Our Team – Enabling Inclusion

Centre of Excellence Team Members

Program Governance and Management

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S. Ramakrishnan, Director and Chairman

Mr.Ramakrishnan, is the President and Founder of Amar Seva Sangam and is the honorary head of our Centre of Excellence for Development and Rehabilitation for Children with Disabilities. S. Ramakrishnan, while in his 4th year engineering, injured his spine while attending the last round of Naval officers’ selection test and became a quadriplegic. He established ASSA in 1981, the year for the Disabled and named it after his Doctor and mentor Air Marshal Dr. Amarjit Singh Chahal of Defence hospital. He was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree award in 2020 for his tireless efforts advocating for people with disabilities.

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S. Sankara Raman, Principle Project Head

S. Sankara Raman, a Chartered Accountant and a wheel chair user, affected by muscular dystrophy joined Amar Seva Sangam as the Honorary Secretary in 1992. He helped build a Valley for the Differently Abled in a 30 acre land at Ayikudy, Tamil Nadu as a Rehabilitation and Development Centre and developed models for self-help initiatives by integrating individuals with disabilities within society for improved living conditions, benefitting over 100,000 people with disabilities. He is the visionary behind Amar Seva Sangam’s globally recognized Enabling Inclusion program which provides access to early intervention and child rehab services to children through the use of the award winning Enabling Inclusion app and leads out Centre of Excellence. Mr.Sankara Raman is an Ashok fellow and graduate of Harvard University SNMI (Strategic Nonprofit Management India).

Dinesh Krishna, Director of Strategy / Project Director

Dinesh Krishna, MD is a Lecturer and Chair of the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation – India at the University of Toronto and a physician at the North York General Hospital’s Emergency Department and Assessment & Wellness Centre with a clinical focus on emergency medicine and rehabilitation medicine and an educator and researcher with numerous publications. Dr.Krishna is the Director of Strategy at Amar Seva Sangam’s Centre of Excellence, and helped conceptualize the Enabling Inclusion program which provides access to early intervention services for children with disabilities using a technology leveraged solution, called the Enabling Inclusion app. Dr.Krishna is the winner of the prestigious MIT Solver Award, the Canada-India Healthcare Innovator Award and the Anna Jarvis Award for Teaching Excellence.

S. Ramakrishnan

Director and Chairman

S. Ramakrishnan

Mr.Ramakrishnan, is the President and Founder of Amar Seva Sangam and is the honorary head of our Centre of Excellence for Development and Rehabilitation for Children with Disabilities. S. Ramakrishnan, while in his 4th year engineering, injured his spine while attending the last round of Naval officers’ selection test and became a quadriplegic. He established ASSA in 1981, the year for the Disabled and named it after his Doctor and mentor Air Marshal Dr. Amarjit Singh Chahal of Defence hospital. He was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree award in 2020 for his tireless efforts advocating for people with disabilities.

S. Sankara Raman

Principle Project Head

S. Sankara Raman

S. Sankara Raman, a Chartered Accountant and a wheel chair user, affected by muscular dystrophy joined Amar Seva Sangam as the Honorary Secretary in 1992. He helped build a Valley for the Differently Abled in a 30 acre land at Ayikudy, Tamil Nadu as a Rehabilitation and Development Centre and developed models for self-help initiatives by integrating individuals with disabilities within society for improved living conditions, benefitting over 100,000 people with disabilities. He is the visionary behind Amar Seva Sangam’s globally recognized Enabling Inclusion program which provides access to early intervention and child rehab services to children through the use of the award winning Enabling Inclusion app and leads out Centre of Excellence. Mr.Sankara Raman is an Ashok fellow and graduate of Harvard University SNMI (Strategic Nonprofit Management India).

Dinesh Krishna

Director of Strategy / Project Director

Dinesh Krishna

Dinesh Krishna, MD is a Lecturer and Chair of the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation - India at the University of Toronto and a physician at the North York General Hospital’s Emergency Department and Assessment & Wellness Centre with a clinical focus on emergency medicine and rehabilitation medicine and an educator and researcher with numerous publications. Dr.Krishna is the Director of Strategy at Amar Seva Sangam’s Centre of Excellence, and helped conceptualize the Enabling Inclusion program which provides access to early intervention services for children with disabilities using a technology leveraged solution, called the Enabling Inclusion app. Dr.Krishna is the winner of the prestigious MIT Solver Award, the Canada-India Healthcare Innovator Award and the Anna Jarvis Award for Teaching Excellence.

Rajeshwaran, Chief Operations and Financial Officer

Rajeswaran Senthilnathan, CA, when he was 17 years old, he met an accident and got sustained cervical spinal cord injury. He remained bedridden for 6 years, and then joined Amar Seva Sangam’s spinal cord rehab unit at the age of 23, in 2009,. He remained after his rehab and studied financial management and accounting and became a certified accountant. Most patients in the spinal cord unit stay back only for 6–12 months, but Rajeswaran wanted to give back to the institution that helped him so much. He started working in the accounting department of ASSA and moved his way up. He is now the chief financial and operations officer of our Centre for Excellence.

Sulo Krishnamurthy, Director Assistive Technology

Sulo Krishnamurthy, Director -Assistive Technology in Amar Seva Sangam and the founder president of Handi-Care Intl. Canada. A graduate with Masters in Chemistry and Microbiology, Sulo worked in pharmaceutical research for 19 years in Canada (1972- 1991). Her family background and her upbringing by her parents, especially her father, shaped her vision and mission in life. She resigned from her job in 1991 and started Handi-Care Intl. (HCI) and got it registered as a charitable organization in Canada in 1992.

HCI is a major stakeholder in ASSA’s projects and contributed close to 6 million dollars towards their various projects, focusing on Early Intervention, Special education, and Vocational training. Sulo spends 2 to 3 months at ASSA every year to oversee the projects funded by HCI.

