YJA Convention 2014 07 Washington DC

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 18

CONVENTION KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
NIMESH PATEL
From Wharton Business School to Wall Street, to fame and fortune as a MTV Rap star, at some point along Nimesh ("Nimo") Patel's journey he realized that he was walking a path of suffering, and that the only path to light was through selfless service to others and his own internal purification. In his mid-twenties, he abandoned the limelight and found himself meditating in the foothills of the Himalayas. There, an inner voice nudged him to radically simplify his life and find his purpose in service to others. He moved to the Gandhi Ashram in India and dedicated himself to the children in the surrounding slums. Fast-forward to April 2012: Nimo and a dance troupe of sixteen of "his kids" toured the world with Ekatva - a performance whose ultimate message was Oneness. Nimo has recently embarked on a project to bridge selfless service, love and music. He calls it Empty Hands Music.
SONAL SHAH
16
YOUNG JAINS
Sonal Shah is Professor of Practice and the founding Executive Director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation. Sonal, an economist and entrepreneur, has spent her career focused on actionable innovation in the public and private sectors. Most recently, she was the Deputy Assistant to the President and founding Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. She spent seven years at the U.S. Department of Treasury, and then went to Goldman Sachs and Google, while simultaneously co-founding Indicorps, a non-profit building a new generation of socially conscious global leaders. She is a senior fellow at the Case Foundation and the Center for American Progress. Sonal serves on the Board of Social Finance, Inc. and the Washington Area Women's Foundation.
JNF KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Learners,
Tomorrow's L
Dr. Masum Momaya has been working for social change and social justice for more than twenty years. Currently a Curator at the Smithsonian Museums, her most recent exhibition "Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation" is showing there until March 2015 and will travel around the country for five years afterwards. Formerly, Dr. Momaya has done curatorial work at the International Museum of Women in San Francisco and the Indo-American Heritage Museum in Chicago. She has also served as lead researcher and writer for the Association for Women's Rights in Development and on the boards of the Third Wave Foundation, Amnesty International's Women's Human Rights Program, and the Women's Intercultural Network. In her spare time, she bakes vegan sweets, watches tennis and enjoys spending time with family and friends. You can learn more about her work at www.masummomaya.com.
MASUM MOMAYA
2014 YJA CONVENTION | WASHINGTON, D.C.