Her Story
About Saroni
Saroni Kundu owns a mental health care clinic, which she has led since 2023. She also serves as a customer experience specialist at a bank. Her career began in technology, where she spent 20 to 25 years working at Fortune 500 companies such as MasterCard and Equifax before transitioning in 2017 to customer experience and user experience roles. She applies these principles to prioritize clinician experience in her clinic operations. Kundu holds a master's degree in computer science, having completed her schooling in Zambia and Botswana, her undergraduate studies in Botswana, and her graduate work in Kansas. She attributes her success to her family and her spiritual practice of Nichiren Buddhism, which has been transformational in recent years. Her values center on authenticity and empathy, and she is driven by a mission to create impactful work in mental health care and community support.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Saroni
01What do you attribute your success to?
Definitely my family. And also my spiritual practice. I practiced Nigerian Buddhism, and last 3 years has or last 2 years has really been very transformational, and I do thank my Buddhist practice for that.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My best career advice is to myself. I knew that inside of myself I knew that I wanted to do something that was impactful to the world and the community. Took me a while to get there. Sometimes life has to jar your path to say okay maybe this is what you need to be doing.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Always advocate for yourself, believe in your abilities. And always start imperfectly. Don't ever think that you're you don't have enough information or you're not good enough. Start and then the path will lead you the right place.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in the mental health care industry is that although many of us strive to provide services to as many people as we possibly can, it's hard to do that when health insurance companies don't reimburse you very well. A lot of clinic owners have to go towards having cash pay because they need to sustain a living. That causes clinician burnout and shortage of clinics.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Being authentic and empathetic, those two are the very very top of the list for me.
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