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Consultant Wound Care
Sheryl Colaco serves as a member of the Advisory Board.
Sheryl is a passionate wound therapist who has served people with all kinds of ulcers and non-healing wounds and seen them make great recoveries over the years.
She is a person with great commitment and boundless energy. Her contributions to the Good Sam Foundation have been invaluable and she has helped establish and expand our wound care program across several districts of Karnataka.
A few years ago, she had volunteered her service at the wound care department of the Boston City Council at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Sheryl is also the MD, of Colaco & Valerie Pvt Ltd, a company that manufactures Ayurvedic medicines.
Sheryl is a member of the Advisory Board of The Good Sam Foundation, a person with great commitment and boundless energy. She has played a key role in guiding and supporting our wound care program.
Treasurer
Ramya Shetty serves as the Treasurer at the Good Sam Foundation.
Ramya Shetty is an Operations Management professional and currently works with Guru and Jana, Chartered Accountants. She is a highly skilled and results-driven professional with extensive experience in customer service, analytics and team management and has a strong finance background and has a proven track record of driving operational efficiency.
Ramya has a keen interest in the social sector and she has also served with The Akshaya Patra Foundation, ISKCON, Bangalore and was responsible for the complete donor management of The Akshaya Patra Foundation.
Technical Advisor Plastic Surgeon
Dr. Pradeep Kumar, serves as a Technical Advisor on our Advisory Board.
Dr Pradeep is our go-to plastic surgeon for all puzzles, be it reconstructive, wound or cosmetic surgeries. He is a National Board- Certified Surgeon, in plastic and cosmetic surgery, an active member of Karnataka plastic surgery association and has trained with masters in the plastic surgery field.
Dr. Pradeep is an accomplished plastic surgeon who believes that Diligence makes a surgeon good. He comes across as very meticulous in his approach, adept with his surgical skills and sound with his management principles. He is a very receptive and innovative person and his quality and craftsmanship are unparalleled.
Having developed a passion for chronic wound care and diabetic foot management, Dr Pradeep has set up dedicated wound care centers at Rangadore Memorial Hospital, Venlakh Hospital and Kanva Sri Sai Hospital Bangalore and has made these facilities available to The Good Sam Foundation. These centers aim to provide high end wound care at affordable costs.
Advisor Disability Solutions
Dr. Reuban Daniel, serves as an Advisor – Disability Solutions on our Advisory Board.
Dr. Reuban Daniel is a professional Physiotherapist. He has a Master’s Degree in Physiotherapy, Musculoskeletal Rehab and a Bachelors in Physiotherapy from CMC Hospital Vellore. He also has a Certification in Spine Manipulation.
Dr. Reuban has been developing caregivers and other resources at the grass root level for community-based inclusive development since 2008. He has contributed immensely to the Rehabilitation of People with Spinal Cord Injuries, Early Intervention of Children with Special Needs, Assistive Devices and Community Accessibility Projects that build accessible environments for people with disabilities. He was part of a Scotland Exchange Program, which has helped him immensely in building sustainable community integration programs.
Dr. Reuban heads a start-up NGO called PACT INDIA that works uniquely in bringing change to the ecosystem that supports Children with disabilities who are either Orphaned, Abandoned or Surrendered and they work closely with various child care institutes.
Advisor Legal & POSH Advocate
Advocate Ransa Vasanthi serves an Advisor – Legal & POSH on our Advisory Board.
She has a B.A. LLB degree and a Gold Medal for Commercial Law in her LLM degree. She represents her clients at the Trial Court, High Court of Karnataka, Bengaluru and the Supreme Court and has handled various types of civil and criminal proceedings thorough her own firm, JVA Global Associates.
Adv Ransa has an intimate understanding of the challenges posed in cases related to women and children and has handled several domestic violence cases too.
She also serves as a professor of law at a few prestigious law colleges. This gives her an opportunity to influence young aspiring minds who go on to make a difference to the citizens of our nation.
Advisor Child Services
Alphonsa Joseph serves an Advisor – Child Services on our Advisory Board.
She is an Associate Professor and Head of Psychology at Dr. S.R. Chandrasekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing. She is also a Student Counsellor and an NSS Officer.
She has a M.Sc. degree in Child Guidance and Counselling from Bangalore University and she has been trained by John Hopkins University in Psychological First Aid.
Alphonsa has nearly two decades of experience in assessment of development disorders with children and parental counselling. She has contributed immensely to the development needs of children with disabilities through path breaking early intervention strategies.
She was also instrumental in setting up a school for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and has intensive clinical and research experience in training on parenting styles and effective parenting.
She also conducts awareness and teacher training programs and her research work has been featured in publications related to interventions for children with special needs.
Chief Medical Advisor General & Vascular Surgeon
Dr. Wassim Dar, serves as the Chief Medical Advisor on our Advisory Board.
Dr Wasim has a MBBS, MS (Gen Surg), MRCS (Glasg), MRCS (Eng), FMAS, FAIS, Dip. Hernia Essentials (APHS) and a Dip. MAS (Bariatric).
He also serves as a Consultant and a General and Vascular Surgeon, at several hospitals in Bangalore and has various research publications to his credit across national and international journals.
Dr. Wasim is an expert in treatment of chronic wounds and all kinds of ulcers. He also specializes in laparoscopic surgeries and laser surgeries.
