Yale University
Saturday December 16 & Sunday December 17, 2023
Saturday 10:30 AM - 8:30 PM, most sessions hybrid via Zoom; Sunday 8:00 AM - 1:30 PM, in person only.
Join the NAHCA Board for a retreat-like experience at the Yale University Divinity School. Saturday begins with sharing stories from our field of Hindu chaplaincy and the aspirations we have for our work. Conference guests will have an opportunity for vocational discernment by participating in a Listening Circle. We will delve into the arts and yoga for the second half of the day, culminating in a dinner talk, "The Yoga of Artistic Expression", that will elucidate the strong connection between Indian dance and music and Hindu spirituality. On Sunday, we delve into current topics in the field of Hindu chaplaincy and have more opportunities to connect and share.
Conference registration (same for both in-person and online) includes access to video recordings of some conference sessions at no additional fee. The Listening Circle will not be recorded.
Recorded conference sessions will not be available for purchase - please register for the conference if you would like access to recordings.
If you need your conference registration fee waived due to financial constraints, please email [email protected] with the subject header “Conference small grant request” and let us know your situation and why you would like to attend. We have limited funds for these grants.
If you are able to provide a gift of financial assistance to cover the conference registration for an attendee or additional aspects of the conference, then please contribute using the button below.
Conference registration (same for both in-person and online) includes access to video recordings of some conference sessions at no additional fee. The Listening Circle will not be recorded.
Recorded conference sessions will not be available for purchase - please register for the conference if you would like access to recordings.
If you need your conference registration fee waived due to financial constraints, please email [email protected] with the subject header “Conference small grant request” and let us know your situation and why you would like to attend. We have limited funds for these grants.
If you are able to provide a gift of financial assistance to cover the conference registration for an attendee or additional aspects of the conference, then please contribute using the button below.
Speakers and Presenters:
Listening Circle Keeper:
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Aley Menon, J.D., Director of Restorative Practices, Yale University
Aley leads Yale’s restorative practices initiative and is guiding institutional strategy and implementation efforts in this area. Prior to her current role, Aley was responsible for overseeing Yale’s formal and alternative resolution processes for formal complaints of sexual misconduct. Aley has also worked in Yale’s Office of the General Counsel on student affairs, employment, and labor matters. Before joining Yale, she served as the University of Miami’s Ombudsperson and directed UM’s Multicultural Affairs Office. Aley is originally from Kerala, India. She is Chair of Yale’s Restorative Practices Working Group and leads the IvyPlus Restorative Practices Group. Aley enjoys cooking and spending time outdoors with her three children, and she makes her way to silent retreats in the woodsy parts of New England and California whenever she can. |
Meditation Leaders:
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Dr. Preeta Banerjee, Hindu Chaplain, Tufts University
Preeta Banerjee, Ph.D., is the Hindu Chaplain at Tufts University and a spiritual companion who draws on a broad and deep range of experience, having spent over 20 years in academia, coaching, and consulting as an advocate, educator, researcher, and author. Her passion lies in creating brave spaces at the intersection of contemplation, activism, and healing and deepening in interreligious manyness, from a lens rooted in bhakti, gyan, karma, and raj yog. She is a founding board member of the North American Hindu Chaplains Association, Vice Chair of the Mystic Soul Project, and Advisory Council Member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network. Co-founder and partner at WhiteLeaf Advisors LLC, she previously led a team at Deloitte and was a business school professor at Brandeis and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. |
She has a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the Wharton School, a BS in Computational Biology and Business from Carnegie Mellon, and has recently completed her Graduate Certificate in Interreligious Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.
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bobbie arrington, NAHCA Intern, Harvard Divinity School MDiv Candidate
bobbie ellen arrington is the daughter of Barbara, the daughter of Orgiareen, the daughter of Amy, and the daughter of Sarah. She is the daughter of Spirit, handed down from the sky and through bone and earth. She has had a song and conjuring prayer with tongues bequeathed to her by the ancestors. From her father, she received the gifts of public speaking and counseling, which she has used as an educator and social worker. From her mother, she has received the gift of hospitality and compassion for youth, which she has used in her work with non-profits. From spirit, she has received the gift of animacy, which has become the story she has chosen as her calling to tell. |
She is currently exploring this gift at Harvard Divinity School, where she is working towards a Master in Divinity. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master in Social Work.
She is honored to add the North American Hindu Chaplains Association to her professional and spiritual lineage.
She is honored to add the North American Hindu Chaplains Association to her professional and spiritual lineage.
Mandala Workshop Leader:
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Bindu Gupta, NAHCA Membership Co-Chair
Bindu Gupta is a dedicated educator, artist, and spiritual practitioner with a rich and diverse background. Currently engaged in the Interreligious Chaplaincy program at UC Berkeley, California, she also has a certification in the Hindu Chaplaincy Program from the Hindu Spiritual Care Institute. With a foundation in education, Bindu has served as a substitute teacher at various schools. Her passion for the arts shines through in her role as an art workshop instructor, offering classes ranging from Henna to Meditative Dot Mandala. Over the years, she has been actively involved in Shrewsbury Public Schools, contributing as a para-professional, after-school program teacher and extending her expertise to offer yoga and meditation classes to students and staff. |
Bindu's commitment to community service is evident in her extensive volunteering experience. As a Co-Chair on the DEIB Committee in Shrewsbury, she spearheads multicultural events, fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. She is also a valuable North American Hindu Chaplaincy Association (NAHCA) Board member, contributing her skills to the organization.
Her global outreach includes organizing online art classes during the challenging times of COVID-19, offering over 150 classes to individuals worldwide. Bindu's dedication to education is further highlighted by her past experiences, including volunteering at Shrewsbury Public Library and Shrewsbury Public Schools.
