Padmini Parthasarathy

Padmini Parthasarathy is described by her nominator as a young woman of intelligence, creativity, integrity and conviction with a true passion to make a difference in the world.

Padmini is the current National Chair of the March of Dimes National Youth Council, a select group of 15 college students from across the country who are national volunteers for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. The selection process is extremely competitive and those chosen are selected for their leadership ability and their proven commitment to the mission of the March of Dimes, which is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality.

Padmini began volunteering for the March of Dimes as a member of the High School Leadership Council in San Francisco, CA and became Chair of the Council her senior year. It was this experience that has led her to her current pursuit of a Master’s Degree in Public Health and to ultimately pursue a career in the field of maternal and child health.

Padimini takes initiative and sees the global benefits of both large and small tasks. She is committed to giving other youth volunteers the opportunity to grow and is a mentor to high school and college volunteers across the country. She travels nationwide to represent youth volunteerism; she was chair of the 1998 National Youth Month initiative as well as the new National Youth Council member coaching program. While doing all of this, she's remains active in her local March of Dimes chapter.

She was the leader for the National Youth Month initiative, likely the largest peer-led health education campaign the March of Dimes has had. The theme was TEAM Youth, where TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves Miracles. Launched at the National Youth Leadership Conference, all components of the youth program combined to create one large youth movement where young people across America joined the TEAM and worked toward the common goal of educating their peers about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the importance of service to the community.

Led by Padmini, her committee was instrumental in the development of the concepts, objectives, health messages and materials, event planning tools, training sessions and follow-ups to help ensure the success of the national campaign. As a result of their efforts, hundreds of youth volunteers in more than 80 communities nationwide planned activities and touched the lives of thousands of young people.