Meet Our Leadership | Global Center for Siddha Medicine and Research

Management

Home
Management

Our Team at GCSMR

Guiding Siddha Medicine Research and Integrative Healthcare for global health.

Daivamani Sivasailam
President

Daivamani Sivasailam has a B.E in Civil Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy and a M.S. in Transportation Engineering from Virginia Tech. Since 1984 he has worked in various aspects of Transportation and currently is a Manager at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

He has devoted most of his free time for the Tamil Community in the US at the national level and local level. For the past 15 years he and a few friends have run a Tamil School in Maryland and over 250 students are currently enrolled in the school.

He is also involved with Tamil Nadu Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 1974 for the past 34 years and was the immediate past President. He successfully implemented a number of rehabilitation projects during helping the people affected by the 2015 floods. He believes in the effectiveness of Siddha Medicine which has its roots in Tamilagam of Sangam era and feels the knowledge should be spread to all.

Mrs. Senthamarai Prabhakar
Secretary

Mrs. Senthamarai Prabhakar (goes by Thamarai), former president of FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America).
www.fetna.org

Served as a Director in the Board, Joint Secretary, Secretary, Vice President, and President in FeTNA from 2011 to 2018.

Also served as President in the local Tamil organization, Greater Charlotte Tamil Association, a registered non-profit organization in North Carolina between 2011 and 2014.
www.cltts.org

Key volunteer in the formation of Tamil schools (Arasinagara Tamil Palli) and an active volunteer teacher till now
https://arasinagaratamilpalli.org/

Active volunteer in various Charitable organizations working on Social, Cultural, Environmental, and Empowerment of Women.

Dr. Ramamani Arumugam (AKA Rama Jayabalan)
Vice President

Currently working as a Research Scientist at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.

Ph. D. (Endocrinology): A. L. Mudaliar Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Taramani, Chennai.

Postdoctoral Fellow: Population Council, NY, USA.
Professional Experience: Published several research articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals in Endocrinology and Diabetes.
They can be found in the below link: https://tinyurl.com/3rscrfen

Community Activities:

Ever since I migrated to the US, I have been volunteering for various Tamil & Indian organizational activities.
Since 2000, I have been actively contributing to the Tamil Sangam of Carolina and served as Secretary (2016-2018).
From 2007, have been actively contributing to the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) and served as Secretary (2016-2018).
Currently serving as Treasurer of American Tamil Media, A media solely focusing on Tamil language heritage and the well-being of Tamil Diaspora across the globe.
Also, have been serving the Global Center for Siddha Medicine and Research (GCSMR) since its conception and recently has been given an opportunity to serve as Joint Secretary.

Jayabalan Sundaravelu
Treasurer

I have a MS in Economics from AVVM Sri Pushpam College, Poondi, Thanjavur. Have been living here in USA about 20 years. Currently working at Duke University Children’s hospital in Finance department of Patient Revenue management.

Although far from home, I have always had passion for serving Tamil community here in US and back home in Tamilnadu. Most of my time is spent on serving the Tamil community. I served as a Board member, Secretary and President in Carolina Tamil Sangam, NC.

My passion for Tamil community and the Tamil language has driven me to help Pollachi Thai Tamil Palli (School) for the past several years. This has been instrumental in the lives of several kids in the school. I have always been a strong supporter and practice natural therapy. I have great interest in Siddha medicine and its outcomes in the growing interests of integrative medicine. It is an honor and great opportunity to serve GCSMR.

Dr. Vijay Janakiraman

Dr. Vijay Janakiraman is a renowned Cardiologist in the USA. He hails from Vadakandam village near Thiruvarur, after his primary education in the village, attended Findlay High School and then college at Vaishnav College at Chennai.

He Studied at Chengalpattu Medical College and initial training at Kilpauk Hospital, Chennai. Moved to the USA in 1975 and did his post Graduate studies in New York and Cardiology training at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Since 1983 he has been practicing Cardiology in the City of Altoona. He has been Chairman, Department of Medicine, Executive Member for several years. He has been a Board of Trustee of the Hospital and served as Chief of Cardiology. Currently Director of cardiology services at the University of Pittsburgh, in Altoona campus. His wife Malliga Janakiraman is from Kumbakonam. He has two children, both are Physicians. Abirami Janakiraman (Daughter) is a consultant at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and Arun Janakiraman (Son), Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.

Dr. Janakiraman is a philanthropist. He has made significant donations and worked for innumerable charity initiatives for the Tamil community in the US and India. His major contribution is the Seed money he Donated the for the Harvard University Tamil Chair. He spent a lot of his valuable time and money to campaign and raising funds. Additionally made a significant donation to lay the foundation for the University of Toronto Tamil Chair.

His generosity has not stopped, it continues as he made huge donation to UC Berkeley in the name of Aringar Anna Chair. He is also working towards making teaching Tamil permanently at UC Berkeley. His donations and campaign have been extended to make the Tamil Department as a continuous entity in Cologne, Germany which must have been completed by now along with significant donation to the Houston Tamil Studies Chair.

Currently he is an active participant several Tamil organizations, including Life Member of Tamil Nadu Foundation, involved in social projects in Tamil Nadu. Life Member of Greater Washington Tamil Sangam, Washington D.C.

Dr. Rajagopala Sridaran

Ph.D.

Ph.D. Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). Atlanta, GA. I earned Ph.D. in Physiology and Endocrinology at the Chicago Medical School, Chicago, IL. Currently serving as Professor of Physiology. As the Director of educational programs of the Department of Physiology, I am responsible for organizing the teaching component of physiology in the integrated first year MD curriculum. In this capacity, I have recruited and mentored faculty for teaching various sections of physiology and organized small group clinical case discussions with basic and clinical faculty members involved as facilitators. I teach endocrine and reproductive physiology in the MD1 curriculum. I serve as the director of the Human Biology graduate course.

Sridaran Laboratory with continuous funding primarily from NIH and NASA for a number of years supported my research programs. The Sridaran laboratory published over 70 full-length manuscripts primarily in reproductive endocrinology. Sridaran laboratory has made significant contributions in this area of research and trained several high school, undergraduate, and medical students. In addition, trained 2 research scholars and 12 postdoctoral fellows who are holding respectable faculty and other positions in the U.S. and globally.

I had the honor and privilege of being elected as the “first faculty chair” of the faculty assembly in 2000. Under my leadership, the faculty executive committee elected by the faculty assembly formulated the bylaws, which were approved and adopted. These bylaws are currently used by the faculty assembly at MSM to address faculty issues and work with the administration and the Board of Trustees to find appropriate solutions to resolve them. These bylaws provide faculty representation at all levels of the governing bodies at MSM, such as the Academic Policy Council headed by the Dean, Board of Trustees, and various committees of the Board of Trustees.

I had the honor of serving as the President of the Georgia Tamil Sangam, Atlanta, GA in 1987 when the bylaws of the Sangam were written and adopted. It served as the basis when the Sangam went through several phases and change of names over 35 years now with much evolved bylaws for the current Greater Atlanta Tamil Sangam.

Management

Board of Directors

Dr. Vijay Janakiraman

Dr. Rajagopala Sridaran