CIE Board of Directors

Prapanna Smith - Founder/President

Prapanna Smith holds a Masters Degree in Education Administration from the University of Redlands, a California Administrative Credential, and a California Teaching Credential. During a 5-year career in California public education he taught all the subjects of the curriculum with at-risk middle school children, and social studies in the regular and GATE programs. Prapanna lived at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1998 to 2001 and, during that time, he was a teacher of History, Geography, Philosophy, and Study Skills at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (SAICE). During his tenure at SAICE, Prapanna was highly involved with the school's latest experiment in Free Progress Education, a truly student-centered approach to learning and teaching that is being developed and refined at the school. Prapanna is currently a graduate student in the UC San Diego-CSU San Marcos Joint Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership.

Carla Swan Gerstein - Vice President

Carla Swan Gerstein is responsible for business operations, community relations, networking, newsletters, and grant writing. Carla holds a California Teaching Credential and a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She spent 13 years as a computer programmer, project manager, department manager, and customer liaison. She acquired her teaching credential in 1999 and has had experience teaching second and third grades. She has two young girls of her own who are students in our elementary school. Carla also is a nationally competing athlete in barefoot water-skiing, ranked fifth in her age division in the United States in 2003. In 2000, she visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and attended the annual Cultural Program and Physical Education Demonstration, both of which moved her deeply.  She is very committed to the new vision of education that CIE is creating in the US.

Nancy Walsh - Secretary/Treasurer

Nancy Walsh, who also serves as the Preschool Director of our Rainbow Kids Integral Preschool, holds a Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education and will serve as a member of the administrative staff. She has experience teaching in preschools, with an emphasis on children with special needs. For 23 years, Nancy worked in post-secondary education administration holding positions in Admissions, Financial Aid, Academic support, Placement, Student/Alumni Services and as a Campus Director. She also served as secretary to the Board of Directors of a Non-Profit organization developing vocational training for adults. Helping young people reach their potential through education has always been her passion and the philosophy of integral education provides her with a new avenue to assist students in finding themselves and becoming what they want to be.

Hansa Sehgal - Founding Board Member

Hansa Sehgal grew up in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Poncidherry, India from her early teen years.  She completed her undergraduate degree in Medical Technology at Roosevelt University.  Hansa worked at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago, in the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, while attending graduate school at the Department of Pathology at the University of Illinois.

Hansa spent most of her professional career at Michael Reese Hospital as laboratory manager in the Department of Surgical Research.  She was an integral part of a team that developed a blood substitute, which was the only product of its kind.  She was later appointed the Associate Director of Research and Development at the Northfield Laboratories.  Hansa has authored over 100 scientific publication and six patents.

After spending over two decades in clinical and academic research, Hansa decided to pursue other interests and give back to the community.  This led her to her involvement for over ten years with a Chicago women’s domestic violence shelter, Apna Ghar (Our House), where she served as a member of the board, Vice President, and President.  In 2004, Hansa was honored for her services to Aptna Ghar at the organizations 14^th annual banquet.

In 1998, Hansa was a member of the founding CIE Board of Directors.  In 2006, Hansa and her husband, Lakshman Sehgal, moved to Southern California, in part, to become involved once again in our important work.  Hansa has now brought to CIE her compassion, thoughtfulness, professionalism, and organizational skills, and is dedicating her time and work to being an invaluable member of the CIE board.

Dr. Lakshman Sehgal - Founding Board Member

Dr. Lakshman Sehgal, a member of the founding CIE Board of Directors in 1998, returned to serve on the CIE board in April, 2006. In 1945, when he was only a toddler, his family joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. He was part of the first group of children for whom the Mother started the Ashram school in the mid 1940s. The Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education was formally inaugurated in 1952. Lakshman received his early education in the French language from the Mother directly, during Her regular evening classes.

Lakshman completed his education at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education with an equivalent of an undergraduate degree. Afterwards, he taught mathematics for two years at the Centre to eight to ten year olds. In the 1960's he settled in Chicago and obtained his Ph.D in Biology from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Lakshman has had a long and distinguished career in medical research, working with surgeons and other clinicians. He has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and the Northwestern University medical schools. Along with his wife, Hansa, who also studied at the Centre in Pondicherry, he has authored and coauthored over 100 scientific publications and a dozen patents.

Lakshman served on the Board of Asian Human Services, a nonprofit organization in Chicago that caters to the needs of new immigrants, and also served as its president. While volunteering his time at the Agency, he was part of a founding group that started a charter school that now serves over 200 students from 18 different countries.

Hansa and Lakshman have two sons, Niraj and Uday. In Niraj's wife, Neda, they have found a daughter they never had.

Lakshman has three passions: children's education, research, and sports. He is actively engaged in all three.

Lon Bloomfield - Board Member

Lon Bloomfield was born and raised in the Netherlands where she graduated from Art School, majoring in Graphic Design and Public Relations. She worked for various Advertising Agencies before she started working as an independent Graphic Designer. In 2000 she moved to San Diego.  She enrolled her son at Rainbow Kids Integral Preschool, and learned that the school was going to open up an Elementary School. Lon was so inspired by the integral vision, she soon became involved with the school as a Graphic Designer. Since then she has been working closely with the school in designing the logos, brochures, flyers, advertisements, websites and anything related to marketing the school.  Because of her commitment to the school, in 2008 Lon was invited to become a member of the Board of Directors as a parent liaison.  She also started helping regularly in the elementary school office, as well as continuing her designing work. She is thrilled to be a part of this dynamic organization and make a contribution to the education of the future.

Christine Palkovic Taylor - Board Member

Christine Taylor is Director of Business Development for the Monday Group, a strategic marketing firm in San Diego. She spent 16 years in Association Management and had her own multiple association management firm for a period of five years. Christine has experience working with the charitable fundraising, legal, political, franchising, and telecommunication industries. She spent two years teaching English a Second Language to children and adults in Treviso, Italy. Christine has always been an advocate for children and has a strong belief that the whole being must be nurtured and advanced to create a healthy, happy and well-adjusted contributor to society.