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NCEF Alumni


On this page we honor past volunteers of NCEF

Olivier Kamanda
Former Board Member (2008-2009)


Olivier works as a management analyst for BearingPoint in Washington DC. He has a B.S.E (Operations Research & Financial Engineering) from Princeton University.

Karen Leffingwell
Former Board Member

Karen has been an educator for last fourteen years. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, GA and a B.S. in Elementary Education from Athens State University in Athens, AL. In her professional life she has been a social worker with the Department of Family and Children Services in Atlanta, GA, working in the inner city with families with dependent children as well as the aged and disabled.

Susan Buchman
Former Board Member

Susan is currently a graduate student in statistics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. One of her long-standing interests is working to cultivate girls' interest in math and science through programs such as the MIT KEYS program. She holds a B.S. degree in Math from MIT.

Owen Ozier
Former Board Member (2002-2003)

Owen is currently doing research on health and education programs in rural, western Kenya, in affiliation with Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, and ICS Africa. During his tenure on the NCEF Board, he was a researcher at the Whitehead Institute, as well as a volunteer for Oxfam America and the Cambridge Public Schools. As a board member, he raised over $1000 for NCEF by running the Boston Marathon. Owen has taught classes on international economics and third world development to students around the country.

John Leffingwell
Former Board Member
(2002-2003)

John graduated from MIT in 2001 with a BS in Computer Science. He now resides in Pasadena, California, where he has co-founded a software company.

Anita Shrestha
Former Board Member (2002-2005)

Anita holds a Bachelors degree in social work and is currently pursuing a Masters in sociology. Anita has been involved in social work and projects with women and children for over five years.

Bigyan R. Acharya
Former Board Member (2002-2005)

Bigyan graduated with a Bachelors degree(2003) in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. While in UMASS-Boston, Bigyan served as the student senator for the year 2002/2003.

Christopher F. Blanc
Former Board Member (2007-2008)

Chris currently works for The Boeing Company as a Flight Test Engineer and lives in St. Louis, MO. He received his Bachlor of Science Degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. For nearly three years, he taught physics at St. Xaviers Campus, Maithighar, in Kathmandu, Nepal, as a member of the Jesuit International Volunteers program. During that time, he developed a great affection for the country of Nepal and its people. Although he is not teaching now, he remains interested in the education of disadvantaged children.

Chhitij Bashyal
Former Board/Executive Member (2007-2008)

Chhitij is an undergraduate student at Yale University planning majoring in Neurobiology and Psychology to pursue a career in medicine. He grew up in Nepal and graduated from a high school in the United States. Having seen the conditions of the Nepalese children, who are unable to obtain the opportunities that he had and have, he would like to assist through any means the flourishing of their potential.

Sagar Marahatta
Former Board/Executive Member (2012)

Sagar strongly believes education as just not a means to expand opportunities for better life, but also as a tool for understanding the world better. After visiting a few students and schools and seeing the impact of this organization on the underprivileged kids in Nepal, she agrees that NCEF should expand and spread its work throughout Nepal for the better future of the children and the nation as a whole.

Cecilia Mo
Former Board/Executive Member (2012)

Cecilia Hyunjung Mo is a PhD Candidate in Political Economics at Stanford University. She holds a Master in Public Administration and International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She grew up in Los Angeles and received a BA degree in Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Southern California. Upon graduation, she became a high school mathematics teacher as a 2002 Teach For America Corps Member and became passionate about education policy. Cecilia is dedicated to poverty alleviation work, and continues her work on improving the quality of education in low-income areas.

Uttam Sharma
Student Selection Officer (2008-2009)

Uttam is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and is interested in the Economics of Education. He received a B.A. in Economics from Brandeis University in 2002 and Masters from University of Maryland, College Park. His education up to high school was done in Nepal. He has earlier worked for UNDP Nepal, SAWTEE --a local NGO, and as a consultant to Nepal's parliament's Public Accounts Committee.