Bindu Gupta's educational journey includes a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Arts in Sociology, and a Bachelor of Arts focusing on Psychology.
Currently, on a spiritual path, Bindu looks forward to bringing her unique blend of education, artistry, and spirituality to the North American Hindu Chaplaincy Association, contributing to the organization's mission with her diverse skills and experiences.
Her global outreach includes organizing online art classes during the challenging times of COVID-19, offering over 150 classes to individuals worldwide. Bindu's dedication to education is further highlighted by her past experiences, including volunteering at Shrewsbury Public Library and Shrewsbury Public Schools.
Bindu Gupta's educational journey includes a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Arts in Sociology, and a Bachelor of Arts focusing on Psychology.
Currently, on a spiritual path, Bindu looks forward to bringing her unique blend of education, artistry, and spirituality to the North American Hindu Chaplaincy Association, contributing to the organization's mission with her diverse skills and experiences.
Saturday Dinner Keynote Speaker:
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Dr. Aparna Ramaswamy, Ed.D., Ph.D., LCPC, Dharmic Spiritual Advisor, Georgetown University, Special Advisor to the DhIA Foundation and Faculty, Saybrook University
Dr. Ramaswamy is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Clinical Supervisor in the state of Maryland. She completed MS in Counseling at Johns Hopkins University (2004) and served as a counseling faculty at Hopkins for several years before transitioning to Saybrook University in 2021, where she is a core counseling faculty in the Masters and Doctoral programs. Her first doctorate (Ph.D.) in 2012 linked practices of Indian classical dance to ashta anga principle of yoga based on the seminal yoga text, Yogasutra. |
In 2017, Dr. Ramaswamy completed a second doctorate (Ed.D.) on cultivating multicultural counseling competence, using meditation and mindfulness practices. At Sri Siva Vishnu Temple (SSVT) Dr. Ramaswamy teaches a Dharma- focused Sunday school program for students of all ages, that highlights the significance and relevance of dharmic wisdom, especially in modern times. As an educator, she has worked with school and college students since 1990 adopting a transformative learning pedagogy where both teacher and students co-create a nurturing and generative space for new learning to emerge. Dr. Ramaswamy currently serves as a Dharmic Spiritual Advisor at Georgetown University, Washington DC.
Dr. Ramaswamy offers spiritual accompaniment rooted in indigenous wellness-based models that draw from texts of Ayurveda, Yogasutra, and Natyasastra. Her mission is to empower people by utilizing culturally familiar practices such as mantra japa, yoga, meditation, dance and music discerning their spiritual core thereby transforming them into culture affirming life practices that can connect body, mind and spirit.
Dr. Ramaswamy offers spiritual accompaniment rooted in indigenous wellness-based models that draw from texts of Ayurveda, Yogasutra, and Natyasastra. Her mission is to empower people by utilizing culturally familiar practices such as mantra japa, yoga, meditation, dance and music discerning their spiritual core thereby transforming them into culture affirming life practices that can connect body, mind and spirit.
Updates in Hindu Spiritual Care:
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Dr. Asha Shipman, Director of Hindu Life, Yale University
Dr. Shipman serves as the Director of Hindu Life and Hindu Chaplain for Yale University. She earned her advanced degrees from the University of Connecticut. She is an experienced educator, having taught at the high school and university levels. This is her tenth year serving at Yale in the Chaplain’s Office. Dr. Shipman’s Hindu Life Program at Yale offers a space for worship and connection as well as a safe space to consider the contemporary relevance of Hindu philosophies and practices. A pioneer in the field, she frequently speaks, writes, and consults on Hindu chaplaincy in Higher Education. |
Dr. Shipman is a contributor to the first book on Hindu chaplaincy in the US, entitled “Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care”, and the author of “Hindu Chaplaincy in US Higher Education,” an article published by the Journal of Interreligious Studies.
Dr. Shipman is the founding Chair of the North American Hindu Chaplains Association.
Dr. Shipman is the founding Chair of the North American Hindu Chaplains Association.
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Dr. Vineet Chander, Assistant Dean and Hindu Chaplain, Princeton University
Dr. Vineet Chander is the Assistant Dean for Hindu Life and Hindu Chaplain at Princeton University and a Religious Life Leader at the Lawrenceville School. He has also served as an adjunct professor, attorney, and communications consultant. His writing has appeared in a number of publications, and he is co-author of Hindu Chaplaincy (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, 2017) and co-editor of Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care: Chaplaincy in Theory and Practice (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019). He is a founding member of the North American Hindu Chaplains Association. |
As the nation’s first full-time Hindu college chaplain and program director, Vineet's work with Hindu-American students at one of the world’s premier educational institutions over the course of the past decade has afforded him a unique vantage point and powerful experiences from which to draw. His work with the Hindu-American community is also unapologetically autobiographical, he is a second-generation Hindu American who was born and raised in New York City and discovered his own faith calling in his youth.
Vineet earned his Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School and his Masters in Religion from Rutgers University. He has also studied the theology and praxis of Hinduism’s Vaishnava tradition in a number of traditional ashram settings in both the United States and India. To further his personal and professional development, Vineet is pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education at New York University, where he has been appointed the Vera and Sam S. Jain Scholar in Vedanta Studies.
Vineet lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife and daughter.
Vineet earned his Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School and his Masters in Religion from Rutgers University. He has also studied the theology and praxis of Hinduism’s Vaishnava tradition in a number of traditional ashram settings in both the United States and India. To further his personal and professional development, Vineet is pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education at New York University, where he has been appointed the Vera and Sam S. Jain Scholar in Vedanta Studies.
Vineet lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife and daughter.
Sponsors:
We look forward to seeing you at the conference!