Riad Mahmood, FOUNDER
Priyanka Goswami, DIRECTOR
Subhashim Goswami, DIRECTOR CONSULTANT

Riad Mahmood, FOUNDER
Riad’s vision for the foundation is to integrate arts in the space of education. One of the core goals of the foundation is to give young people opportunities to learn different skills, research on different topics and experience the world through this new awareness and understanding. The RMEAF has worked with theatre groups and has produced plays, writers’ programmes and  directors’ programmes.

Before starting the foundation in 2013, Riad worked on further strengthening the Head Start Montessori House of Children. He managed the sourcing of funding for land and construction of the House of Children, at a time when there was very little money in the education space. His passion led to Head Start having its own space today becoming a well-established Montessori House of Children.  In 2010, he started Early Years Montessori for younger children. This was a space for parents who wanted to send their children to a learning space at an early age, a school that could collaborate with parents in bringing children up. He has also established a high school, Head ‎Start Educational Academy, which caters to students from Grade 1 to 12. He has recently set up an AMI Montessori Training centre at Head Start Montessori House of Children, in association with Navadisha Foundation, Chennai. This course trains teachers to work with three to six year olds.

Raid has a degree in commerce and business administration. He spent his initial working years with a shoe manufacturing and trading company. Realising that this was not what he wanted to spend his time with, he took up a job at Head Start Montessori House of Children and has continued in the field of education ever since.

Outside of work, Riad is passionate about sports. He has played cricket for his college and club. He had been a runner for a long time now. Golf is the sport he loves the most and he plays whenever he can. He has participated in many amateur tournaments and has played as an amateur at the Southern India Open.

Priyanka Goswami, DIRECTOR
Priyanka has completed her Master of Arts in Education from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. She is passionate about the arts and has a graduation degree in graphics and communication. She has developed various modules for children which include integrating music and science (called Teaching Sound without Sound published on the Teacher of India portal), music and mathematics and also a module on spices which integrates various subjects including history, geography, mathematics, theater, filming, language and sensory activities. She has conducted teacher training workshops and developed and conducted a three workshop for a certified course for Digantar, an NGO based in Jaipur called the Nature and Pedagogy of Language. She also takes interest in research in education and conducted a research in three blocks in Jaipur to understand the concerns related with implementation of the RtE Act in private schools which was published in Shiksha Vimarsh magazine. She has presented a paper in the CESI conference on the Importance of Pop Culture in Language Learning and a paper in Rajasthan University on the Prerequisites of a Proper Translation. She has published various articles in education magazines and as a story writer has published two short stories for children for Room to Read. Priyanka is a professional western vocalist and has performed across India for over eight years. She takes keen interest in crafts and does carpentry, paper mache, puppet making, lamp designing for she believes that working with the body in tandem with the mind is deeply connected with true learning which is what she continues to work towards.

Subhashim Goswami, DIRECTOR CONSULTANT
Subhashim Goswami, is a sociologist interested in questions of research methodology and visual studies besides working with children using theatre as a pedagogical tool and creating plays for very young children. He has recently submitted his doctoral thesis from the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, which probed the question of method in social sciences. In an interim period of eight years between his M.Phil and doctoral research, Subhashim co-founded a research and media collective in collaboration with a film-maker and a researcher which allowed him to explore various kinds of research questions and engage with diverse field sites and locations in terms of people’s world views, practices and ways of life and living. Working and collaborating with other kinds of practitioners allowed him to explore the use of varied research techniques and media forms from ethnography, documentary films to public art and community media. Currently he holds a visiting faculty position at the Shiv Nadar University besides being a consultant dramaturg and theatre director working on creating plays for toddlers. His publications include books and research papers on method in the social sciences, visuality, masculinity and on practices which lie at the interstices of research and art. His other works are documentary films, and art installations besides a few plays he has been a part of in the making.