Dr. Sheetal Mahendher

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As a leader in academia, you are responsible not just for your growth but also for your institution, faculty and students. At ISBR Business School, Dr. Sheetal Mahendher, the Professor and Head of the Department of QT and Business Analytics, strives to achieve all-round growth with hard work, objectivity, and honesty. Her fascinating journey with young and eager minds started while working as a lecturer for computer science aspirants from commerce background, and now as a vital personality at ISBR, she dawns multiple hats, by actively engaging in multiple business school management works.

Creating Waves of Academic Change

A B.Sc (Electronics) graduate, Dr. Sheetal Mahendher went ahead to add varied lists of degrees to her name, including PGDCA, MCA, M.Phil, PGDOM, MBA and a Ph.D. Having a clear focus into getting to know more about teaching statistics, operations research and information systems, she progressed with her career, keeping in mind the demand of the industry, which needed professionals with strong analytical skills. This rapid change of learning programming languages and applying them into the field of analytics, led her towards developing her inner skills by further stepping into the world of R and Python, which currently dominates the field of data science, enabling her to readily work with students on a large number of projects.

“While theoretical knowledge is the foundation for learning, hands-on or practical perspective is equally important to prepare the students to embrace the work culture and methods”, shares – Dr. Sheetal Mahendher, telling us and our fellow readers how education has to be curated, in-order to create tech-ready professionals of tomorrow. Keeping the above statement alive in every endeavor she carries out at ISBR, Dr. Sheetal Mahendher also operates as the Chair, Research and Consulting and she regularly organizes several workshops for faculty and scholars to keep their skills updated in the area of research. She also dawns the role of Editor-in-Chief of ISBR Management Journal, which brings out research articles bi-annually. She has published several research papers and case studies in journals of National and International repute. She is also working towards bringing in a lot of Government and corporate projects for which both faculty and students can be engaged, along with taking initiatives to start the Institution’s Innovation Council. Under her able leadership itself was a new vertical in the PGDM Data Science and Analytics launched at ISBR, as she feels it has been a true privilege to be a part of ISBR Business School, and will continue to give her best for the renowned b-school.

The quintessence of hardwork and dedication

“Pandemic was one of the biggest uncertainties. But being a woman managing uncertainties is in the core, and I quickly understood that ‘Resilience is the key’”, stated Dr. Sheetal Mahendher, rather ecstatic about how she had no choice but to gather courage to increase capacity to recover from the pandemic situation as quickly as possible, and get on with these changing times. Continuing to the above statement, she  added – “In the midst of chaos and constant visuals of tragedy that kept all of us in a panicky state, challenges in being focused and maintaining attendance became a crucial challenge that had to be mitigated quickly”. Also, in accordance with the guidelines set by the government, and with an aim of keeping students engaged and away from distractions, she was the face behind adding creative solutions to the regular coursework, ensuring that each session was effectively conducted to keep students interested and help them not skip the class. Moreover, with the introduction of additional initiatives for all the students at ISBR, the monotony was eliminated. Rural Immersion Program was an experience and learning for all students which will take them a long way. Introducing a talent show where interested students were allowed to showcase their creative talents or off topic discussion that brought in some excitement.

Ever since her early career days, Dr. Sheetal Mahendher has always been on her toes and her hunger to never stop learning is non-stop. Despite the pandemic putting a halt to literally everything on this planet, her natural instincts as a woman helped her adapt to challenges with perseverance. She enunciates that this pandemic has not only improved her personality to receive changes with grace, but also pushed her to test her immense strength. All in all, in her elaborate career, Dr. Sheetal Mahendher has encountered many instances where the challenges were not in the ability to perform but in the perception of mind, and she gave in her best to prove her capabilities as the woman education leader of the 21st century. Lastly, summing up the whole conversation, and ending the writeup on an important point on women empowerment, Dr. Sheetal stated – “Empowerment was at the core while I worked with my girls because many of us in the society look at women as a weaker section of the society. But as a guide and a leader, I encouraged unity and empowered many girls to grow beyond classrooms and stereotypes, and now I can proudly say – I think I was pretty successful in guiding 1000s of young girls towards professional and personal success”.