Uttam

Hesky Fisher
Former Board/Executive member (2002-2011)

Hesky lives in New York City, where he works for Google as a Software Engineer. In 2002, he received a BS in Computer Science from MIT, which is where he met Om. Together, they created NCEF based on the belief that education is the key to helping people help themselves.

Hesky

Aadit Sitaula
Board Member/Tresurer (2008-2013)

Aadit lives in Boston and works as a Project Manager. Aadit has a BS in Computer Engineering/MIS and a MS in Management from Eastern Nazarene College. He believes education is an essential long-term investment for social and economic development. He is passionate about giving back to the community and helping those who are capable but less fortunate.

Aadit

Aayush Sakya
Board Member (2011-2013)

Aayush lives in the Santa Clara, California and has worked as a User Acquisition and Analytics Manager in Silicon Valley startups. Having gained immensely from educational establishments like Saint Xavier's school and Budhanilkantha school - which were founded to promote education in Nepal - he believes that education can uplift the lives of Nepalese children. Aayush holds a Masters of Arts in Public Policy from Stanford University.

Aayush

Gyami Shrestha
Board Member (2011-2013)

Gyami has been involved in scientific research and science-policy interfaces for the US Global Change Research Program's Carbon Cycle Science Program, the University of California, the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for Advancement of Science, the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development and the Center for Rural Technology-Nepal. Fate and work took her to numerous rural and urban corners of Nepal, US and Europe -- opportunities that have endowed her with balanced insights on human development through education, science and technology in both the developing and developed world.

Gyami

Anil Pachhai
Board Member (2005-2013)

Anil has a Masters in Computer Science from University of Minnesota Twin Cities and MBA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco. Anil has been volunteering NCEF since 2005. He has already served as Selection Committee Chair in NCEF. Currently, Anil resides, in San Francisco bay area and works as a Product Manager at Oracle Corporation.He believes education as a way to empower people and has a keen interest in helping kids get education.

Anil

Inku Subedi
Board Member (2XXX-2015)

Inku is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Brown University and a Lecturer at Emmanuel College in Boston. She was a fellow at The Institute for Women's Policy Research and did her undergraduate studies in Anthropology/Sociology and Psychology at Lafayette College. She is interested in understanding the root causes behind gender and social inequalities in developing countries, and Nepali society in particular. Her academic work examines the gendered processes of marriage, migration, reproductive health among young men and women in Nepal. Her belief that providing education to future generation is the best way to address gender and social inequalities in a society motivates her work with NCEF.

Inku

Abhishek Sharma
Board Member (2013-2015)

Abhishek is pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He has a Masters in Computer Science from USC (2008) and a Bachelors in Mathematics and Computing from IIT, Delhi (2003). Abhishek grew up in India, and believes that education is an important tool for improving the social conditions in developing countries like India and Nepal.

Abhishek

Priyata Thapa
Board Member (2017-2019)

Priyata has a B.A. in Biology and Neuroscience from Wesleyan College, and she recently graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University with an M.A. in Clinical Psychology. She has taught children in various settings, and is particularly passionate about helping disadvantaged children get the opportunity of education. She believes we are surrounded by small opportunities to help everyday, and aspires to make a lasting difference in the lives of children in Nepal through NCEF and other platforms.

Priyata

Atul Pokharel
Board Member (2016-2020)

As a founding member of NCEF, Atul retains a commitment to helping children in Nepal go to school. He believes that education is a basic need that must be met, and that it takes a consistent effort on the part of those who week to help, rather than an one-off efforts. Having grown up in Kathmandu, the situation of NCEF's students is all too familiar for him and he continues to be inspired by the initial spark that led to NCEF: it could have been him who needed assistance going to school. Today, Atul teaches, researches and spends much of his time thinking about cities and regions. He still finds it very rewarding to contribute to a necessary cause. Since helping to start NCEF as an undergrad he has worked at a large multinational donor organization, finished his doctorate and traveled around Nepal in the process. Atul is currently at Brown University's Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs, and holds a PhD from MIT in Urban Studies and Planning, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Princeton University.

Atul



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