Our Team

Dr. Dhananjay Kakade, Director

Dr. Dhananjay Kakade has 18 years of professional experience at the global and the national level in the development sector. He has worked as a trainer, researcher, campaigner, organiser, manager and grant-maker, focusing on social accountability, governance, and human rights. Dr. Dhananjay has worked with civil society organisations and funding agencies to safeguard human rights and promote people’s participation in health decision-making. From 2004 to 2012, he worked with SATHI- CEHAT- Pune as a Senior Program Officer and Associate Coordinator and worked with Oxfam India as a Health Coordinator from 2013 to 2014. He has worked in the Public Health Program of the Open Society Foundations, New York, from 2015 to 2018. Before joining Open Society Foundations, he served as the Executive Director of the National Center for Advocacy Studies in India from 2014 to 2015.

Trupti Malti, Senior Project Officer

Trupti Malti is a post-graduate in Sociology from Pune University, with twenty years of experience in the development field. She has been associated with SATHI since last twelve years, and is presently working as program in-charge for public health program. She has good managerial as well as analytical skills, which have enabled her in the execution of project activities including developing strategies, questionnaires and analysing data as per requirements of the projects. She has played a key role in training component of the projects as well as developing the resource materials. She is involved in health budget analysis and multi sectoral social audits process in Maharashtra. She has written articles on various issues related to health rights and health budgets in the local media.

Bhausaheb Aher, Senior Project Officer

Bhausaheb Aher is a post-graduate in social work from Karve Institute of Social Services, Pune University. He has twenty-two years of experience in the development field. For the past 10 years, as part of his work in SATHI, he has been centrally involved in district and state-level training on Health Rights and the Right to Health Care, Community action for nutrition and the social audit process of multi-sectorial services in Maharashtra. He has also written articles in the Marathi language in different newspapers and magazines on the above issues. He anchors the Media and ICT programme, preparing video documentary on various topics/themes for the organization and designing of tools, reports, posters, Sticker, Calendar, booklet and other types of training and advocacy materials for the project.

Shailesh Dikhale, Senior Project Officer

Shailesh Dikhale has done his masters from the University of Pune and Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth with specialization in History and Indology respectively. He has been working with SATHI for the last 20 years. Currently, he is Programme in-charge of SATHI’s Nutrition Programme. His area of interest is Public health and Community nutrition, in which he has 14 years of experience. He has contributed as an Editor of ‘SAKAS’ Newsletter of ‘Community action for nutrition process’ and Executive Editor of ‘Mission Poshan’ newsletter of ‘Building Community action for nutrition’ process

Hemraj Patil, Senior Project Officer

Hemraj Patil has a degree of Masters in social work (Community development) and 13 years’ experience working in the public health sector. For the last 9 years he has been working with SATHI, on Community-based Monitoring and planning of Health Services and Decentralized Health Planning. Currently he coordinates with rural organizations in 17 districts, for public participation in health services, right to health and social audit. He has vast experience in liasoning with state level administrations, departments and officials.

Deepali Yakkundi, Senior Research Officer

Deepali Yakkundi is a Post graduate in Commerce from Pune University with a Computer Diploma from Symbiosis Institute, Pune. She currently functions as a Research officer in SATHI, and has been with SATHI for 14 years. As a data analyst, her core capacity lies in handling qualitative and quantitative data, including analysing large data sets using statistical software like SPSS, R, and big databases through MS Access and MS excel.

She has worked on large surveys of research projects and program data for the implementation of projects through program APPs developed. Recently she has worked on developing MIS for the anthropometric measurements of 32000+ children from 580 villages under two projects under Nutrition program. She has also been involved in writing various project reports, study reports, policy briefs, and newspaper articles.

Shakuntala Bhalerao, Project Officer

Shakuntala has been with SATHI for 14 years. Starting with training initiatives for ASHA workers in rural and tribal areas, she engaged in various advocacy activities in collaboration with civil society organisations. Her work in SATHI helped her understand health rights and advocacy, and her experience on the ground sharpened her interventions. In addition to working for the public health system, she has also been involved in advocacy efforts for the accountability of the private sector. Currently, she coordinates the SATHI’s work on Patient rights initiative to ensure health services reach the poor patients and their health rights are protected.

Sharda Mahalle, Project Officer

Sharda Mahalle is a graduate in science. She has been associated with SATHI since last twenty years. She is centrally involved in the execution of the project activities including data entry, IEC material, Awareness material, tool development, transcription etc.

Swapnil Vyavahare, Project Officer

Swapnil Vyavahare is a post-graduate in Social Work and is currently pursuing a PhD from Pune University. He has seven years of experience in the health and nutrition sector and is associated with the Community Nutrition and Public Health Project, where he plays a central role in executing project activities, including strategy development, coordination, and monitoring of field-level operations. His areas of interest community lead intervention.

Vinod Shende, Project Officer

Vinod Shende is a post-graduate in Social Work from Karve Institute of Social Sciences and is currently pursuing a PhD at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in the area of community nutrition and public health. He has thirteen years of experience in the public health, nutrition sector and health rights. He is associated with the Community Nutrition, Public Health and patient Rights Projects where he plays a central role in executing project activities, including strategy development, coordination, and monitoring of field-level operations.

Urmila Dikhale, Senior Administrative Officer

Urmila Dikhale is a postgraduate in Commerce and has done article ship with M/s P.B. Shah and Co., Chartered Accountants, Pune. She has over thirty years of experience in accounts and finance management, primarily in the NGO sector. She has been associated with SATHI since 2007. She has strong managerial skills in both administration and accounts management. She currently serves as the Head of Accounts and Administration for the organisation.

Jessy Jacob, Junior Administrative Officer

Jessy Jacob is a graduate in Commerce with twenty-nine years of experience in administration. She has been associated with SATHI since 2006. She is currently working in the administration department as a part-time employee.

Ramdas Shinde, Junior Administrative Officer

Ramdas Shinde is a Commerce graduate with nineteen years of experience in accounts and administration. He also holds a Government Diploma in Co-operative & Accountancy. He has been associated with SATHI since 2011 and has been working in the Accounts and Administration Department.

Tushar Khaire, Administrative Assistant

Tushar Khaire is a postgraduate in Commerce and also holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Finance. He has thirteen years of experience in accounts and administration. He has been associated with SATHI since 2014 and has been working in the Accounts and Administration Department.

Ravindra Mandekar, Office Secretary

Ravindra Mandekar has completed his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and has over 29 years of work experience in the NGO sector. He has been associated with SATHI since 2000. He is currently working in administration including assisting with library and publication-related work.

Meena Indapurkar, Office Assistant

Meena Indapurkar has been working with SATHI as an Office Assistant since 2002 as part-time employee. She has been involved in the overall cleaning work including packing and storage of publications.

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