in Mysore, India and moved to the United States in 1970. She is married to Dr. P.V. Ravindra and has two children, Lakshmi 18 and Krishna 15. She is a member of the Board of the Hindu Center of Virginia and teaches a religious studies course to high school students at the Richmond Temple.

Geetha Ravindra will be presenting at the July 2013 VPA Conference. Her new book, Shaadi Remix, will be available for purchase. Shaadi Remix will also be available on Amazon.com.

Sunil Kumar attended a culinary school in 1988 and then spent about one year working at a well known restaurant in Manhattan. In 2006 he got involved with the New York City chapter of the international, non-profit organization Slow Food. The organization's mission is to educate people about, and promote the use of, local/seasonal foods and sustainable agriculture practices (basically, the opposite of "fast food").

In 2008, Sunil became a board member of the New York City chapter, the largest and most active chapter in the US, and their activities have expanded to include working with public schools in low income neighborhoods to ensure that kids have access to (and knowledge of) fresh, healthful foods. His biggest contribution to the chapter has been to work on its technology and communications needs (website/newsletter/social media/etc.), but he has also had opportunities to run cooking classes and other educational events for the chapter.

Sunil has started his own business and he has also started a recipe and travel website, www.OnGoingFeast.com, which is still in the early stages of its development. And he also continues to work with Slow Food NYC to help educate people and make good, healthy food available to all people.