Advisory Board

Dennis is the co-founder and co-director of The Met School, co-founder of Big Picture Learning and founder and President of College Unbound. He is known in the US for his extensive work in secondary education in urban, suburban, and rural settings, spanning over 40 years. As an educator, Dennis has a reputation for working up against the edge of convention and out of the box, turning tradition on its head and delivering concrete results.

He holds a double Ph.D. in psychology and education from the University of Michigan. In 2003, Dennis was recognised as a leader in education and awarded the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education. Fast Company ranked Littky #4 among the top 50 Innovators of 2004, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation recently selected Dennis as part of their Daring Dozen. Most recently, Dennis was awarded the New England Higher Education Excellence Award in 2011.

HIXS works closely with Dr. Ravindran, a renowned counselling psychologist and trainer, on behavioural and discipline related issues.

He has been involved in counselling, counsellor training and teacher education for over two decades with many reputed educational institutions in India and abroad. He is the Director of Institute of Counsellor Training Research and Consultancy (ICTRC). He is also the chief mentor of Eduexel India and chief consultant of The Helping Hand.

Lalit Jain has founded and led many entrepreneurial ventures in social as well as corporate sectors in technology, education and infrastructure development. A civil engineer by qualification, he has successfully spearheaded critical projects for the development of The Heritage Schools. He also serves as a member on the board of The Heritage Schools.

Linda, Ed.D., is the first Executive Director of the Center for Artistry and Scholarship in the US, an Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and serves on numerous non-profit boards both locally and nationally. As an experienced leader in education, she actively mentors teachers and principals, and consults nationally and internationally on issues of educational reform, leadership and teaching with a commitment to equity, and the critical role of arts and creativity in schools. She also facilitates workshops and conversations about issues of race, equity, and culturally relevant pedagogy for school leaders, teachers, parents, and students across the nation.

In the capacity of an advisor on strategic issues including infrastructure development, talent attraction, curriculum design, teacher capability development, and standard operational procedures, Manit has been actively involved with The Heritage Schools.

He has personally championed and led several change initiatives to transform the school into an experiential learning school. 

With a vision to bring about purposeful curriculum to Indian education scenario, Manit has played an instrumental role in establishing Heritage International Xperiential School with the vision to provide children with deeper and authentic learning. He believes that education should be child-centric that enhances a child’s skills, opens up their minds and, fosters an ethical relationship to work. With an outlook to prepare children for the 21st century world with relevant skill set, Manit aspires for HIXS to change the hearts and minds of people towards the purpose of education.

Rajesh has over 25 years of experience in setting up and leading organisations across diverse sectors such as real estate, education, export manufacturing and information & technology. Apart from this, he has also provided direction to a multitude of social initiatives in the healthcare and education verticals. A second-generation entrepreneur, he provides strategic direction to all entities under the Conscient umbrella. In the education space, he has also co-founded the Heritage School in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi in 1999.

Smriti is the co-founder of I am a Teacher (IAAT), a not-for-profit organisation which aims to prepare a critical mass of teachers that can lead change in and through classroom. She headed the Middle School at HXLS, leading a team of 50 teachers. She stepped into this role at a critical stage where the Middle School was being transformed from a conventional programme to a more experiential, progressive, relevant and child-centred programme. In the last few years, she has worked extensively with teachers and facilitated several workshops for teachers.

Based out of Boston, USA, Steven has been HIXS’ inspiration in experiential learning. His association with the school began in 2010 when he conducted training for 40 Heritage educators. He works with Expeditionary Learning Schools Outward Bound (ELS) which is a national, non-profit organisation that specialises in Project Based Learning (PBL). With almost 200 schools in the US and 25 years of experience in PBL, ELS is probably the most experienced organisation in this field. Steven is helping HIXS implement PBL as a part of its curriculum.

Tapaswini has been involved with several school reform projects focusing on curriculum planning and implementation, professional development of teachers, assessment and evaluation of children and led the project for developing the “National Education Framework” for Bhutan. Tapaswini has a Doctorate in Educational Psychology from Jawaharlal Nehru University and an M.Phil in Education from Cambridge University.

Vishnu has over 15 years of experience in leadership development, school leadership and school administration. He is responsible for new school initiatives and strategic projects for the group including curriculum development, instructional leadership, continuous school improvement, technology integration and leadership development. In his prior roles, he has been the head of the Senior School, grade IX economics teacher and a trekking instructor. A proponent of experiential learning, he has visited over 50 experiential and deeper learning schools worldwide. Among his other administrative responsibilities, he is keenly interested in building instructional leadership capabilities, cognitive neuroscience, education technology, college readiness and placements, student leadership development, adolescent coaching, authentic assessments and deeper learning curriculum. He has also been a management consultant and worked with organisations like Accenture and Right Management in the areas of leadership development, organisation change management, learning design. He has delivered projects in India, USA, South East Asia and Europe. In 2009, he co-authored (along with Swami Mitrananda) Se(a)king – a travelogue on a 14-day sojourn across the Arabian sea on a cargo ship. He is a practitioner of Yoga and Vedanta and believes that his work is a medium to reach his deeper self. He is also a proud father of a daughter who has Down syndrome. You can read Vishnu’s blog on https://medium.com/@vishnukarthik.

Yogesh has over 30 years of experience in the international, national curricula as well as educational services. She specialises in mentoring schools in designing curriculum, strengthening their standards for IB and CIS evaluation and accreditation design and strategically planning the professional development of their teachers. As the erstwhile Academics Director and Founding Member of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai, she was instrumental in establishing and managing its International Baccalaureate^® Diploma Programme and International General Certificate of Secondary Education. She is the founder of Course Leap Education, an organisation that offers unique tailored solutions to schools and students to achieve excellence through the application of strong academic principles and practices. Yogesh has two Masters degrees, one in Education from the University of Bath, UK, with specialisation in Educational Leadership and Management and the other in Mathematics from Delhi University. She also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Physics (Hons.) and Education from Delhi University.