Bhartiya Nari Ratna Chitralekha Potnis -

President and Owner at Peel College of Professional Studies, Ontario, Canada

Chitralekha has a Electronics Engineering degree from Nagpur University India. She has Post Graduate Diplomas in Digital Electronics & Microprocessors and Industrial Management.

She has almost thirty-five years of professional experience in the industry, academics, education management, and management.

She has published 52 technical papers nationally and internationally and has been on various advisory committees of International Conferences on Engineering Education.

She has worked with street children on UNICEF projects. One of these projects aimed to get street children and child labourers off the streets and into school by explaining the importance of education to the children and their parents. Another project was directed towards young girls being forced into prostitution due to poverty and destitution. The project educated the girls as well as the parents by making them aware of not only the risks of exposing girls at a young age to physical and sexual abuse but also the moral decrepitude behind such actions. The aim was to explain to parents and girls the importance of empowering the girls, and the importance and benefits of education to society in general and their families.

She was one out of the few persons specially trained by the Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) to be women entrepreneurs.

She has worked as an Executive Committee member of Marathi Bhashik Mandal, Toronto, which is a social organization of people speaking one of the Indian languages who live in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

She has been recognized by Dipika Damerla MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament on behalf of Government Ontario) for her hard work and dedication in the field of Education in September 201.

She was awarded a Woman Hero award in the field of Education at the 6th Annual “Celebrating Womanhood 2018 Gala” by the Indo-Canadian Arts & Culture Initiative (ICACI).

She was named one of the 50 influential women in the GTA by Nikisar Inc. and Women of the Earth Empowerment (WEE) in 2018.

She has been recognized by Harinder Malhi MPP, Member of Provincial Parliament (Brampton Springdale) and Minister of the Status of Women, as Women Hero for her contribution in the field of Education in March 2018.

She is also on the Board of Directors of Indo-Canadian Arts & Culture Initiative (ICACI).

She has been recognized by Sonia Sidhu MP, Member of Parliament (Brampton South), House of Commons, Canada in April 2019 for her contribution and service to the community.

She has conferred the Education Excellence Award at the World Marketing Summit & Kotler Awards Canada in November 2019.

She has been recognized by Kamal Khera MP, Member of Parliament (Brampton West), Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development Government of Canada in August 2020 for her cultural contribution to the Community during Covid-19.