Class of 2021

“Mentoring, to me, has always felt like a two-way street; I’ve learned so much through each experience, both as a mentor and mentee! As mentors, we not only have a responsibility to push our mentees to be the best version of themselves, but also support them on their journey. I’m eternally grateful to my mentors who have been there to push me, especially in those times where I couldn’t find the confidence and strength to keep going – they not only guided me but also pushed me to become to mentor that I am today to ensure that others are able to find their way in their journeys! Mentoring is continuously evolving, and I strongly believe in not just having one mentor, but a network of mentors who are there to guide one on their path.”

We are proud to induct Nandita Gupta into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.

Nandita is an Accessibility Product Manager at Microsoft where she works on building products that empower users to create inclusive and accessible experience for all users. As a Mississippi State University alumna and Bagley College of Engineering Hall of Fame inductee, Nandita has a background in electrical engineering, and she worked with Georgia-Pacific, LLC as a process controls engineer on human-machine interface systems; she launched Georgia-Pacific’s first mentoring program for entry level engineers and was named Influential Women of Manufacturing 2019 by Putman Media. She quit her job to follow her passion in accessibility and disability advocacy and went back to school to get her Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Georgia Institute of Technology. She was named Faces of Inclusive Excellence and awarded the Diversity Champion Award in 2020 for her work that advanced the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Georgia Tech.

Inclusion to her, means bringing different voices to the table so we can all be part of the change and design. This goes beyond age, gender, race, culture, varied abilities and more. Her personal mantra is “Leadership is not only about leading a team—sometimes it means being a voice for others who are not being heard”. She has a personal connection towards accessibility & inclusion; her grandfather lost his eyesight to cataracts which left her with a burning question: “How can I use technology to help people like him?” She wants to see technology being used for good and wants to be part of this change.

She has been actively involved in various mentoring organizations over the past years including the Anita.B Mentoring Program, FIRST Robotics, ADP List, UX Coffee Hours, and continues to mentor students and professionals through these programs. She has been a speaker at numerous conferences including Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, Assistive Technology Industry Association 2020, World Information Architecture Day and shared her story to empower others to follow their passion at TEDx Georgia Tech. She is a Board member on different boards within the community including Lime Connect, an organization with a mission for rebranding disability through achievement as well as the Accessibility Leadership Council for Disability: IN. She leads the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee as the Chair for another non-profit organization – Caroline Calouche & Co, where she is working on creating inclusive spaces within the dancing communities. She founded an online dance community – We Disabled Dancers where she additional uses her voice as a dancer to advocate for dancers with disabilities. You can find more about her on her personal website.