Past Board Members
Kodava Koota is grateful to the following past board members for their dedicated service to the organization and the Kodava community.
Appachu Ballachanda
Founding Board Member and Vice President (2017 - 2021)
Appanna Chottera
Founding Board Member and Secretary (2017 - 2024)
Nalini Kuliyakanda
Founding Board Member - Culture and Traditions (2017 - 2024)
Avinash Chottangada
Board Member and Treasurer (2017 - 2024)
Avinash is a management professional with ~18 years of experience in Management Consulting, Business Transformation, Operations Excellence, Supply Chain, Data Science and Business Analytics domains for Services, Heavy Manufacturing, and Aviation industries. Currently he works for a major carrier and a fortune 50 company where he manages few business functions for them globally.
Avinash lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife Rupica, kids Akul and Anaica. He moved to US in 2004 to pursue his higher education and has lived in multiple cities across the east coast. For leisure, he and his family enjoy traveling, outdoor activities, socializing with friends, and spending time with their extended family in Coorg, where they take care of their plantation and family business. His personal interests are current affairs, real estate, automobiles, movies, and music.
Avinash is responsible for the financials of KodavaKoota that involves activities such as tracking of inward and outward funds, reporting, managing the payment channels, financial planning, funding of initiatives and tax management. Along with this he is also responsible for the board governance, identifying opportunities for sponsorship, evangelizing the opportunity, and bringing the stakeholders together. He enjoys being part of the KodavaKoota board by providing insights, navigating through operational challenges, and helping Kodava community in North America and Kodagu.
Dr. Keerthana Theethamada
Board Member and North American Initiatives (2020 - 2024)
Keerthana Karumbaiah Theethamada (Kalengada) is a cardiologist at Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, Texas. She grew up in Bangalore and fondly remembers spending her summer holidays in Coorg, where she developed a deep connection to her Kodava roots. After completing medical school at Bangalore Medical College, she moved to the United States for further studies. She completed her internal medicine residency at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, before heading south for her cardiology fellowship at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.
In addition to her medical practice, Keerthana is actively involved in academics, serving as a community adjunct faculty member for Texas A&M’s family practice residency program in San Angelo. She embraces the vibrant life of West Texas with her husband, Theethamada Tarun Poonacha, their two sons—Riaan and Aarya—and their beloved cats.
Keerthana describes herself as a “heartist,” blending her passion for medicine with her love for the arts. When she isn’t busy caring for patients, she enjoys painting, crocheting, quilting, and sewing. Running serves as her personal therapy, and she has successfully completed 10 marathons and an ultramarathon. She also enjoys preparing traditional pandi curry for her friends and family.
Keerthana credits her Kodava cultural influences to her parents, who were deeply involved in the Kodava Samaja in Bangalore and were founding members of their local Kodava Sangha. This strong cultural foundation, filled with Kodava festivals and celebrations, fostered in her a lifelong love and respect for Kodava traditions and language.
She has been actively involved in Kodava Koota’s Giving Tree education initiative (GT). She recognizes the importance of the gift of education and how it helped her realize her dreams and aspirations. She is committed to paying it forward to the next generation of students through this program.
If you would like to donate to or get involved with the Giving Tree initiative, you can contact her through the initiative’s link on this website.
