About Us
Our Mission
DPM and The DPM Foundation serve our members and communities with our four pillars: Selflessness, Sisterhood, Unity, and Community.
Our Story
In December of 2015, Dr. Vidya R. Bansal founded Desi Physician Moms (DPM) of the US/Canada. The term “Desi” refers to a person with heritage from the Indian Subcontinent including the countries and diaspora of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives. This Facebook group was created on December 29, 2015 with 14 members on its first day and rapidly grew to over 2500 members in its first 3 months, currently supporting over 7000 members, each fully vetted and verified as a residency trained, licensed MD or DO in the US/Canada. It was formed to provide a social network for uniting Desi Physician Women of all backgrounds and specifically for support in regards to work/family balance, immigration issues, and maintaining Desi culture while residing in North America and assimilating into Western culture. DPM also serves as a rapid response forum for seeking medical advice and consults both within North America as well as internationally for family members and friends. We welcome any licensed physician woman who has a special love and appreciation for Desi culture regardless of race, religion, marital status, mothers as well as moms-at-heart, without regard to which continent she spent her childhood.
Our Members
DPM was founded to promote unity among Desi Physician Women, embracing our diversity in religion, language, nationality, culture, and place of birth/childhood. A special aspect of Desi culture and pride is selflessness, and we have seen countless selfless acts of kindness every day in small ways and in great. Our members grew into bonding with one another and no longer consider themselves to belong to a Facebook group, but rather a tight sisterhood of love and support, a sisterhood in which one can seek advice and guidance without judgement, in a forum of women bonded in similar struggles and challenges. Because each of us is a licensed physician, we have dedicated ourselves to serving others in the medical profession, and DPM fosters further involvement in our communities. With unity and selflessness, our sisterhood will go on to share our culture and charity with the community beyond what we provide on a daily basis with our medical training and commitment.
Our Foundation
Due to the enormous growth of this Facebook group and increasing needs for social awareness and advocacy, the not for profit 501(c)3 DPM Foundation was created. 100% of money generated through donations and every day shopping via our partner stores goes towards assisting a DPM sister in an emergency situation involving domestic abuse, supporting charitable organizations for promoting Desi women’s issues, and will allow us to grow and reach more Desi Physician Women to foster our four pillars of Selflessness, Sisterhood, Unity, and Community.
Our Foundation Team and Executive Committee
Vidya Ramakrishnaiah Bansal, MD
Founder/Executive Director of Desi Physician Moms of the US/Canada and DPM Foundation
Dr. Vidya Bansal MD, FAAP is a board certified pediatrician, wife, mom, and daughter to immigrant parents. When she began her career as a Desi Physician Woman she immediately noticed the challenges of being a woman practicing medicine in the US, and especially as a Desi female physician. After a post-partum cardiac complication 5 days after her delivery, multiple experiences of sexism and racism in the workplace, and sexism from much younger male in-laws, she felt isolated but decided she must not be alone in these experiences. When unable to find a support group for South Asian Physician Women/Mothers in North America, she launched Desi Physician Moms of the US/Canada in December 2015, the first of its kind in North America. When numerous members almost immediately started to send her confidential messages regarding domestic abuse, workplace and family struggles, and health matters, she dedicated herself to bringing the issues affecting Desi physician women in North America out of the darkness and into the sunlight for awareness, discussion, and empowerment for our women and our communities of all people.
When not being a pediatrician or managing DPM, she enjoys cooking, interior decorating, traveling, and snuggling with her son.
Preeti Singh, MD FAAP
Co-Executive Director of Desi Physician Moms of the US/Canada and DPM Foundation
Dr. Preeti Singh is a neonatologist currently practicing in Tupelo, Mississippi. She loves taking care of the smallest of the small and sick newborns and supporting their families. Her passion for helping and empowering females fits very well with the goals of the DPM Foundation. She likes traveling, dancing, and adventure sports. She lives with her husband and her four year old little man. All of her immediate family is in India, but she feels lucky to be surrounded by a lot of friends and the DPM family.
Dr. Singh launched our first Giving Tuesday Campaign in 2017 which raised over $25,000 for the DPM Foundation and helped launch our Domestic Abuse Grant Program in collaboration with the Honorable Gold Star Father Mr. Khizhr Khan. Her enthusiasm and dedication began the tradition of our annual fundraiser with raffle prizes donated by our DPM Bazaar vendors, including gold, saris, clutches, and much more. Dr. Singh was also the Co-Director of 2018 DPM LIVE Retreat and CME, “Leadership, Wellness, and Empowerment for the Desi Female Physician”, hosting the family of “Meet the Patels” and Mumbai terrorist attacks survivor and inspirational speaker/author Linda Ragsdale. Her role as Co-Director of DPM and the DPM Foundation has elevated our activities and advocacy to its current level of status and recognition.
Meenakshi Pande, MD
DPMasks Co-Director, DPMathon Co-Director
Dr. Meenakshi Pande is an Endocrinologist at MUSC in Florence SC. She was born in India to parents who speak different languages and her family also moved through many places. For this she is thankful because she is fluent in several languages. She is married to Amit and they have two wonderful children who she claims to have parented by learning on the job!
In her (make believe) spare time, she loves to read, solve Sudokus and crosswords and enjoys listening to all genres of music especially classical Indian Carnatic and Hindustani. Much later in life after the kids have grown she has taken up working on physical fitness and has been at it as a permanent work in progress.
She has enjoyed knowing and connecting with other Desi physician moms who have similar interests and experiences but also who have different perspectives as well. This forum has helped her learn a lot about many things trivial and deep.
