The Heart Behind Meher Foundation

Our team brings together diverse expertise, lived experiences, and a shared commitment to enabling self-reliance. Each member contributes unique skills while upholding our core values of passion, integrity, compassion, inclusivity, and leadership.

Our Team

  • Meena Bharath

    Meena brings over 10,000 hours of experience across public service and the private sector. Recognized as one of Boston’s 50 Most Influential AAPI Leaders, she has made a meaningful impact through her work at Deloitte, State Street Corporation, and as Chair of the Massachusetts AAPI Commission.

  • Nieke Greb

    Nieke emigrated from the Netherlands at age 6 and taught in America and Taiwan, plus volunteered tutoring disenfranchised children at Framingham Public Library. With education degrees and fluency in Dutch, English and Mandarin, she strengthens educational pathways for New Americans.

  • Pranim Magar

    Pranim supports refugees and immigrants, drawing from his experience born in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal. Fluent in English and Nepali, his advocacy connects deeply to displaced communities' challenges, enhancing Meher's self-reliance mission.

  • Tahina Pierre

    Tahina, a first-generation Haitian American, studied Psychology at UMass Lowell, speaks Haitian Creole and works with new American families at a local nonprofit. She mentors an Afghan student while supporting Meher's mission to create belonging across diverse communities.

  • Praveena Tenneti

    Praveena moved to the U.S. in 1996 and holds a computer science degree from UT Austin, bringing essential technical expertise to digital self-reliance pathways. Speaking Telugu, English and Hindi, she helps program participants develop skills needed for independence in Massachusetts communities.

  • Skyler Tucker

    Skyler graduated from Purdue in 2022 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and worked in cloud consulting at Deloitte. With a passion for data analytics, design, and entrepreneurship, he’s now building TurboLeads, a digital agency helping local businesses grow.

  • Moo Moo Paw

    Moo Moo Paw is an experienced professional with over 4 years in Myanmar’s Higher Education Development sector at the British Council, where she consistently exceeded performance targets. She also brings more than 2 years of experience in customer service, sales, and tour leadership. Moo Moo specializes in project and budget management, database analysis, administrative operations, event planning, and media coordination. Her strong organizational skills and service-oriented mindset make her a valuable asset across diverse sectors.

  • Diya Nigam

    Diya Nigam is a student at Lexington High School with a passion for entrepreneurship, public service, and creative expression. She leads youth engagement initiatives through local organizations, writes on equity and student voice for her school newspaper, and recently co-founded a startup through a teen entrepreneurship program. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and finds joy in connecting with her cultural roots through classical Indian dance. In her free time she enjoy’s cooking, reading, and traveling. 

  • Harsha Karukonda

    Harsha Karukonda is a transformation leader with over 18 years of experience in financial services, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise analytics. He works with product managers, engineers, and executives to bring clarity to complex challenges, leading programs across portfolios exceeding $300M in annual budgets. Specializing in scalable product delivery systems, outcome-driven roadmaps, and executive alignment, Harsha is passionate about building adaptive, accountable organizations where leadership, teams, and delivery rhythms align to shared business goals.

Our advisory board

  • Mauricio Carrion

    Mauricio Carrion is a financial services leader with over 20 years of experience in business architecture, trading operations, and compliance. As Head of North America Business Architecture and Managing Director at State Street, he drives strategic initiatives and innovation. His career includes senior roles at Charles River Development, OppenheimerFunds, Morgan Stanley, and Brown Brothers Harriman.

  • Courtney Brunson

    Courtney is a mission-driven leader and process oriented thinker working to create economic mobility for all through legislative policy, legal advocacy, and strategic philanthropic investments. In her role as Director of the Racial Wealth Gap Partnership at the Boston Foundation, she convenes 40+ nonprofit leaders, financial institutions, community organizations, and policymakers to unlock wealth for historically excluded and underserved households in the Greater Boston region via homeownership.

  • Meg Tyler

    Meg Tyler is a former co-chair of her local Special Education Parents Advisory Council and a former School Committee member. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award twice, in 2012 (Innsbruck, Austria) and in 2016 (Belfast, Northern Ireland). She is Associate Professor of Humanities at Boston University where she teaches ethical philosophy and literary style. Her publications include a book on the Irish poet Seamus Heaney (Routledge, 2005) and a recent volume of poems, More Feathers in the Lake than Swans (Finishing Line Press, 2025), among others.