Leadership
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Dr. Kumar Belani, MD
Chairman - Founding Member
University of Minnesota
Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Leela Rao
Founder/ Global Executive Director
Executive Consultant ~ Lennick Aberman Group
Leela Rao is Founder of the Priyanka Foundation. Since it’s initiation in Oct 2007, the Priyanka foundation a global organization, has worked with thousands of terminally and chronically ill children in India. As its founder and volunteer, Leela has worked at increasing the awareness of Child life concept in India, along with expanding and strengthening its global programming, fundraising and working with strategic global partners, raising awareness for this need by being a spokesperson in several forums including addressing a chapter meeting for the US Department of Foreign Affairs on “Trends in Global Medicine”. Leela also served on the committee of the Cancer Kids fund of Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis and Institutional Review Board and the University of Minnesota Fairview Hospital.
As an Executive Consultant at the Lennick Aberman Group (LAG), Leela works with individuals, teams and organizations to improve performance, whether in business or sports, profit or non-profit and has worked over 15 years in the Financial Services Industry. Prior to LAG, Leela worked as a Sr. V P of Marketing for 1031 & TIC Investments an Alternative Investment firm specializing in Commercial Real Estate Tenant in Common (TIC) Investments, REITS (public and Private), Oil and Gas Investments, Debentures, and Real Estate Funds. Leela has been a guest speaker on the Stock Doctor Radio show, MN CREW and IMN conferences, radio and TV stations. Prior to joining 1031 & TIC Investments, LLC, Ms. Rao served as Chief Executive Officer of an international Import firm and also served as the Sales and Operations Manager for a west coast branch of Washington Mutual Bank, California. Ms. Rao received a Bachelor and Master of Arts degree from the University Of Bombay, India specializing in Philosophy, Bio-Socio Ethics, Symbolic Logic. Ms. Rao has also completed Real Estate Management Leadership program at Harvard Business School and a Mini - MBA at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis.
James Seidl - Senior Business Advisor
President
Legal Research Center
Mr. Seidl received his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and his undergraduate degree from Bethel College. Mr. Seidl co-founded Minneapolis-based Legal Research Center, Inc. His primary responsibilities are in the areas of business, product and service development. He is also responsible for new business planning and corporate strategic partnering.
Mr. Seidl has authored numerous legal articles, publications and business studies. Additionally he frequently produces educational programs and speaks before major trade associations and conferences on issues in the legal industry.
Mr. Seidl serves as business development and strategic advisor to Click Industries, Ltd., Miller/Davis Company and VersusLaw, Inc. He is a Minnesota State Chair for the Council on Litigation Management.
Additionally, Mr. Seidl serves on the board of the Open Legal Standards Initiative, the advisory board and executive leadership committee of the Law Department Purchasing Consortium and is co-founder of Friends of Flicka
Sheila Palm, MA, CCLS
Senior Child Life Advisor- Founding Member
Sheila has a BS degree in Child Development and Family Relationships from Colorado State University in Colorado and an MA in Human Development form St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis. After completing her child life internship at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center she became the child life director at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.
Sheila currently leads the child life program of a multi-campus pediatric organizations including two pediatric hospitals, a surgical center and a community based hospital. Sheila is a member of the Child Life Council and the Association for the Care of Children’s Health and also volunteers with the American Cancer Society. She also does program consultation for child life and patient and family centered care programming in various hospitals.
Padma Chintapalli
Chief Financial Officer - Founding Member
Padma completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Allahabad, India and a Master of Finance Administration from Andhra University, India.
Padma is a partner at 1031 & TIC Investments, LLC. She is responsible for sales, business development, compliance and operations. She has over twelve years of experience in the securities industry having worked for a national full service brokerage firm.
Padma is a founding member and treasurer of the Priyanka Foundation. She also volunteers at a battered women’s shelter and several other community organizations.
GOVERNING BOARD
Beth Coleman - Executive Director
Beth is a graduate of the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY where she received a BA in Political Science. Upon graduating she began her career at the New York State Legislature where she worked for members of the Assembly and Senate for 12 years.
Upon leaving the Legislature she began working as a nonprofit executive. She ran three Chambers of Commerce and a statewide association in Minnesota where she now lives.
During her tenure at these organizations Beth served on numerous statewide and national organization committees and local boards of community organizations.
Using all of these experiences she is now focusing on areas of interest including children and health issues.
Priti Desai CCLS, PHD
Co- Director/ Child Life advisory
Department of Child Development and Family Relations,
(CDFR) East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
Jeanine Clapsaddle, M.A., LAMFT, CCLS
Officer for Global Child Life Planning
Jeanine graduated from Stephens College with a BA in Human Development and an MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of St. Thomas.
Jeanine has given numerous lectures throughout the United States on health issues related to Pediatrics and relationships. She has also worked on numerous teams to develop and implement programs for children and their families.
Jeanine is currently a Child Life Specialist at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics and also serves as an Internship Educator for Child Life Interns.
Holly Clark,M.S., CCLS, CTRS
Officer for Global Child Life Planning
Holly graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in Business Administration and from San Francisco State University with a MS in Recreation Administration.
She is certified as both a Child Life Specialist and Therapeutic Recreation Specialist and regularly presents on health issues related to play, disability, therapeutic recreation, and child life practices. Holly has also implemented and facilitated several new programs for hospitalized children and their families during her career, including a community reintegration program for outpatient oncology patients and a sibling care program.
Holly currently works as a Senior Child Life Specialist at Children’s Hospital & Research Center at Oakland in California and is a member of a multidisciplinary pediatric rehabilitation team serving patients and families from diverse backgrounds with lengths of stay ranging from two to twenty weeks.
She is currently interested in promoting and facilitating child life programming abroad which initially led her to become involved with The Priyanka Foundation as a Child Life Educator. This opportunity has prompted Holly to network with other child life professionals in other parts of the world and to collaborate about how to adapt services in diverse countries with regard to cultural and contextual sensitivity
Nihal Bhakta
Junior Director for PR/Social Media
Eli Crane
United Health Group
Matthew Zarracina
Deloitte Consulting
Pramoud Rao
Chairman/ India Program
Founder CEO
Zicom Securities Ltd
Anita Shenoy
Director of Operations/ India Program
Sonia Shenoy/ Anchor CNBC India
Charlotte Roseline; Child Life Practitioner
Manipal Hospital Bangalore, India Program
Sunitha Rani; Child Life Practitioner
Manipal Hospital Bangalore, India Program
Advisory Board:
Dr. Kiran Belani
Founding Member
Pediatric Infectious Disease
Childrens Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
Dr. Susan F. Sencer, M.D.
Founding Member
Chief of Staff; Hematology/Oncology
Children\'s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
Victoria Neis, CCLS
Founding Member
Child Life Hematology/Oncology Program
Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
Raghavan Iyer
Chef, Cookbook Author &
Certified Culinary Professional
Meera Rao
Cargill HR
Mrs. Mary Pawlenty
Honorary Founding Member