As part of her volunteer work for InStepp Inc., Susheela Chandrasekaran has been bravely helping a woman without a driver’s license get behind the wheel for the first time. “At first the gravity of the situation didn’t really hit me,” she said. But then she suddenly realized, “I don’t even have a break under my control! You know, like they do in an official driver’s ed situation? It’s scary when you step back and think about it,” she said. But none of this stopped Shusheela, who calls herself “a feminist at heart.” She admires the grit of women who come to InStepp seeking help, trying to better their lives. And she deems driving a car “essential for independence and finding work.”
Susheela has also served as a Communications Volunteer for InStepp, writing several Ambassador-of-the-Month profiles and helping with special events. When Susheela is not volunteering for InStepp, she enjoys many hobbies: painting, cooking, gardening, and “curling up on the couch to watch foreign movies.” An engineer by profession with an MS in Information Technology Management, she is taking time away from her career at present to spend more time with her daughter, a four-year old “energizer-bunny,” her dog Connor, who functions as a “stabilizer,” and her husband, otherwise known as a “pillar of support.” And InStepp is not her only volunteer gig. She also supports Human Beans Together, an organization that serves a hot lunch to the homeless every Sunday in Raleigh, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.