Our Team
Our team, consisting of Stanford University alumns, have been living and working with Jagriti Vihara, a well respected NGO in the northern state of Jharkhand, India, over the last decade. Our collective involvement goes back to summer 2000, and through the years we’ve helped build a school lab and a library.
Meet The Team
Amit Garg
Amit worked as a teacher in Jagriti Vihara (the NGO that Hospital for Hope serves) in the summer of his freshman year, in 2000. He has been connected to them since and helped raise funds to build a library and a high school lab, start a course in college to prepare students for volunteer work, and sent 30 peers to India over the course of 4 years. Amit believes in sustainable development and has co-founded a program to teach computer skills to disadvantaged high school students, co-founded a social enterprise to promote literacy, been honored with the James W Lyon Award for his commitment to leadership and service, spoken at 3 TEDxes, and selected as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. Amit did his undergraduate and masters at Stanford focusing on technology and life sciences, and his MBA at Harvard Business School. He has built his career in technology in Silicon Valley — product and analytics at Google, his own startup, and as a venture capitalist, at Norwest Ventures and currently at Samsung’s early-stage fund. Amit was born and raised in Vitória, a city on the southeastern coast of Brazil, and is a die-hard fan of Brazilian soccer.
Andrea Litto
Andrea moved to the Bay Area in 1995 from São Paulo, Brazil to continue her education in the US in the culinary arts and photography. After cooking school she started her own catering business where she built a strong network by hosting events in collaboration with several local investors, high profile companies, and many of Silicon Valley’s prominent entrepreneurs. She became increasingly integrated and known in the startups and innovation community of Silicon Valley. Working along side her equally entrepreneurial husband Wedge Martin she gained first hand experience of the many challenges that startups face.
Having witnessed the evolution of the market up close, and its survival during the 2008 economic crisis, she believes innovation will always save the day. Her goal is for SiliconHouse to be the ‘home away from home’ for select visiting professionals, entrepreneurs and students around the world. She has helped more than 200 startups find their paths to success through her network and introductions to key players in the industry.
Arthi Chakravarthy
Arthi is currently General Counsel at Lightning eMotors, a public company which designs and manufactures zero-emission electric medium and heavy-duty vehicles. Previously, she was Deputy General Counsel at Micron, a Fortune 100 company supporting global sales and product legal matters for a $30bi manufacturing business. Before that, she was Vice President, Commercial Legal Affairs at TiVo where she oversaw commercial transactions matters for a software and consumer hardware business. She started her career at major law firms including Morrison & Foerster and Jones Day. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology, and her Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School.
Arthi is a member of Hospital for Hope, and has participated in various community service activities for over 10 years. She, along with classmates at Stanford University, pioneered the first student-led service-learning course at Stanford University, and helped organize service-learning programs in India for students at Stanford University.
Neil Kothari
Neil has served as a community worker with various non profits focused on alleviating urban poverty while an undergraduate and afterwards. While in college, he was a teacher with SUPPORT in Mumbai, working with homeless children. He also worked in Ahmedabad with SAATH which provides education, services and infrastructure for slum dwellers. Neil did his undergraduate in Computer Science from Stanford, was a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs and BlackRock and is currently pursuing an MBA at the Wharton School.
Ro-el Cordero
Ro-el worked as a volunteer teacher at Jagriti Vihara in 2004, during the summer after his sophomore year at Stanford. Back at Stanford, he remained involved as a leader in Project Dosti, serving as its president and helping send additional student volunteers to various sites in India. Since graduating from the Stanford Symbolic Systems Program, Ro-el has led product teams at a number of early stage startups, launching web and mobile products for both enterprise and consumer users, and has been an active member of the Latino startup and Stanford alumni entrepreneur communities. Having watched and supported Hospital for Hope develop through its early years, Ro-el is excited to take on an active role in the team to help continue growing Hospital for Hope’s reach and impact.
Emeritus
Melanie Kannokada
At Stanford, she studied Mechanical Engineering while taking part in a number of social entrepreneurship initiatives. She volunteered at Jagriti Vihara the summer after her freshman year and is thrilled to continue work for the NGO through Hospital for Hope. During her time at Stanford she served as the Student Body President her final year, was selected as a Mayfield Fellow, and received the Book Award for her service and contribution to the University. After graduation, she worked as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company before leaving to pursue her passion in the arts and has since been active as an actress, dancer, and writer, for both screen and stage.
Vidya Chander
Vidya volunteered at Jagriti Vihara the summer after her junior year at Stanford. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in Electrical Engineering and from MIT with a degree in Operations and Supply Chain Management, she has both worked in technology at Cisco, HP and Google and on social projects, with focuses on sustainability and conservation. In 2014, Vidya organized, choreographed, and performed in a classical dance program to raise funds for conservation organizations in South Asia. She is very excited to continue working for the area around Jagriti Vihara.