Barbara Fordham is married to Michael Fordham; they share four children and ten marvelous grandchildren. She attended college in Boston, majoring in biology. She became a registered physical therapist and practiced in Connecticut, California and Utah. She served on the Salt Lake YWCA Board where she pioneered and taught a program for post-mastectomy patients. Certified as an aerobics instructor, she taught aerobics at 6:00 am three days a week for over twenty years, and served as an officer in PTA programs and as a classroom volunteer. She traveled to India with husband Mike and invented ways to teach English at Gramyanchal Mahila Vidyapeeth for a month each year for 20 years. While in India, she bought handmade silk scarves and sold them in Salt Lake City to raise money for dozens of scholarships for the girls at the school.
Michael Fordham, husband of Barbara Fordham, has four children and ten grandchildren. He has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. He served as Director of Research and later as the director of Granite Mental Health Center. He has served as a consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health, to the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, as Chairman of the Utah Mental Health Program Directors Association, and was appointed by the Governor to several Utah State Boards in the health and mental health areas. He was given Fellow status and also served on the Advisory Board of the American Academy of Health Service Providers in the Addictive Disorders. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He served as Board President of FWERW for over twenty-five years. He traveled to India to teach at GMV for a month each year for twenty years.
“George Washington Carver was correct when he said ‘Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom’. It is a pleasure to be a part of supporting that promise.”
Motivated by a deep commitment to independence and equality, I was honored to join the board in 2022. My professional journey spans more than 25 years in banking and finance, and I currently serve as an Executive Director in credit risk management at a globally recognized wealth management firm.
Nothing feeds my soul more than contributing to a ripple effect that lifts a collective vibration toward the greater good. I believe few things in life are truly random—when we’re given the power to choose our place and purpose, it can lead to transformation.
Serving on this board is a privilege that reaches far beyond professional titles and academic credentials. I’ve been fortunate to make choices that shaped my path—and now, I’m committed to helping others do the same. Through the transformative power of education, this foundation equips young women who might otherwise face limited opportunity—with the confidence to rise, choose boldly, and step into their fullest potential. It’s an honor to be part of a mission that changes lives so profoundly.
Marilyn Johnson has a B. S. From Duke and an M. A. T. From Harvard. She spent her last ten years of teaching, before retiring, as an ESL teacher for adult immigrants.
“My husband Walt and I have five daughters. My cousin (Michael Fordham) knew we had just returned from a year plus another semester teaching in Nanjing, China with the BYU China Teachers program. He asked us if we would be interested in teaching for a month at the GMV school for girls in Varanasi, India. Walt and I both thought that sounded like a wonderful opportunity. We both feel deeply about girls in the U.S. and all over the world getting an education. We believe as Dr. Singh has said, ‘You educate the girls. You educate the society’. We have enjoyed through the years having exchange students in our home from other countries. I was a high school AFS exchange student in Austria and after many years we are close friends with my AFS family. I wanted all our daughters to experience being at the GMV school. In the last 10 years my husband and I went often to teach and now each of our five daughters have been able to come to the school. They understand our love for the girls at GMV and their enthusiasm for learning and achievement. We have seen the girls go on to college and several are now teaching at the school. It has been exciting to see the girls become educated and fulfill their dreams.”
Orla Beth Peck is an Idaho native who graduated from Utah State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Education in 1975 and worked in banking from 1976 to 1981. She became a credit union examiner in 1981 and became Supervisor of the Credit Union division in 1991. She was active in the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors (NASCUS) for many years and was elected Chairman of NASCUS in 2011. She retired in July of 2014 and learned to play the piano at age 60. She has ably served as the Board’s Treasurer since 2016.
“I have been inspired by Narayani’s achievements in educating girls in India, who have no other opportunity to receive an education, and I greatly enjoyed my visit to the school.”
Suman Singh is a native of Mumbai and the mother of three sons. She came to the United States at age nineteen and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Utah. She has worked in the Biology Department at the University of Utah, focusing on post-award management and accounting. Currently, she serves as a Grants and Contracts Officer at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute Department where she supports both pre-award and post-award activities for principal investigators. As Dr. Singh’s daughter-in-law, she has been involved with GMV School for many years.
I, Narayani Prasad Singh was born in a village in India. I earned my Bachelor of Science majoring in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from the top university of India, Banaras Hindu University. I earned a Ph.D in Chemistry from Banaras Hindu University in 1966. In 1967 I became a nuclear scientist in Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Bombay.
I came to the United States in 1971. After struggling for some time I got a job as a scientist at New York University. My supervisor was a Princeton University graduate, Dr. Wrenn. I did a superb job supervising a Ph. D. student. When Dr. Wrenn was offered the job of Director of the Radiobiology Lab at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, he offered me a job as an Associate Professor.
In the meantime my father donated four acres of his land in my village. We established GMV in 1990, starting with an Intermediate College from 6th to 12th grades. This year there are almost one thousand students coming from very poor families. We also established a postgraduate college. We have almost nine hundred students being educated in Science, Business and Humanities.
Camille Tarics is a Utah native who received a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Utah and a law degree from Brigham Young University. She began her career as an oil and gas attorney, working for Columbia Gas Development Corporation in Houston, Texas. After taking a break to raise her three children, she returned to Utah in 2014. Finding that the thought of returning to oil and gas law held no appeal, she started a second, much more fulfilling career writing grants for nonprofits. She has been working with FWERW since 2016 and is currently serving as Board President. “This is the most deserving charity I have ever worked with. I am honored to help bring the benefits of education, which we take for granted for our own daughters and granddaughters, to girls in rural India.”
Dr. Vandana Ramachandran is a Professor at the David Eccles School of Business (DESB). She received her Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Maryland, College Park, and prior to that earned her Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Computer Science and Engineering, and Masters in Information Systems from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Her research work examines how the availability of different types of information, as well as the presence of information asymmetries and frictions affect outcomes for consumer and firms in digital markets. She uses statistics, econometrics, machine learning , deep learning, AI and data science to study business and digital phenomenon. Her work has been conducted in collaboration with several industry partners in different domains. She teaches courses related to AI, big data, data science, business analytics, systems analysis and design, and project management to undergraduates, Masters in Information Systems (MSIS) and Business Analytics (MSBA) and MBA programs. She is a founding member of the University of Utah’s Undergraduate Research Council and served as former faculty coordinator for IS study abroad programs, frequently teaching students about technology in Europe and Asia.
Having grown up in Muscat, Oman, she came to the US at age 16 to pursue higher education. Her late father came from very humble beginnings in India, including a village school that she frequently visited as a child. Her parents have supported numerous educational initiatives in India over the years and instilled a deep love of supporting education for underprivileged children. As a new member to the FWERW board since 2025, she is so happy to give back through this meaningful organization and school, and looks forward to visiting the school in person someday with her twin boys and husband.
