Born and raised in the south Indian city of Hyderabad, Dr.SriPadmini Chennapragada holds a PhD in Adapted Physical Activity/Education (APA/E) from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) at Denton, Texas, USA. Her research major is Adapted Physical Education while minor specializations are Educational Leadership and
Sport Management. She also holds a Master of Science in Kinesiology (APA) from TWU and a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (B.P.T) from Dr. NTRUHS in India. The goal of her doctoral research was to identify barriers (including healthcare and educational) that are affecting sport or physical activity opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwD) in India. The exposure to services that are provided to PwD in the United States is a major inspiration behind her interest to take APA into schools and communities of developing countries.
In 2016, she met Sunil Jain the Founder Trustee of Astha, a non-profit based out of Bengaluru, India that promotes equitable sporting opportunities for PwD. Since then, Padmini supports the Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour (IWTT), an Astha initiative that works for development of Wheelchair Tennis in India. She has completed the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC)’s Paralympic Athletics National Classifier Training Course in October, 2017 . To create world class training opportunities for Indian Paralympic athletes and PwD through athlete empowerment programs, she is currently engaged in raising awareness through #AdaptedSportsIndia movement on social media. She regularly conducts #ASIChats on Mondays at 8:00 PM (IST).
She is the Founder Director of the Adapted Sports India Foundation (ASIF). Through the Foundation, she is creating education and awareness programs to improve public knowledge about equitable access to sporting opportunities for persons with disabilities in India. Additionally, she supports research programs to increase the global research footprint of Indian authors in internationally peer-reviewed journals.