Brown Bag Lecture

Varun Vidyarthi has a formal background in engineering and business management from the Indian Institute of Technology. The Indian spiritual tradition of finding a purpose in life led him to abandon a corporate career to live and work in rural India. Through Manavodaya, he and his wife Amla have more than 20 years of experience facilitating women’s self-help micro-lending groups and training development practitioners using an empowering method of dialogue called collective reflection. In 2007 the two were honored for their work in social transformation with the prestigious All-India Spandan Indian Business Academy 2007 Award in Human Values for Professionals in Management, Administration, and Entrepreneurship. With UT Professor Patricia A. Wilson (Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture), Mr. Vidyarthi co-authored the recently released book, Development from Within (Apex, 2008), based on the inner and outer journeys of both development facilitators and women villagers.