After graduating from USC dental school in 1996, Bhavin practiced dentistry in multiple dental offices. Bhavin started in Torrance, CA in 1993 and later established his own private office in Cerritos, CA. Bhavin is the lead for the dental part of KMF missions. He has been on over a dozen missions with KMF and other organizations.
Dr. Dipti Bhakta is the Secretary for Kailash Medical Foundation. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Medicine. She finished her residency in Psychiatry from California Pacific Medical Center in 1997. She currently has a part time practice in Pleasanton, California.
Dirk Devi Smith, MD is a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in 1988 and is board certified. He currently practices medicine in Pleasanton, California. He had done multiple medical missions to Haiti and has a great deal of experience and expertise to offer for future medical missions around the world.
Yogesh Bhakta, MD founded the Kailash Medical Foundation in memory of his beloved sister, Kailash Bhakta. He is a graduate of UCLA Medical School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF in 1996 and is board certified. Yogesh was inspired to start his own foundation after having gone to medical missions in India and Haiti. He currently practices medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Leandro, California. He will lead the medical team on the missions.
Erika Valdez has been in the medical field since 2004. She graduated from the Chabot College Nursing program in Hayward, CA in 2012. She started as a Medical Assistant and then became an Emergency Room Technician at Kaiser Permanente. Since 2012, she has been a Registered Nurse (RN) at Kaiser. She has been on multiple medical missions with KMF and leads the missions to Panama.
Khush Bodan has been a Certified Public Accountant for the state of California since 1981. He has been on over 25 missions around the world helping the visually impaired. He has served as President of Lions In Sight of California and Nevada. He has also served on the Board of the Center for the education of the Infant Deaf. As treasurer of KMF he will make sure funds are properly managed and he will prepare requisite tax forms for the KMF Board.
Pravinchandra Lal is a PE-certified aerospace maintenance technician with United Airlines. He is also a business entrepreneur from the San Francisco bay area. He is the Director of Event Planning and will be actively involved with KMF.
Shailen Mistry has 15 years of experience building applications as a developer, team lead, engineering manager, architect, director, VP, CTO, and CIO. He has built websites for non-profits including Asha for Education (www.ashanet.org), Valley Care (www.valleyccc.org), Olive View Medical Foundation, and the American Association of Women Dentists. He has worked at American Express and Dun & Bradstreet. He served as the CTO at Spark Networks (LOV), CIO at Gannett (GCI), and is now the CTO at ForwardLine Financial.