6 Indian-Americans receive prestigious award in US

Six Indian-Americans and a British-Indian were among nearly 100 individuals who were presented prestigious 2015 Ellis Island Medals of Honor in the US for their contributions to America.

Indian-American winners include Meera Gandhi, founder of The Giving Back Foundation, Rajdeep K Dhami, Chad P Gehani, Rahul M Jindal, S Mona Sinha, chairperson of the Asian Women's Leadership University (AWLU) Project, and K V Kumar.

Baroness Sandip Verma, member of the House of Lords, and a former junior minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK, also received the award presented recently in New York.

Gandhi's The Giving Back Foundation is geared towards alleviating illness, poverty and suffering while also addressing education issues which affect women and children around the world.

Gehani, former president of the New York State Dental Association, lives in Queens, New York.

In November 2006 Gehani was honored by the New York State Dental Foundation with the Foundation of Excellence in Community Service Award.

Jindal who is currently a Staff Transplant Surgeon at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and professor of Surgery and Global Health at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

In 2013, Jindal received the Leadership Award by the International Leadership Foundation in Washington.

The same year he also received the Outstanding American by choice award by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
He was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to carry out research and teaching in India.

Sinha who is a founding member of the Asian Women's Leadership project, focused on empowering women as future leaders of Asia.

She is a trustee of Smith College, her alma mater and also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Social Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School and the Global Mental Health Program at the Columbia School of Public Health, and as a trustee of All Souls School in New York.

Kumar who is the managing partner of Kumar & Talvadkar Associates, a Management Consulting Company.

Kumar has turned around many projects including most recently a privately held healthcare company in Southern California.

The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is an American award founded by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations which pays homage to the immigrant experience and the contribution made to America by immigrants and their children.

The medals are awarded to native-born and naturalized US citizens.