Our Team

Mrs. Dharitri Rout

Secretary, WOSCA

Mrs. Dharitri established the organization in 1993 and has been leading it since then. With 27 years of experience in the development sector, she currently provides leadership to more than 350 staff members.

She has been actively involved in all the organization projects and has won multiple awards and recognition for the same. Some of their major achievements have been the Rashtriya Swayam Siddha Samman, Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra National Award, Development Marketplace Award for social enterprising, mBillionth South Asia Award. She has also been recognized as the Best women entrepreneur in 1996.

A kind and strong woman, Mrs. Rout has supported more than 5000 women to be self-aware, self-employed, and strong individuals. She has also served as a member of the Child Welfare Committee for three years and dealt with more than 700 childcare and protection cases.

Mansingh D.P. Nayak

Programme Director, WOSCA

With a degree in commerce and law, Mr. Nayak has always been inclined to use his knowledge to benefit the people and support every individual to grow.

He has been working with WOSCA since 20 years and has been a part of multiple projects in Business and Trade crafts, Livelihood, forest and environment, Panchayati Raj, Education, Maternity Health and Childcare, Watershed Development, and Rural Sanitation. Also, Mr. Nayak has been a huge lover and promoter for handicrafts.

Lewitt Somarajan

Founder & CEO

Lewitt started Life-Lab in 2012 while he was still a Fellow at Teach for India. He sets the direction and paves the path for Life-Lab. Lewitt is an Acumen Fellow and an Ashoka Fellow.

An accidental author and a deliberate jokester, he ensures everyone is still laughing while creating institutional changes.

John Sebastian M J

CSO

As the Chief Strategy Officer, John is Life-Lab’s North Star. Prior to Life-Lab, John has had over 10 years of experience in strategy, operations and entrepreneurship.

When he is not busy, you’ll find him going on long walks or playing the harmonica.

Anant Singh

Operations Head

Anant is responsible for all production and program operations. Before Life-Lab, Anant worked for over 3 years in a finance and operations role with several reputed institutions. He has also earned his management and engineering titles from IIM-L and IIT-BHU respectively.

A movie buff and leisure traveler, he loves cooking and enjoys the wind in his face during his runs.

Naresh Bainsla

Production Manager

Naresh heads production at Life-Lab. He has about 10 years of experience in the manufacturing industry.

Naresh loves to travel and has lived in a dozen cities across India.

Cibin K. Kurien

Program Manager

Cibin ensures the smooth operation of the program team while continually looking for an opportunity to innovate methods and structures. An M.S.W. holder, Cibin was a Teach for India Fellow before he started at Life-Lab.

In his spare time he loves to explore places with his newly wedded bike. He is nice as nice can get, but attack his favorite sweets and he will put his Krav-Maga (an Israeli martial art) skills to test!

Adwaita Desai

R & D Head

Adwaita ensures that Life-Lab continues to create products & programs for joyful science teaching & learning experiences in classrooms. She pursued her Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Pune University and worked as a data scientist before she found sheer joy in being a mentor to over 100 students, as a Teach for India Fellow.

She can take you by surprise by walking on her hands. She is insatiably attracted to classic rock and often dances in pale moonlight.

Purushottaman

R & D Specialist

Purushottam has over 22 years of experience in toy designing. As the lead product designer and mastermind at Life-Lab, he creates curriculum-mapped fun science experiments using frugal, everyday objects.

Quiet and soft-spoken, he can finish a meal incredibly fast and make you feel hallucinated about his presence at the table.

Aditya Ramachandran

Business Development Manager

Aditya is the (smiling) face of Life-Lab. A Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, he is now pursuing his Masters in International Business from Mumbai University. Before joining Life-Lab, he worked as an Assistant Sales Manager at an MNC.

He is a semi-professional mango-plucker, travel planner, carrom and football lover and an adventure sport enthusiast aspiring to complete his first skydive soon!

Ila Patil

Partner Relationship Manager

Ila is the interface between the team on ground and the partners who are supporting us. A Bachelor of Science by qualification she found her comfort a long time back and worked at well reputed institutions in a communications role.

Ila is our very own sub-4 marathoner, ultra runner, an ultra-cyclist with the title of being the first (standing) Indian woman to qualify for the toughest ultra-race of the world, RAAM. When she is not on the chair or saddle, she will be found in the mountains, solo backpacking and dancing like nobody’s watching.

Vishakha Hegde

HR & Communications Executive

Vishakha is literally the people’s person at Life-Lab. She is a Bachelor of Business Administration from Symbiosis International University and a Diploma holder of Graphic Arts from DES, Pune. She worked as a Communication Designer before she found her calling in the education sector. Prior to joining Life-Lab, she was a Teach for India Fellow and mentored over 200 kids across a span of 2 years.

An amateur artist and a water baby, she finds solace in sketching, dance and beach escapes. She also claims to give you a run for your money at a game of Badminton!

Samadhan Shinde

Assistant Program Manager

Samadhan ensures effective on-ground implementation of our program. Before Life-Lab, Samadhan was a teacher for 5 years.

He is an avid reader of Marathi literature, and has written over 50 poems in Marathi.