Welcome Newletter Fall 2024

Greetings fellow Indian-Americans of ASU!

Welcome to the Indian-American Faculty and Staff Association (IAFSA) of Arizona State University.

My name is Safali Patel and I am an Associate Vice President in Educational Outreach & Student Services (EOSS) at Arizona State University. Along with Holly Singh, who is the Assistant Vice President for International Enrollment Initiatives, I am excited to reach out to all of you with this newsletter!

Holly and I would like to formally welcome you to the Indian-American Faculty and Staff Association (IAFSA) of Arizona State University. IAFSA is a product of 2+ years of work by a number of dedicated people, focused on what we could do collectively to support the many staff and faculty members of Indian origin and their families that call ASU home. We are pleased to announce that IAFSA is now a reality and is housed within and has the support of ASU’s Office of Inclusive Excellence

We would also like to introduce you to the first executive board of IAFSA - these executives are responsible for running the organization. They are: Rimjhim Agarwal, Iti Agnihotri, Kamala Avancha, Punya Mishra, Gopalakrishnan Mohan, Gokul Pathikonda, Ram Pendyala, Pavan Pillalmari, and  Meenakshi Tiwari

We will be organizing a range of events and activities, and this newsletter will be our way of keeping you informed of all that and more. In Spring 2024, many IAFSA families came together at the Sun Devil Fitness Center at the ASU Polytechnic campus to celebrate our first family event - we will continue this gathering tradition for the spring of 2025. This fall, we look forward to an event welcoming faculty and staff of Indian origin who have recently joined ASU. 

We would also love to connect with you. We have created a few resources to help with that.

  • We maintain a current roster of Indian-American faculty and staff - please check to see if any members that you think should be on this list but are currently not on it. Forward them this note, and also let us know so that we can add them to our mailing list.
  • We have a WhatsApp group which you can join by clicking the link or using the QR code at the end of this message.
  • Finally, if there are any news updates you would like to share with the wider community please feel free to share them with Punya Mishra (punya@asu.edu), IAFSA board member and communications lead. We will be sure to include it in the next newsletter.


We are looking forward to engaging with all of you in the coming months. Please let us know if we can help in any way. 

With much gratitude,                                                                                                              

Safali Patel and Holly Singh

IAFSA Advisers

(On behalf of IAFSA Board)