Meet Founder & President, Ananya Nagendra!


Ananya Nagendra is the founder and CEO of the Letters of Light Foundation, a 501(c)(3) working to give all cancer patients support and access to mental health care. Going to chemotherapy appointments with her mother made her consistently see how a terrifying number of cancer patients don't receive any support as they go through treatment. So, Ananya became determined to offer support to patients in treatment in any way she could. Ananya soon noticed that letter writing is so rare nowadays, and the chances of receiving a heartfelt, handwritten letter are close to zero. Through seeing this, she realized letters are a special way for students of all ages to encourage and empower patients in treatment. Letters of Light has grown to become so much more through its free preventive healthcare information sessions for high school and college students, as well as the Books of Light initiative, which provides newly diagnosed cancer patients from minority communities with access to education on mental wellness during cancer treatment, support resources, diet plans, and more. Partnering with social workers and oncology care organizations worldwide, Letters of Light collaborates with Baylor Scott & White, Methodist Health, Children’s Medical, Texas Oncology, Kits to Heart, and others, with the goal of one day providing comprehensive support to all cancer patients throughout their treatments. Ananya has been named a Riley's Way Call for Kindness Fellow, Chipotle Mexican Grill Do Good Grant recipient, Volunteer McKinney Youth Leader of the Year 2025, and has received special recognition from the Dallas Mayor. Ananya has now been driving the Letters of Light mission for almost three years, and she has made it her life's goal to get more and more patients into remission while teaching the youth about the importance of community support. 

Meet Our Team & What We Do!

We are a student-run organization and have curated a systematic approach to auditing letters and have written our organization's letter guidelines for letter donations from volunteers! The letter auditing process consists of volunteers writing letters at our letter-writing events then filling out a check-in form to help us keep track of the number of letters written in total. Then, the letter auditors are given the letters to go through and ensure our Letters of Light letter guidelines are met for patient donations. You can view our letter guidelines below!

Sophie Nguyen - Secretary

Kyrie Keith - Website/Technology Manager

Ashwin Goel - Website/Technology Manager

Nicholas Nguyen - Letter Auditor

Shivam Tripathi - Letter Auditor

Johana Alexander - Letter Auditor

Theresa Le - Letter Auditor

Lena Nelson - Letter Auditor

Renuka Khopade - Letter Auditor

Archana Annampedu - Public Relation

Neha Vietla - Public Relation

Katherine Vu - Public Relation

Neel Kuppa - Public Relation

Emily Jacob - Upperclassmen Representative

Collin Nguyen - Upperclassmen Representative

Letters of Light Foundation is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization