SHALINI SHARMA is a psychologist turned HR professional turned educator. She often wishes she could go back to school, now that schools are finally getting interesting. She loves reading Harry Potter and is addicted to children's books. She has an MBA (of little use) and a decade of work experience where her focus and inclination was on Adult Learning (totally useful). She is addicted to cappuccino and against all parental advice quit the ‘safety net’ of a lucrative and stable job at Infosys to chart her destiny with Pause. She has been twice published by Euro Books. She is indifferent to animals, yet refuses to eat them.

SANJEEV JOSHI has lived, studied and worked in places as diverse as China, France, India, and the USA. A co-founder of Pause, he is passionate about questioning ‘education’. Facing up to challenges (riding a motorbike from Chandigarh to Shanghai) and playing pranks are in his blood. His interests are sustainable living and non-fiction books. While in China, he headed the BPO operations of a US Company and now prefers to spend his spare time documenting his motorbike trip across the ‘roof of the world.’

UMA SINGHAL can be found standing on her head and then sitting on a cushion facing a wall for two hours and still not able to meditate! She never thought (as a child) she would be a teacher but is excellent at it. She is an un-stoppable singer. She has a Master’s in Psychology from our ‘Apchi’ Punjab University and then found her (calling) niche by getting another Master's in Education from the US. She worked with K-8 grade children for over 25 year as a reading specialist, educational testing expert using direct teaching methods; she trained in behavior management and writing behavior contracts, using positive discipline where the students are guided to take responsibility for their behavior.

PREETI MALIK received a Bachelor’s Degree in early childhood education from the Government College for Girls, Chandigarh, and a Master’s Degree in child and adolescent behaviour from Punjab University. What she has learned in the Pause classroom has inspired the way she has chosen to raise her own daughter. Preeti also has an interest in traveling, and cooking is her stress-buster.

ELLEN DAVIS danced with the Stuttgart Ballet Company and was a Ford Foundation scholarship student at the School of American Ballet in NYC. She has taught beginning through professional level ballet for over thirty years in the United States and abroad - including for one year at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. She has been the owner or artistic director of several professional ballet schools. While teaching the art of classical ballet technique, Ellen focuses on creativity, self-expression, “the breath of being, and inviting an atmosphere of awareness waking up to itself". She is very happy to again be here in India, and working with the wonderful people at Pause.

AÉTIENE PIERS is an opened-minded, experienced teacher and always willing to learn new methodologies to grow as a responsible educator. During her time at University, she started her own tutoring business under the name Pomegranate Tutoring to tutor both grade school students in basic subjects and to tutor University level students in more complex subjects. She sincerely loves people and enjoys creating an atmosphere of comfort and happiness where students not only learn but learn how to enjoy learning itself.