She is grateful to be part of this inspiring sisterhood of DPM.
Busy lives need light-hearted intermissions, quick advice, philosophical approaches and help with ‘retail’ therapies as well. Her goal is to continue to contribute to this community of problem solvers who are also full time mothers and happen to double their day job as physicians.
She looks forward to be able to help use this platform to reach out and help those in need of kindness. Dr. Pande is co-director of the DPMask project, supplying over 30,000 masks to physicians, direct patient care staff, and high risk patients. She also helped lead the 2019 3rd Annual DPMathon, raising over $40,000 to help rescue and rehabilitate victims of human sex trafficking at the India-Nepal border.
Milli Jain, MD
DPM Bazaar Admin
Dr. Milli Gupta is an endocrinologist, working in a group practice in Munster, Indiana.
Besides endocrinology, she is passionate about holistic living, fashion/beauty, gardening with the purpose of growing food (and engaging her daughters), and reading books/writing up her thoughts. She has a special interest in learning about the ancient wisdom in various cultures and especially the Indian ways of living that are worth following in contemporary times. She loves to collect sarees with traditional weaves, heirloom jewelry, and regional traditional recipes for Indian vegetarian cooking. She feels strongly about challenges faced by the Desi woman in and outside her country. She is also inspired by NGO groups/creative individuals working to provide solutions to environmental problems.
Dr. Gupta’s love of Desi fashion and trends combined with her devotion to charitable causes make her the perfect liaison in the trifecta of DPM, the DPM Foundation, and our DPM Bazaar vendors. WIth her passion for all 3, she brings DPM members items which would normally require travel to India or Pakistan straight to their doorstep from our DPM vendors. Through the DPM Bazaar, funds are generated for charitable causes, and raffles are donated by vendors which are used for DPMF’s fundraisers. Dr. Gupta manages the DPM Bazaar along with Dr. Misir.
Durga Roy, MD FACLP
Co Director of Desi Physician Moms of the US/Canada and DPM Foundation
Durga Roy, MD, FACLP is a board certified neuropsychiatrist born in the US to Indian immigrant parents. She has been actively involved in the mentorship of young Indian American trainees born and raised in the US, but who struggle to preserve their identity and cultural connections within their personal and professional lives. She serves as an advisor to women in academic medicine, providing mentorship and guidance on how to successfully balance an academic career while juggling the pressures of motherhood.
Her passion is Indian music and the fine arts. As a child, she was trained in classical Indian vocal music and continues to be actively involved in local community vocal groups. She has been an active member of DPM since 2016. Her contributions often focus on commentaries surrounding challenges and barriers in raising children in the current climate, particularly as second- generation parents raising the next generation of children with Indian roots.
Faiza Khan, MD
Faiza A. Khan, MD, is a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, India. She completed her Anesthesiology residency training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR.
Dr. Khan is a board certified Anesthesiologist practicing in Little Rock, AR. Her clinical roles are supplemented with teaching and administrative leadership roles as Medical Director for Residency training and Associate Director of the MOCA program for the department. Her interests include obstetric, regional anesthesia and simulation with a focus towards multidisciplinary team training for improvement of patient safety.
As a female physician of Indian descent, she has found her tribe with the DPM group. She has loved being a part of the group and thrives with the community sharing their ideas, thoughts, questions, rants and raves and often finding solace in the similarity of their thoughts and personas. She believes that together the sisterhood can provide a platform to harness change in the way desi women are perceived and treated. They can be the voice of courage and change.
She is a wife and a mom to three girls; they light up her life with their strength and passion for life. She is learning her way in bringing them up as strong women. She loves to read and has found her way back to writing, sharing stories and perspectives and using words to heal the soul.
Vrunda Pandya, MD
Vrunda H. Pandya, MD, is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine. She completed her training in Anesthesiology at New York University and a Fellowship in Regional Anesthesia at the prestigious New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Dr. Pandya is a board certified anesthesiologist who has been practicing since 2009, the last 5 years in San Antonio after moving to Texas in 2015. Dr. Pandya is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Medicine. Her interests include anesthesia for office-based procedures, neurosurgery, and orthopedic surgeries. She is a staunch advocate for physician led care, being part of many groups that help legislate for such. As a female physician and one of Indian decent finding a community is paramount, that community is Desi physician mom group via Facebook. Female physicians need to raise their voices and ones of Indian decent need to do so louder. This community of strong women affords us to speak about our experience and make us stronger.
She is a caffeine addicted proud mom of two children. When she’s not being a mom, she loves to travel and read a book the old fashioned way. She’s recently discovered cooking and baking. She’s also taken up an interest in plants and gardening. When the weather is nice she loves to spend her time outdoors whether it’s going for a walk or simply sitting on the porch.
Our Content Moderators and Administors
Venkat Manda, MS Comp Sci
Venkat Manda is a highly skilled and experienced professional with a demonstrated history of success in the field of technology and entrepreneurship. Venkat has a wealth of experience in software development, business strategy, and project management, and is the founder of KCdesi.com, a leading online platform connecting South Asian communities.
His website, KCdesi.com, highlights Venkat’s commitment to fostering growth and development within the South Asian community. The platform provides a wealth of resources and information, including local events and business listings, as well as opportunities for networking and career development.
With a strong background in both technical and business-related fields, Venkat is well-equipped to drive growth and success for both individuals and organizations. He is a highly motivated and results-driven individual, and has a proven track record of success in his professional pursuits. He an be reached at [email protected].