He has heart for service and has contributed immensely to the lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid. His services have been a blessing to our beneficiaries and many others.
Dr. Wassim Dar has been associated with The Good Sam Foundation for over 8 years.
Lead Therapist Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation
Dr. Deepanwita Raj manages Lead Therapist Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation for us.
She holds a Masters Degree in Orthopedics and has completed her bachelors from SV NIRTAR, Odisha.She is also a Clinical Nutritionist with a PG DIPLOMA degree from Amity University.
Dr. Deepanwita experience of working with patients across Neuro-Rehab, Orthopedics, and Pediatrics helps us extend the best to our patients. She was is exposed to working with VLCC, a Leading Wellness and Fitness Chain in India.
Lead Instructor – Women Empowerment
Heera manages our Vocational Training Center for Women with The Good Sam Foundation.
Heera serves as a Tailoring Instructor with us. She started out as a student at the Roshini Center a few years ago and then pursued to hone her tailoring skills with a Boutique.
Over the years Heera has emerged as a shining example of grit and determination to many women. Besides being a good wife and mother of two children, she comes across to others as a motivator, a friend and a persistent instructor who goes the extra mile for her students.
She is a keen learner and continues to innovate and improve the program and the centre and is good example of an old saying “The Student has become the Master”.
Trustee – Organisation Strategy
Krishna leads Organisation Strategy at the Good Sam Foundation.
Krishna A is currently an Executive Coach, Social Volunteer, Start-up Mentor, and Consultant. He comes with nearly four decades of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary management experience cutting across multiple disciplines and as a Board Member. He has been at the top management level in both manufacturing and Engineering IT Sectors and has served with Bosch for over 2 decades at the C-Level. He was deeply involved in the CSR activities of his organisation for several years.
Krishna’s mission is to be of support to organisations and individuals in realising their aspirations by unlocking their potential. As part of this, he is deeply committed to giving back to society, by assisting NGOs and acting as a sounding board. He has assisted NGOs engaged in the areas of education for the underprivileged, mentally challenged children and adults and empowerment of women in rural areas. He considers it a blessing that he gets to support very noble causes.
General Secretary
Nakkina serves as the General Secretary at The Good Sam Foundation.
Venkata Rama Krishna Nakkina (Known by his family name “Nakina”) has over three decades of work experience in leadership positions across world class organizations such as TVS, Motorola, Compaq, HP and APD(NGO). Nakkina is a graduate in Mechanical engineering from Andhra University College of engineering and a post graduate from IIT, Kharagpur. After distinguished stint in various leadership roles in world class organizations and acquiring rich industry experience, he found his true calling as a coach. He now helps senior executives to tap their potential through behavioural transformation. He is an accredited Executive coach by CFI. He is a certified assessor of the CII EXIM bank business excellence award.
Nakkina is passionate about helping organizations enable and sustain excellence in processes and people. Nakkina has also been a part of the social sector since 2013 and served as a CEO of APD and is currently the General Secretary of PACT. Nakkina lives in Bengaluru. He is an avid reader of personal developmental and management books and an accomplished people manager.
Trustee – Operation Excellence
Elstan A. Fernandez is a Trustee with The Good Sam Foundation.
He is a Marine Electrical Engineer by profession, a Veteran Submariner and a Seafarer with a distinguished service record with the Indian Navy. He has represented India in several countries, through the Indian Navy.
Elstan is also a person of many accomplishments, he is an Educationist, World #1 Author – Marine Engineering Education, Rotarian, Philanthropist , Start-up Specialist, Toastmaster, Youth Mentor, Member of Leaders Excellence – Harvard Square (USA) and he also serves as an Advisor to the Promising Indian Society, after being awarded the Promising Indian of the Year in 2017.
Having received a lot of support over the years to be where he is today, Elstan feels that supporting the less fortunate is his true calling. He began his quest of giving back after he was touched by a little orphan at Mother Teresa’s Home for the dying destitute more than 30 years ago. Since then, he has worked as a volunteer for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, St. Don Bosco’s – Street Children program as a Corporator, he started his own scholarship program for children and a support system for needy senior citizens. He has been a benefactor of The Good Sam Foundation since its inception before coming on board as a Trustee in 2021.
Lead Nurse Wound Care & Nursing Services
Mary Dsouza manages Wound Care Services with The Good Sam Foundation.
She has over two decades of nursing experience and has worked closely with leading surgeons and doctors in India and the Middle East.
Mary works very closely with surgeons and consultants on our advisory board to address the needs of those with Pressure Ulcers, Diabetic Ulcers, Venous Ulcers, Leprosy Ulcers, Burns and other non-healing wounds.
Besides being responsible for our SparshaGuna Physiocare and Wellness centre, Mary has travelled across many of our rural projects to assist with wound care.
Her commitment and tender care helps our beneficiaries recoup and regain their health quickly.
CEO & Managing Trustee
David Istacky serves as the CEO and Managing Trustee of The Good Sam Foundation.
He spent the first 26 years of his professional work life in the corporate sector. While working in the corporate sector, David felt drawn to serve people from marginalized sections of society. This brought him face to face with the suffering and the hardship of people with disabilities, the weak, the vulnerable and the ostracized.
These life changing experiences spurred him to launch The Good Sam Foundation in 2016. Under his leadership, the Good Sam Foundation is emerging as a strong NGO that does path breaking work among people with disabilities and the marginalized.