Puja Balachander

Biography

I'm a social impact designer following the lead of vulnerable communities to help them solve their most intractable problems. Throughout my career, I've worked on designing sustainable, equilibrium-shifting solutions with end-users including foster youth, seniors, recent immigrants, minorities, people experiencing homelessness, veterans, Indian youth living in rural and urban poverty, and Malagasy subsistence farmers. Working with users in their language and on their turf is an integral part of my design philosophy; therefore I've practiced and taught design in French, Hindi and Tamil (I'm working on Spanish), all over the US, India, and Madagascar.

I'm now an MBA candidate at Saïd Business School, and am co-founding Devie, a social enterprise that aims to improve access to quality early childhood development. We are doing this via an AI based chatbot coach that helps caregivers foster their children's development at home. Devie supports parent wellbeing, empathetically nudges parents to practice research based behaviors that further their goals, and connects parents to community resources that help fill systemic gaps.