Dr. Baskaran Pillai

Founder, Tripura Foundation

Dr. Baskaran Pillai is an international teacher, spiritual leader, humanitarian and scholar-mystic from Southern India. Through his educational and humanitarian initiatives, Dr. Pillai's mission is to alleviate human pain and suffering in all forms.

The Pillai Center for Mind Science is an educational institution geared toward enhancing human intelligence and positively transforming every aspect of life. The Pillai Center offers courses on human development particularly in the areas of health, prosperity, relationship and spiritual evolution.

Dr. Pillai is also founder of related educational programs including Phonemic Intelligence, which develops sound-based media and education programs for youth, and Astroved.com Prvt Ltd, which focuses on the propagation of the Vedic sciences.

As founder of non-profit Tripura Foundation, Dr. Pillai is committed to abolishing extreme poverty. For over 20 years, Tripura's programs have been designed to eradicate hunger, educate children, and empower women & girls. Tripura's current "HoPETown Initiative" provides sustainable, environmentally-friendly housing for the poorest of the poor, replacing slum dwellings with beautiful homes. Tripura Foundation also sponsors Girlstown and Boystown residential facilities for impoverished children, delivers feeding programs, and offers other relief programs for the impoverished, mentally ill and destitute around the world.

Dr. Pillai has been a speaker for the United Nations Conference of World Religions and the World Knowledge Forum, and has hosted forums on Religion and Science. His scholarly background includes Masters degrees in English Literature and Comparative Literature from Madurai University and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh where he was both a teaching fellow in the Department of Religious Studies and Coordinator of Indian Studies program for the Department of International Studies.

Dr. Baskaran Pillai

Founder & Chairman

Dr. Baskaran Pillai is an international spiritual leader, humanitarian and scholar-mystic from Southern India. As founder of non-profit Tripura Foundation, Dr. Pillai is committed to abolishing world poverty and relieving human suffering in all forms. His organization sponsors the HOPETown Intitiative and Girlstown and Boystown orphanages for impoverished children, delivers feeding programs throughout India and offers other relief programs for the impoverished, mentally ill and destitute around the world. Dr. Pillai has Masters degrees in English Literature and Comparative Literature from Madurai University and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Elaine Kueper

Global Director

Elaine Kueper has been the Global Director of Tripura Foundation USA since 1992.  She has also served as a Director of Tripura Foundation India since 2000.  Ms. Kueper was fortunate to develop and oversee Tripura'a broad offering of charitable programs in southern India.  Elaine has been studying mindfulness techniques for the past 16 years and has been teaching mindfulness techniques in seminars around the world since that time.  Ms. Kueper studied communication disorders at the Masters level while at the University of Minnesota, and has a B.A. from the University of Iowa.

Sonja Benkovich

Director

Ms. Benkovich has been involved with Tripura Foundation since 2000, and joined the Board of Directors in 2006.  She is Managing Director of Astroved Pvt. Lmtd., a consumer Internet company.  Prior to Astroved, Ms. Benkovich provided financial and technical services to the New York brokerage and manufacturing industries for nearly a decade. Her training in the fields of accounting, financial analysis and control systems led her to manage the rollout of a first-of-its-kind Bond Trading system with links to the New York Stock Exchange, Spear-Leads-Kellogg clearing house and over 40 of the nation's largest brokerage houses. She has also worked the corporate and emerging market bond desks at Bear Stearns, providing key decision-making analysis. Ms.Benkovich also worked in tandem with Coopers & Lybrand and KPMG consultants in building and delivering enterprise resource planning systems for Fortune 100 companies.  She has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Virginia.

Stacey Lawson

Director

Stacey Lawson is co-founder of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET) at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Visiting Foreign Faculty of TRP School of Business, SRM University in Chennai, India.  Previously, Ms. Lawson held roles as a technology executive and entrepreneur.  She was Division General Manager for Siebel Systems and Senior Vice President of Marketing for Parametric Technology Corporation.  Prior to PTC, Ms. Lawson was founder and President of InPart Software, a venture-backed start-up acquired by PTC in 1998.  Ms. Lawson is also a speaker and thought-leader in the area of conscious business & leadership.  She leads executive workshops, retreats, and mindfulness techniques courses which incorporate 15 years of study and practice in eastern & western wisdom traditions.  She holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Vish Iyer

Director

Dr. Iyer is a medical doctor with a flourishing private practicing covering a wide spectrum of health care. After his medical education from Chennai, India, he served with distinction in the Indian Army as a captain for five years, then moved to England where he held administrative and teaching positions in University of Leicester associated hospitals. Dr. Iyer practices and teaches mindfulness techniques and gives lectures on integrating the body-mind with the soul so as to achieve tangible, practical health benefits. He is also the author of books on these subjects.

