EP 99: Influenced by Mentors, Driven by a Deep Sense of Purpose: Dr. Amrita Bahl Inspiring a New Mindset in Education

Atalanta Diaries Breakthrough Women in Conversation with Enma Popli

Amrita Bahl is the Chief Education Officer at the GD Goenka Group, where she leads innovation in pedagogy, curriculum development, and academic strategy. An alumna of Columbia University and a certified Climate Reality Leader trained by Vice President Al Gore, Amrita has spent over two decades driving transformative education and social reform.

In 2020, she joined the Education Research Center at the Druk Gyalpo’s Institute in Paro, Bhutan, where she contributed to developing the Bhutan Baccalaureate—a visionary education system inspired by His Majesty the King of Bhutan’s vision for a just and harmonious society.

During her doctoral studies, Amrita played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and developing the Global Health Education Leadership Program (GlobalHELP), fostering participatory health promotion and disease prevention initiatives in regions including the Caribbean, Ghana, Togo, USA, and India. As the first Virginia Palmer Fellow, she established a prospective evaluation process for VGIF, enabling impactful social impact tracking.

Amrita’s career is further marked by her work as a certified Regional Master Trainer for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, focusing on the prevention of HIV among incarcerated substance users. She has collaborated with Kiran Bedi to pioneer peer-led health education programs in Tihar and Amritsar prisons and has also developed and edited impactful documentary films such as It’s Always Possible and Wings of Freedom: The SEHAT Story on prison reforms and Manthan: The Journey on HIV/AIDS peer health education in India.

Her collaborations with organizations like the United Nations and the World Health Organization highlight her unwavering commitment to fostering equity and driving meaningful change through education and grassroots engagement.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

• Trust, the cornerstone of culture
• Women need to stop othering women.
• A product of strong female mentors.
• Role of grandmother in shaping values.
• Growing up in a very cocooned environment.
• Working in the prison, was a transformative experience.
• I love challenges and doing something unconventional.
• Appreciating solitude, rather than seeing it as loneliness.
• Owning the consequences of choices, rejecting victimhood.
• Including men in the conversation to drive meaningful change.
• Decisions are guided by courage, innovation, and lifelong learning.
• Emotional regulation is key to maintaining adherence to the law.
• Resilience and self-belief are the greatest tools for overcoming challenges.
• Leadership, standing by a team and supporting them in their toughest moments.
• Mentor’s mantra "calm, centered, and balanced," is a guiding principle in work and life.
• Growth isn’t always about pace and speed; it can be about depth and sustainability.
• The concept of Genku: thinking about the community as a whole and understanding one’s role within it.

Connect with Enma Popli on Linkedin:

>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/enmapopli/

Visit Enma Popli's website

>> http://www.enmapopli.com/