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Mrs. Immaculate Mary

Founder, Director

She is a Passionate Educator, Researcher, Curriculum developer, and a Teacher Mentor. She is a trained Child Psychologist and Professional Social Worker, practicing in the field for 25 long years. She comes from a very humble background, and is a first-generation learner. She did her graduation in Psychology in Women’s Christian College, completed her Masters in Social Work at Stella Maris College (Gold medal awardee for academics and appreciated as best outgoing student for fieldwork). She did her second Master’s in Child Psychology from University of Madras. She continued her higher studies in M.Phil. in Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she explored aspects of the intergenerational cycle of Poverty and Social determinants of health. 

Her core strength lies in envisioning and developing programs, new initiatives, projects as per stakeholders needs, bringing value systems in action, being flexible in approach, combining teams’ strength, infusing design thinking for sustainable solutions and innovations to address challenges of people living in poverty. Imma has personally mentored 3000 plus teachers, teacher trainees for their continuous professional development across India. 

She innovates and integrates Creative Movement, Art, Street theater, Playback theater, Storytelling and Puppetry methods in her training to inspire teachers and children to learn joyfully. She has published books and presented many National and International level research papers to disseminate practical experiences of working with all kinds of children, teachers for quality education through experiential learning. She founded i4 Connect Foundation, a not-for-profit initiative in March, 2020 with a vision to transform the lives of the underprivileged.

 She is on her mission to expand the scope of addressing the needs of marginalized communities from childhood to livelihood. Through her i4 Connect foundation, she works continuously to connect people for purposeful collaboration and build collective strength. She collaborates with academic institutions, NGOs, CSOs and CSRs that work for the various development needs of underprivileged communities in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and 21st Century Life Skills Framework. She primarily focuses on improving the quality of life and dignity of living for every individual.

She co-founded Ignis Careers, an educational social enterprise in 2009. Since inception, Ignis Careers has impacted over 3.5 lakh children for improving their English and Life Skills and empowered 30,000 teachers across India.

Susheel

Member trustee & Secretary

He has over 25 years of experience over a wide range of roles in the research, publication and communications sectors. He began his career as an editor for a leading academic publication, editing books on History, Economics and Social Sciences for the college and research level market. He then moved on to corporate communications and PR for a firm involved in multilateral agriculture and nutrition projects with partnerships involving governments, international funding bodies, and universities from across the world. He has a keen interest in developing a strong educational base for the benefit of children from poor and underprivileged communities.

Nuzhath M Syed

Joint Secretary

He is an educationist,bio-technologist theatre artist, film maker – writer and humanitarian.He has always been fascinated about the art in science and the science in art. He has worked with communities in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. Syed is also a project consultant who worked with TN Government on Policy and Education Governance in. He is keen in researching and finding the unique approaches and developments with children and teachers in regular school system. An aspiring Sufi spiritually observing the beauty of life, love and humanity!

Sonia Mary Pippin

Member trustee & Treasurer

She has a Post Graduate diploma in Management from the Institute of Public Enterprise with over 5 years of experience as a human resource professional in 8+ years career. She has worked with various industries and domains in both product & service sectors. She has expertise in grievance handling, team building and recruiting. She plays major advisory roles in developing policies and strategies; bridging the communication gaps between employee and employer; analyzing organizational health; and designing long term or short-term solutions where required. She is also responsible for employee training and the up skilling required for organization development.

Madhumitha

Program manager & Teacher mentor

She has completed her postgraduate in MSW Social Work from Stella Maris College, Chennai in 2021. She is also a certified Positive Psychology Coach. She is an educationist and social development specialist. She is an enthusiast in exploring well being and social development using art therapy as a tool.  Madhumitha has mentored children, youth communities and teachers. Madhumitha has mentored interns and volunteers at i4 Connect Foundation, guiding them in creating holistic, joyful learning materials, research on girl child education in India and facilitated classes for English, Life Skills and Leadership development.

Anbu Rajan

Advisor

He is a Post Graduate in Social Work from Madras School of Social Work (1995-1997). He is the 4th visually challenged Professional Social worker trained in MSW in India. He has completed 22 years of service in Social Development Sector. He has worked with several NGOs in different capacities from field level project management to programme manager in INGOs. For over the past 15 years he continues to serve as the Vocational Guidance Officer for differently abled communities. He has been instrumental in ensuring self-reliance for thousands of differently abled people. He is a treasurer with Lion’s Club Chennai and leads new Vision Club as alumni of St. Louise and Little flower school.

Dr.P.Yakaiah

Advisor

He is an Associate Professor in Education, at NSR college of Education, Hyderabad.  He is a Gold Medalist from Kakatiya University and UGC-JRF recipient. He has been teaching for over 25 years. He is very passionate about addressing the educational needs of deprived students and aide in their upliftment. He has a vast experience in training online and offline for the pre-service and in-service teachers. He has researched on children with learning difficulties and special needs. His other academic interest includes Action research, Inclusive education, and ICT in Education. He is a member board of studies in Education (UG) Osmania University. Dr.Yakaiah is also a Life member of Indian Teachers Educators Association.

Ms. Sridevi Prasad

Advisor

She is a trained special educator. She is passionate for the empowerment of children with special needs. She has over 38 years of experience in this field. She is the Co-Founder of Shankar Foundation which works towards educational and life skills developmental needs of special children. She has immersed herself in developing inclusive and integrated curriculum. She has conceived Sannidhi Swanthana as a long term learning and development center to nurture livelihood skills for the special children.

Dr. Bijoya Roy

Advisor

She is a Public health specialist from JNU, New Delhi. Her passion has made her thrive in this field for over 14 years in conducting social research on Gender inequality and ill-health, public- private partnerships in health care issues affecting common people. She has an interdisciplinary background in Food and Nutrition, Social Work and Public Health. Currently she works as Assistant Professor in Center for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi.

Mr.Don Slovin

Advisor

Mr.Don Slovin is an International teacher in music and theater movement. He is the producer,director and creator of Don Slovin’s Jamprov Method. He uses elements of music and movement, creative dramatics . He is trained in Improv, both music and theater. He was in a troubadour troupe of daycare teachers (one of first male daycare teachers in the Northeast U.S.) that also had a TV show “Land of wonder” With Cynthia Olivera.

Don Slovin’s jamprov, “An improv theater show you really get into” is an original concept developed in the 1970s including a one and a half hour workshop followed by performance on the same day. The original “showshop” as it is now called. The aim is that every child will learn how to continue learning how to create, being encouraged and given tools through creative play, learning with fun using simple songs, folk stories, created stories and simple exercises. His methods also aim in understanding the role of the director/producer/creator/ facilitator/ storyboard artist.He has been core part of i4 connect’s Creative learning Hub. He has been innovating many ideas to help children to develop their critical and creative thinking process and English Language skills.