Rajeshwaran

Chief Operations and Financial

Officer

S. Rajeshwaran

Rajeshwaran Senthilnathan, CA, when he was 17 years old, he met an accident and got sustained cervical spinal cord injury. He remained bedridden for 6 years, and then joined Amar Seva Sangam's spinal cord rehab unit at the age of 23, in 2009,. He remained after his rehab and studied financial management and accounting and became a certified accountant. Most patients in the spinal cord unit stay back only for 6–12 months, but Rajeshwaran wanted to give back to the institution that helped him so much. He started working in the accounting department of ASSA and moved his way up. He is now the chief financial and operations officer of our Centre for Excellence.

Sulo Krishnamurthy

Director of Assistive Technology

Implementation

Sulo Krishnamurthy

Research

Marie Brien, Associate Director of Research and Capacity Development

Marie Brien PT, MSc is a clinical pediatric physiotherapist and researcher from Ottawa (Canada) with 40 years experience working with children and youth with developmental disabilities and their families and has expertise in cerebral palsy and collaborative research in motor outcomes. She held a joint appointment with the University of Ottawa, Physiotherapy Program (1991-2014) and has collaborated on many multi-center studies led by the renowned CanChild Center for Childhood Disability Research (McMaster University) since the 1990s, presented at numerous conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. She has been instrumental in the development of the Enabling Inclusion® model and rehab content in the EI app. She leads the research and global capacity building efforts of our Centre of Excellence in child rehabilitation.

Franzina Coutinhi, Director of Research

Franzina Coutinho, PhD is a pediatric occupational therapist and clinician researcher based in Mumbai, India. She is is an Affiliate member at McGill University, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Director of Inspirium Holistic Care and researchers and clinician at P.D. Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, India. Her research over the past decade focuses on technology and its impact on therapeutic interventions and identifying ways in which technology can best be used to improve intervention provision, especially in the pediatric population. She leads the research efforts of our Centre of Excellence in child rehabilitation.

Ramasubramanian Research Site Coordinator

Ramasubramanian is a neuro physiotherapist and Head of Rehabilitation Services at Amar Seva Sangam. He oversees and manage the work of the entire rehabilitation professional team for both institution based rehabilitation (IBR) and village based rehabilitation. He also coordinates the clinical placement experience of physiotherapy and occupational therapy students from 11 different Canadian and USA Universities at ASSA and coordinates Canadian, USA and Australian University faculty and rehabilitation professionals (OT, PTs) visits and volunteer and researcher projects at Amar Seva Sangam. He is also the site lead to coordinate research projects in Amar Seva’s Enabling Inclusion programs.

Marie Brien

Associate Director of Research and

Capacity Development

Marie Brien

Marie Brien PT, MSc is a clinical pediatric physiotherapist and researcher from Ottawa (Canada) with 40 years experience working with children and youth with developmental disabilities and their families and has expertise in cerebral palsy and collaborative research in motor outcomes. She held a joint appointment with the University of Ottawa, Physiotherapy Program (1991-2014) and has collaborated on many multi-center studies led by the renowned CanChild Center for Childhood Disability Research (McMaster University) since the 1990s, presented at numerous conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. She has been instrumental in the development of the Enabling Inclusion® model and rehab content in the EI app. She leads the research and global capacity building efforts of our Centre of Excellence in child rehabilitation.

Franzina Coutinho

Director of Research

Franzina Coutinho

Franzina Coutinho, PhD is a pediatric occupational therapist and clinician researcher based in Mumbai, India. She is is an Affiliate member at McGill University, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Director of Inspirium Holistic Care and researchers and clinician at P.D. Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, India. Her research over the past decade focuses on technology and its impact on therapeutic interventions and identifying ways in which technology can best be used to improve intervention provision, especially in the pediatric population. She leads the research efforts of our Centre of Excellence in child rehabilitation.

Ramasubramanian

Research Site Coordinator

Ramasubramanian

Capacity Building and Innovation

Navamani, Head - Rehabilitation & Innovative

Navamani Venkatachalapathy, MSc PT is a pediatric physiotherapist who has over 15 years of experience in promoting mobility and function in children with disabilities. She has working as a pediatric physiotherapist in community based rehabilitation programs in India and Mongolia. She is currently the Director of Rehab and Innovation at our Centre of Excellence, where she leads implementation of innovative programs, organizes capacity building and training workshops to rehab service providers and parents of children with disabilities across numerous states in India and globally.

Navamani

Head – Implementation, Innovation

and Capacity Building

V. Navamani

Maheshwaran

Training and Assistive Technology

Anub

Training and Research

Technology

Paramakalyani Rajeshwaran, Tech Associate Head

Paramakalyani Rajeshwaran MCA is the chief technology officer of our Centre of Excellence and is the technical lead who developed our Enabling Inclusion app. She is the brains behind the application. She leads the technology and help desk support team and coordinates all app developments, upgrades and updates, working with our third party development team. She is the lead trainer for organizations using the EI app and customizes the app to suit each organizations needs. She is also instrumental in guiding the implementation and research teams through management and information systems and monitoring and evaluation systems she has put in place.

Paramakalyani Rajeshwaran

Tech Associate Head

Paramakalyani Rajeshwaran

Paramakalyani Rajeshwaran MCA is the chief technology officer of our Centre of Excellence and is the technical lead who developed our Enabling Inclusion app. She is the brains behind the application. She leads the technology and help desk support teams and coordinates all app developments, upgrades and updates, working with our third party development team. She is the lead trainer for organizations using the EI app and customizes the app to suit each organizations needs. She is also instrumental in guiding the implementation and research teams through management and information systems and monitoring and evaluation systems she has put in place.