Vandana Goyal is the CEO of Akanksha Foundation. Vandana worked with the Boston-based non-profit organization Citizen Schools, an organisation dedicated to changing the life trajectories of underprivileged children in urban areas, for four years. She is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College, with a degree in Economics, and as part of her undergraduate studies spent a year at the London School of Economics.

At Akanksha, Vandana served on the team to create a blueprint for Teach for India, later moving on to manage the Beyond School department serving all adolescent children of Akanksha. In 2007, she became the Director of The School Project, launched to create a network of high-achieving schools within the government system. She took over as CEO in January 2010.