Pavithra Lakshminarayan is an Entrepreneur & a technology enthusiast with over 22 years of work experience in the field of Information Technology, learning and development, teaching, curriculum design, and building graduate programs from the ground up. It is when her passion for working with children met with her experience, she founded Mindbytes in 2011 through which she creates and provides year-round enrichment programs that address core skills in children. As part of this journey, she has not only built and delivered a variety of STEM skill development programs but has also had the opportunity to play numerous roles in the education space. She has been an advisor for education and research-based projects around strategic planning, curriculum design, course development, and training and integration. She has designed many STEM activities to increase student, teacher, and family engagement in STEM. She has also presented on diverse topics such as Broadening STEM Participation in OST (NSF Includes National Convening), Pathway to Invention Education & Family engagement for early learners (STEM Learning Ecosystems National Convening), Big Data in Education (NJ Education Technology conference by NJECC), Social Entrepreneurship for Children and Integrating Game Design (annual conferences of the NJAGC, NJEA convention), Phenomenon-Based Learning and Bringing Internet of Technologies (IoTs) to classrooms (NJEA Convention). She is the lead for the South Jersey STEM Innovation Partnership network, where she has designed and led activities to broaden participation in STEM education ensuring equitable access to all and created many programs to improve interest and retention of the underserved, and underrepresented students in K-12 STEM programs. Alongside running Mindbytes, she also chairs an early childhood learning priority group at the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network.
