About Us

Shannon Herrera

Associate

Shannon is a student in Seattle studying French. Additionally, Shannon has a love for languages, and she is fluent in Spanish. In past roles, she has worked in retail sales and loves helping others. In her spare time, Shannon enjoys running track and has won the prestigious award of the Student of the Quarter. When she is not spending time with her family and her dog, she enjoys doing embroidery.

Amelya Hensley

Associate

Amelya earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Evansville and has worked over 8 years in customer service, specializing in sales, and 4 years in tutoring and education. After spending the last year tutoring with students affected by the pandemic, she is excited to be working at Tutorly to help close the education gap. In her free time, Amelya enjoys acting, playing with her dog, and going to the beach.

Mahathi G

Associate

Mahathi is a communications specialist with experience in writing, branding, research, and editing. She has worked in communications for Vaya Financial Services, where she managed website design and layout, social media strategy, and content and design of the company’s annual report. Mahathi also liaised with a branding agency, print and media vendors, graphic design vendors, and other external agencies. She coordinated field visits for a media company which filmed customer videos and for a research organization which conducted a social impact analysis. She has a B.A. (Honors) in Economics from SUNY Buffalo.

Shannon Peartree

Associate

Shannon earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from John Carroll University in 2018, and since then has had the pleasure of working several years in customer service as a cake decorator, as well as serving as a success coach for middle school students in Cleveland, Ohio. She is passionate about education for all and helping others whenever she can. In her free time, Shannon loves reading, crocheting, and spending time outdoors.

Sivani Shankar

Recruitment Lead

Sivani has over 12 years of experience in strategy, stakeholder management, program design, implementation, and people management in the social sector and in a government agency. Sivani joined Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd. in 2008 as a Communications Executive and later served as Chief of Staff for the Chairperson. In addition to his extensive work in the field of microfinance, Sivani has played leadership roles at the national-level think tanks ACCESS and National Institute of Urban Management (NIUM) to steer Inclusive Finance and Urbanization projects. Sivani currently leads EdSource that supports Tutorly in various business activities. He also serves as a Board member of the Bodhi School and Trustee of the Mitta Foundation, which focuses on providing 21st-century education for marginalized communities. Sivani completed the Executive Management Program from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) and holds a B.A. (Honors) in Commerce from Osmania University.

Vikram Akula

CEO and Founder

Vikram Akula, PhD, Founder and CEO, is a social entrepreneur named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2006). His career has focused on education inclusion and financial inclusion. He is the founder and president of the Bodhi School in India, which serves 500 low-income students, from pre-k to high school; most students are low-caste children of small farmers and landless laborers, and many are first-generation students. He is the founder and CEO of Tutorly, which provides online tutoring to students in low-income communities in the US. Prior to his work in education, he founded Bharat Financial Inclusion in India, which became the world’s largest microfinance company, having disbursed $18 billion in micro-loans to more than 10 million poor women. He is also the founder and chairperson of Vaya Financial Services, which uses tablet-banking technology to deliver loans to low-income people in India. He is currently a Distinguished Career Fellow at Stanford University, was a Fulbright Scholar, has a PhD. in political science from the University of Chicago, an MA in International Relations from Yale University, and a BA in philosophy and English from Tufts University. He has worked with McKinsey & Company and the Worldwatch Institute, and he has authored Micro-Meltdown: The Inside Story of the Rise, Fall, Resurgence of the World’s Most Valuable Microlender, A Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability, and several articles. His awards include the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year in India (2006) and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in India (2009).

Dennis Nolasco

Academic Lead Dennis graduated from George Mason University with his BA in English in 2014 and began teaching in Fairfax County, Virginia. He began his career as a Secondary Education English teacher. While working, Dennis returned to school and earned his MA in Education with a focus on Multicultural and Multilingual Education. Soon, Dennis became the Department Chair of the English as a Second Language Department as well as the Diversity Equity and Inclusion site lead at two different schools. His most recent work was as a Secondary Education English teacher for Los Angeles Unified School District. In his free time, Dennis enjoys watching and playing soccer, listening to podcasts, and traveling.

Sravan C

Training Lead

Over the last 13 years, Sravan has worked with several tutoring companies and startups, which has given him a chance to adapt to different requirements from both students and tutors. As a full-time student for the initial 7 years of my tutoring career, he focused on developing the skill set generally expected from a tutor. He has trained more than 350 students over 5000+ tutoring sessions. He has also trained tutors on different teaching approaches and technology for tutoring math.

Narinder Kumar

Operations Lead

Narinder has a masters in Mathematics. He has worked in the education industry for the last 12 years, from a classroom teacher to head of the department of mathematics in his previous roles. Narinder is tech-savvy and loves new challenges. In his free time, he likes to create educational videos, learn new skills and post ideas about the stock market.

Vivian Gee

Advisor

Vivian has nearly 20 years of experience bridging business, funder, and social sector interests internationally. She advises and does strategic planning for funders and impact-driven organizations, including helping a Giving Pledge family define their 10-year $1 billion spend-out commitment. At Temasek, one of the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore, Vivian focused on corporate philanthropy, overseeing endowments totaling $1.5B for six operating foundations. Vivian also played a key role in establishing the Alliance for Financial Inclusion as the first international policy innovation network promoting financial inclusion for 1.7B unbanked adults worldwide. A former World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow, Vivian built a leading community of social entrepreneurs, and fostered collaboration across businesses, governments, and civil society to promote inclusive economic growth. Vivian holds an international MBA (INSEAD), and a B.S. and an M.S. in engineering (Stanford University).

Victoria Gonzalez

Advisor

Victoria Gonzalez has spent thirty years leading organizations as a change agent and entrepreneur. Educated as an engineer, she worked for Fortune 100 companies for 15 years learning how big corporations implement new technology solutions. In 2000, she shifted her focus to technology start-ups, playing a significant role in helping to build the biotech start-up community in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to starting six companies, Victoria has worked with other community leaders to build the entrepreneurial infrastructure for technology start-up companies by participating on the boards of BioGenerator, IT Enterprise Network (ITEN), Helix Center, BRDG Park, Missouri Venture Forum, and Missouri Technology Corporation, an appointment made by the Governor of Missouri. More recently, Victoria has turned her focus to education and small businesses as effective ways to address the socio-economic divide in our country and her community. She recently partnered with Justine Petersen to raise an impact investment fund to provide much needed capital, expanded networks, and broader markets to small businesses in low-to-moderate income areas. She serves on the board of Marian Middle School, whose mission is to break the cycle of poverty of inner-city girls. And she currently co-teaches “The Basics of Bioentrepreneurship” at Washington University in St. Louis. Victoria received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M in 1984 and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1990. Married to Steve Welker, they have two daughters. When she is not spending time with family, she enjoys reading, biking, fishing and hiking.

Daniel Koh

Advisor Daniel is a certified 7-12 teacher and experienced tutor. As a tutor and classroom teacher, Daniel has taught hundreds of students in academic subjects as well as prep for the SAT, ACT, and AP/IB Exams. He also has extensive experience advising students in the college application process. Alongside tutoring, he works with civil rights organizations, such as Breakthrough-Houston and Universal Human Rights Initiative-LA, applying his teaching experience and knowledge of pedagogy to create resources for educators and community organizers. He graduated cum laude from Rice University with a B.A. in English and a Texas Secondary Teacher Certification.