Dr. Iyer enjoys playing racquetball (meditating while playing racquetball!). He is married to Akila, a banker, and they have two grown boys Vishal and Vinod.

Priya Baskaran

Director

People Are Everything

Our Amazing Volunteer Staff

It is our wish that the maximum amount of all donations goes to the people that need it most. In order to achieve this Tripura is nearly 100% volunteer based.  While we have few full-time staff, our volunteer corps includes highly dedicated individuals who offer their time and resources in service to their fellow men and women in need. 

B. Yadeesh

India Trustee and Program Manager, India Programs

B. Yadeesh is a trustee of Tripura India and responsible for overseeing Tripura programs throughout the region.  He and the volunteer staff organize local feedings, liase between Boystown and Girlstown, and generally work to make sure Tripura programs run smoothly and with loving service.

Lalita Bearss

Program Manager, India Programs

Lalita Bearss has been actively involved with our Girlstown program in Chennai since 2005.  She coordinates Tripura projects, teaches PI education programs throughout India and has been a major proponent and active leader of our Animal Welfare programs.

Her varied background in Social Anthropology, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Nutrition, Arts and Crafts, the Canadian Film and Television Industry, Registered Massage Therapy and Healing has given her the experience and skills to draw on for this "jill of all trades" position.

Maria Bernett

Program Manager, Education Programs, U.S. and Mexico

Maria Bernett has been involved in developing and expanding Tripura
Foundation's education programs, specifically Phonemic Intelligence,
and also contributing extensively to curriculum development. She
coordinates the promotion of PI in Mexico, speaking at international
conferences, training teachers, managing coordinators and programs in
order to enhance the natural intelligence, learning abilities and
leadership skills of young people, especially those in economically
disadvantaged communities.

Marybeth Cunningham

Controller

Marybeth Cunningham handles all financial matters for Tripura Foundation and lovingly handles your donations.  We greatly appreciate her dedicated service!

Gina Guerrieri

Retreat Manager, San Diego Center for Conscious Living

Ms. Guerrieri combines her experience in successful real estate investing and rehabilitation with a long time passion for spirituality and self evolution to create the San Diego Center. The retreat center's primary purpose is to use tools to transform the mind, body and soul.  Ms. Guerrieri has been teaching mindfulness techniques for over 10 years. She has developed large scale spiritual coaching programs and is currently the Director of Path of Miracles, an online education program that teaches techniques for manifestation and divine awareness.

Ms. Guerrieri earned a bachelor's degree in Geography and Political Science from Rowan University. She furthered her education in the field of technology systems development, project management, real estate and mortgage investment.  She is also an ordained Minister and has studied under living masters of Interfaith, Buddhist and Hindu lineages for over sixteen years.

Sucharita Moore

Program Manager, Education Programs, Canada

Sucharita Moore has been involved in developing Tripura Foundation's education programs, specifically Phonemic Intelligence, in both the U.S. and Canada.  She has contributed extensively to curriculum development and coordinates the rollout, management and oversight of PI throughout Canada.

Valli Wells

Education Specialist, Phonemic Intelligence, India

Valli Wells has taught Phonemic Intelligence in America, India, and Malaysia, as well as mindfulness techniques in America, India and Germany.  She has been active in delivering Tripura Foundation's education programs throughout India facilitating programs at Girlstown, Boystown, ICCW, and SRM University to name just a few.

Ms. Wells holds a Master's degree in English from San Diego State University where she taught freshman composition. She holds diplomas in programming and computer graphics and did coursework at Northeastern University and New York's School of Visual Arts.  She has done numerous consultings and trainings for Fortune 500 companies and acted as project manager/business analyst.  She has served as president on the Board of Directors of a large non-profit corporation.