Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...

Dr. Vasudha Prakash is a visionary educator, social entrepreneur and professional academician with decades of experience in the education and disability sector. After earning her Doctorate in Special Education in the USA, she excelled as a tenure-track faculty there, In 2001, she returned to India and started an NGO, V-Excel Educational Trust in Chennai, a pioneering initiative to provide life-span all-encompassing services to persons with cognitive and developmental challenges.

Dr. Vasudha is also a practicing professional psychotherapist who devotes a lot of her time to working with parents of children with special needs and people from all walks of life struggling with emotional and psychological problems. Her particular focus has been in helping teenagers and adolescents cope with this tumultuous transition stage of their lives. She is a trained hypnotherapist and a past life regression therapist and uses some of those techniques for her therapeutic work.

She has devoted considerable time in establishing teacher training initiatives and in conducting professional workshops. She is certified as an Independent Corporate Director and will be accepting appointments on corporate boards.

Her recipe for success is relatively simple. She is tenacious and not deterred by the first, second or third barriers. She strongly believes that the lessons learnt from special education has great relevance for, and should be applied to, regular education. And that she has been able to put this belief into practice has been particularly gratifying.

Ajita Panshikar is an Executive Director at V-Excel Educational Trust, an NGO that provides lifespan services to children and young adults with developmental disabilities. She has done Masters in Statistics and is an MBA in Marketing with over 33 years of work experience. She gave up her high profile job in the corporate sector to join V-Excel in 2003 after she met their dedicated team. She has been instrumental in shaping the organization and growth of services like special school, remedial services, counselling, early intervention, and vocational programs. She has also been a catalyst in increasing the sustainability of the NGO.

Ajita is a post-graduate diploma holder in Learning Disabilities from Spastics Society of Karnataka. She has taken courses at International Post Graduate Medical Training (IPMT), and gained significant knowledge in special education and child development. She is an integral part of our training and development resource team, an active body in promoting holistic educational practices.

She strongly believes that every individual has an equal right to be integrated in society, irrespective of their condition such as Autism or any other disability. Ajita's role is that of a facilitator in strengthening the delivery of programs for persons with special needs. She focuses on scaling and replicating quality programs that can cater to numerous special children across the country who have no access to it.

Mrs. Gita Bhalla, Associate Director , has been the principal of Kaleidoscope Learning Center and is a graduate followed by a B.Ed degree in Special Education from Delhi university, along with over 40 years of experience working with a cross-section of children with severe to mild disabilities. She has significant experience in child development and psychology. Her training ground has been Spastic Society of Karnataka where she had an opportunity to work for about twelve years with children having special needs from different socio-economic profiles. Her association with V-Excel Educational Trust is as old as the school itself.

Her philosophy related to practical living needs of a special child and her thoroughness in work has given a quality edge to our school program which is widely acknowledged in Chennai as a pivotal organization in Special Education.Her effervescent personality, commitment, and unique sense of purpose are keys to making our school a superlative platform for learning. Gita is also one of our ace trainers for Resource Development and Training Workshops. She believes in continuing education for self and others. She has completed six years of attending the International Post Graduate Medical Training conducted by the Anthroposophical Medical Society of India and has incorporated the curative education curriculum in her school for the last ten years.

Mrs. Usha Rajagopal is the managing Trustee of ESVI Sarada Foundation a Public Charitable Trust engaged in providing educational and medical relief for the poor and needy in addition to rural development programs.

A Commerce graduate by qualification Mrs. Rajagopal has brought to bear great organising capabilities from her school days. Besides, by virtue of her humane qualities, she has taken active part in helping people around her. Presently she is heading the Vocational Training Unit at the Research and Rehabilitation Centre of V-Excel run in association with ESVI Sarada foundation. She has been a part of this unit in its planning, growth, as well as the programs for the trainees from its inception in 2007.

Mrs. Jayanthi Vishwanath, Regional Director - West, holds a Master of Philosophy and PG degree in Biochemistry. She has worked in both corporate and academic sectors. During her tenure with V-Excel, Chennai, she worked as course co-ordinator for Diploma course in Special Education.

Her forte lies in teaching, planning, public relations and administration. As an answer to the V-Excel Management's vision to develop satellite centers in small towns and cities of India in service of the disability sector, she was instrumental in starting the first satellite center of V-Excel in Nashik, Maharashtra. Periodically, she has been contributing articles for a column called "Exceptional Child" in Nashik Times, a supplementary edition from "The Times of India" group.

The training center in Nashik began its operations on April 2, 2011. Thereafter, a special school was started in June 2013. In June 2016, the Vocational training programme called Youth Empowerment Services (YES) for young people with disabilities was started. Jayanthi was also a catalyst in incepting the V- Excel Satellite Learning Center in Solapur in November 2014.

Lekshmi Ramesh started her career as a teacher, she commenced her journey as a special educator after completed her Intensive Training Programme in Dyslexia by from Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) and from the transactional Analyst, Ms. Sashi Chandran in 1996. She worked with children with special needs for more than 18 years and a qualified facilitator for children with learning disabilities.

She worked in Vivekalaya Matriculation School , Coimbatore as a special educator for 9 years. She then joined Trivandrum International School as the Learning Support Co-ordinator where she set up a resource centre . She also was part of the Resource centre in Muscat during her stay for a year. She worked as the Resource person in Global Public School, Cochin for two years.

It was when she moved to Mumbai, got an opportunity to work with the famous developmental pediatrician Dr. Samir Dalwai and his team of therapists. She was involved in assessments, formulation of therapy plans, meeting parents and also curriculum planning. Her team got the best scientific paper award for the IR paper on the relationship between therapy and performance of children with special needs.

A B. Com graduate with B. Ed , she is currently pursuing MA Psychology.

Her ambition is to bring about positive change in the lives of children with special needs through innovative methods of remediation.

Gayathri is the Center Coordinator for the Youth Empowerment Services unit of V-Excel Educational Trust, an NGO that provides lifespan services to individuals with special needs. She is responsible for designing curricula, devising vocational training programs, admissions, operations, reporting, documentation, parent coordination, employer coordination and writing CSR grants.

Gayathri is a math graduate with diplomas in Software Engineering and Multimedia. She also has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Special Education and Masters Certification in Gestalt Psychology. She has been a French tutor and is passionate about music, dancing, travel and photography.

Sivaprakash Balasubramanian Siva serves as the Senior Manager of Administration and Human Resources at V-Excel Educational Trust, bringing over a decade of dedicated service to the organization’s mission of supporting individuals with special needs.

Based in Chennai, Sivaprakash holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Periyar University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Special Education and Teaching from Annamalai University. His expertise spans team management, operations, HRIS, facilities oversight, and talent acquisition, making him a pivotal force in ensuring smooth organizational functioning.

With a strong foundation in both administrative systems and inclusive education, Sivaprakash plays a key role in aligning V-Excel’s internal processes with its values of empowerment and accessibility.

Aparna Bubna is an accomplished educator whose driving passion is in working with children. She has traveled to various places both in India and overseas and has worked and taught in a variety of schools. Alongside, she volunteered to teach English to underprivileged children and housekeeping staff in these institutions.

She is driven by a deep sense of social commitment and of giving back to the community. This has led her to volunteer her time with various NGOs and to endeavor to do everything that is best for the growth and development of children. She prides herself on being a constant learner.

Outside of social service, her interests include painting, singing, meeting new people and coordinating activities.