Tara Niraula grew up in an isolated village in the northeastern hills of Nepal. At thirteen, young Tara started his first days of formal schooling. By demonstrating sheer determination early on, he was top in his grades, often school-wide, through his school years. A graduate of Tribhuvan University, he relocated to New York, USA, to pursue double master’s degrees in educational administration at Teachers College, Columbia University. However, this did not end his desire to learn, as he also pursued his doctorate in organization and leadership in education at the same Ivy League institution.
During his stay in Nepal, he was an administrator and education program officer of the Save the Children Fund and Swiss Development Cooperation, respectively, for approximately ten years. As an academician and development professional in Nepal, he has significantly developed aspiring school teachers’ teaching methods and strategies through his much-appreciated lectures and instructional materials.
He decided to join Teachers College (the graduate school) of Columbia University, where he took his graduate and postgraduate studies. Where he assumed several positions, namely research and program associate, graduate instructor; senior research scholar, and director of Education Schools Research Project. Aside from his position at Teachers College, Mr. Niraula worked as an education researcher and consultant at Fordham University Graduate School of Education and as the director and an education faculty member at the Institute for Urban Education, New School University. He also served as the executive administrator of the Backstreet Graduate School of Education, New York.
He served as the president of the student senate (student government) of Teachers College, Columbia University, where he represented approximately five thousand graduate and postgraduate students to the college’s board of trustees and Columbia University senate in the mid-1990s. He also serves as a member of the Alumni Council, a body that represents more than ninety thousand graduates of Teachers College, Columbia University. He was twice a member of Nepal’s delegation to the executive board meeting of the United Nations Children’s Fund in the ’90s; and the president and vice president of both the Nepalese Americas Council/Non-Resident Nepali Association, North America Coordination Council, a coordinating body for over thirty-five organizations and Nepali diaspora in North America, and the America Nepal Friendship Society. In 2009, as the president of the Nepalese Americas Council (also a coordinating body for the NRNA in North America), he laid a foundation to establish an individual membership-based Non-Resident Nepali Association, the National Coordination Council of the USA. He is the founding member of the America Nepal Medical Foundation and the charter president of the Rotary Club of New York, Queens. He also took on the position of vice president of the Asian American Coalition.
Mr. Niraula received the Asian American Coalition’s Hall of Fame Award. He also worked as the director of education and advocacy of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization for over two hundred community organizations. He was honored as one of the outstanding leaders by the comptroller of the city of New York, with council members of the city council also issuing citations recognizing him as an outstanding and one of the most contributing residents of New York City.