On Dec 11th 2024, VHPA elected Smt.(Mrs.) Tejal Shah from NJ as its new President effective Jan 1st 2025.
Tejal ji holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Sardar Patel University, V.V. Nagar, Gujarat and Master in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technologies, NJ.
She worked as a President of Indian Student Association @ Stevens Inst. of Technology in 1995-96. But that was just the start of her volunteer work in the USA. Her decades long list of community service includes working for various social, cultural, educational and spiritual institutions like Hindu Community Center, Garfield NJ, Anoopam Mission PA to name a few.
Her journey with VHPA began in 2016 when she became a VHPA Governing Council member, and in 2018 she accepted the responsibility of Joint General Secretary. In 2022, she took the responsibility of the Hindu Mandir Empowerment Council (HMEC) Convener. She successfully organized HMEC national conferences in 2022, 2023 and 2024 bringing together around 200 attendees from various Mandirs and other Hindu organizations to network, discuss and collaborate to meet common challenges and discover opportunities for sustaining and serving Dharma in North America and Caribbean. In the first half of 2023, she was part of the VHPA traveling team for Ram Rath Yatra, a pilgrimage through 850+ Mandirs across all states of the USA.
Professionally, she began as an Asst. Lecturer in her early years immediately after graduation in her school. She worked in IBM for 23 years and continued working in various positions after retiring from IBM and currently works as a Business and Service Delivery Manager in another company.
More importantly, Tejal ji attributes all her achievements in life to the grace of her Spiritual Guru (Master) Brhamlin Mahrshi PunitachariJi Maharaj (Girnar Sadhna Ashram, Junagadh, Gujrat).
She lives with her entrepreneur husband and the family in NJ and credits them for their strong support for pursuing her passion of serving Hindu Community in the USA.