Nidhi Bansal is a Senior Attorney and Partner at the Law Offices of Rakesh Mehrotra. Her practice involves strategic guidance and compliance management for U.S. and multinational corporations with large-scale immigration programs. For more than 15 years, she has been representing a diverse group of clients, including global financial services companies, technology and business consultancies, healthcare companies, manufacturing companies, and corporations of all sizes. She advises them on hiring, transferring, and retaining their foreign national executives, managers, and specialty occupation professionals. Her area of expertise is B-1, F-1, H-1, L-1, TN, family-based applications, etc., and her niche is in handling complex PERM labor certification applications, PERM audits, and I-140s. Due to her extensive immigration experience, Nidhi has been invited to speak on immigration matters to many different audiences, including corporations and human resource teams.

Nidhi has been an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). She is fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi. In addition, she is a member of the American Bar Association and the Punjab and Haryana High court. As an immigrant herself, Nidhi has a unique perspective and understanding of how the U.S. legal immigration system is designed and functions. She realizes that her personal commitment and compassion are very important to best represent her clients.

Shalini Bhatia is a member of the Ashiyanaa Advancement Board since June 2024. She has been actively involved with many non-profit organizations for 15+ years and has served as chair for various committees. Shalini is an electrical engineer and also has an MBA from Georgia State University. Currently, she works for a federal consulting firm that provides IT and program management solutions to various agencies. She lives in Great Falls, Virginia, with her husband and two adult kids.

Sheena Bhasin retired as an eLearning executive leader, managing multiple teams from instructional design & technology staff, faculty, and eLearning vendors. Since then, she has been involved with several non-profit, grassroots organizations in the DMV area. Having extensive experience in the education domain, strategic planning & execution, technology implementation, client engagement, and process improvement, she hopes to bring fresh ideas and viewpoints to the Advancement Board and help with fundraising efforts at Ashiyanaa.

Madhu Bhatia is a board-certified Adult and Adolescent psychiatrist who has 35 plus years of experience working with Adults, Adolescents, and Children, and the common theme for a lot of families has been the level of dysfunction, neglect, and abuse in the homes. Recently, as there has been an increase in the Asian Community in this area, she has seen this problem being extended to the South Asian community and an increase in mental health problems, and am interested in reaching out to them and increasing resources to them to help with early interventions.

Vaishali Deshpande has been working in the field of adult and family literacy for 15+ years. Currently, she is an ESOL Teacher with the English Empowerment Center. Her belief in the power and capability of a literate, empowered woman as the key to solving the ‘big issues’ the world struggles with every day is what has attracted her to get involved with Ashiyanaa.

Deepak Hathiramani is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of SteeleHarbour Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm focused on middle‑market general partner equity, preferred equity, and debt investments. Prior to SteeleHarbour, Mr. Hathiramani was the founder of Vistronix Intelligence and Technology Solutions, a national security solutions provider, until its recent acquisition by Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Federal Holding Company in August 2016. Prior to Vistronix, he worked with high-tech start-ups, including Nx Networks (Netrix Corporation) through its Initial Public Offering and Cinnabar Software until its acquisition by publicly traded KMW Systems.

Mr. Hathiramani received a B.A. (Cum Laude) in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. (Honors) in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Bombay, India.

Mr. Hathiramani serves on the Advisory Board of Blue Delta Capital Partners, Aanika Bioscience, Mike Shane Memorial Fund, and several government contractors. He is a member of George Mason University Foundation’s Board of Trustees, George Mason University President’s Innovation Advisory Council, and George Mason University’s Volgenau College of Engineering and Computing Advisory Board. He also serves on The University of Texas at Austin Department of Computer Science Advisory Council and the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) Senior Advisory Board.

Dr. Shyam Karki has been active in Asian Communities, particularly Nepali Americans, for the last 50 years. He has been the founder of many National and International organizations. He has worked as a Professor in Pharmacy schools and specializes in Geriatrics and Psychiatry. His special interests are Domestic violence and Suicide Prevention. He has been the recipient of many awards and honors for his publications and social activities.

Sanjay Khanna, P.E. is a principal at Tadjer Cohen Edelson Structural Engineers based in Mclean, Virginia. He did his undergraduate studies at IIT Delhi and his post-graduate studies at UT Austin. In his free time, he enjoys Golf and Tennis and resides in McLean, Virginia, with his wife Madhur. He has volunteered his time over the years for several Non-Profits including Ashiyanaa.

Hana Malik is currently working as a Budget Analyst for the Fairfax County Fire Department. She was born and raised in Reading, England, and completed her schooling in London, then moved to the USA 35 years ago. She has volunteered with Humanity First, a non-profit disaster relief organization, for the past 20 years as a volunteer, facilitating raising funds, collecting donations, and community engagement. She has been a passionate advocate for women’s rights, focusing on addressing and combating coercive control to empower women and raise awareness. She has also helped in women’s shelters but also on an individual basis with family and friends who needed help navigating the legal and social systems.

Anu Sahai has been a member of the League of Women Voters since 2016. She is currently the First Vice President of the League of Voters of Virginia and prior to that, was the Co-President of the LWV of Fairfax Area for four years. She is also a member of the International Alliance of Women and a co-founder of the Human Rights – Special Interest Group. She holds a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree in Economics from the University of Delhi and an LL. B (Bachelor of Laws) from the University of Delhi.

Anu is and has always been a fighter for women’s rights. She was a part of the working group that convinced the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to issue a proclamation on the implementation of best practices from the UN resolution of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination of Women). At present the County, along with the University of Virginia, has already completed and published a study on the status of women in Fairfax County and is implementing steps to eliminate the disparities based on gender.

Ashoka Tankala is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience across the full spectrum of finance and operations. His expertise includes business finance, financial planning and budgeting, compliance, domestic and international taxation, treasury, contracts, and legal management.

Ashoka currently offers CFO and COO advisory services to small and medium-sized companies. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President and Head of Finance and Operations at Infinite Computer Solutions Inc. and Zyter Inc. He was with the company since its inception and played a pivotal role in overseeing finance, treasury, human resources, legal, and other critical corporate functions of the group.

Before joining Infinite, Ashoka held various positions in large organizations across India and Indonesia. Early in his career, he also spent over three years practicing law in India.

Ashoka holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, along with a bachelor’s degree in law. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Additionally, he remains a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Adarsh Trehan, after graduating from the University of Michigan with a Master of Public Administration degree, taught political science to first-year college students at Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio (a historical black university), while wearing a sari and with a bindi on her forehead. She worked at The MITRE Corporation, McLean, Virginia, as a member of the technical staff and performed management and program analysis at the Fairfax County government, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Then, she left government service and decided to enjoy volunteering to give back to the community. She volunteered to work with Head Start students at a public school in Falls Church, Virginia, and with Capital Caring (an in-patient hospice facility) in Arlington, Virginia. She later joined the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area (LWVFA) and the American Association of University Women’s McLean Branch.  She has written articles for over 3 years on domestic violence. They have been published in “The Voter,” the LWVFA’s monthly newsletter (published 10 times a year). She is also the LWVFA representative on the Fairfax County Council to End Domestic Violence.