Meet Our Scholars

Guru Charan was born and grew up in Tamil Nadu, South India. Legal criminalization and social ostracization of the LGBT community in India meant that he was closeted and conflicted about his sexual identity for most of his teenage and early adult life. He channeled his passion and energy into understanding the world through the lens of physical sciences by studying engineering and earning his Bachelor of Engineering degree in 2006. That same year, he won an academic excellence fellowship from Ohio State University to earn his Masters in Engineering in 2008. Over the last seven years, Guru has transitioned in his career from creating products to bringing people together to solve problems that he cares about. In 2015, he led a cross-sector team to create the LGBT SAFE Initiative to enable organizations in Southern Indiana to self-identify as LGBT friendly. The momentum from SAFE along with the grassroots lobbying efforts, which Guru co-led as an elected board member of Pride Alliance, played a pivotal role in the City Council and Mayor of Columbus, voting to amend city law to include LGBT as a protected class. These transformative experiences made him realize the power and potential of public-private sector collaboration to create lasting change. At Yale, Guru is building upon his social sector knowledge and client engagement experience to transition to Social Impact Consulting, and he looks forward to guiding mission-driven organizations to create lasting change.