Chief Guests

Jenne Alderks

Deputy Mayor, Bothell City Council

Jenne Alderks currently represents the people of Bothell as Deputy Mayor. Jenne started dancing at the age of 2 and still performs Irish dance on stage with her children through Haven Dance Academy in Lynnwood. Some of Jenne's accomplishment on Bothell City Council have been implementing Bothell's first climate action plan, bringing more cultural celebrations to downtown Bothell and building North King County's crisis continuum of care where every community has someone to call, someone to respond, somewhere to go and someone to follow-up when experiencing mental health crisis. By day, Jenne works in behavioral health and human services. 

Prasad Anguluri

Member,Bothell City Council

Prasad Anguluri serves as a Bothell City Councilmember and is the Founder & CEO of HAPLY, an AI-powered platform focused on community living, HOA services, and home services. With a background in technology, entrepreneurship, and civic leadership, he is passionate about building stronger communities through innovation, collaboration, and public service. Prasad actively supports youth leadership and cultural initiatives, and currently serves as the DEI Chair for Washington’s 1st Legislative District covering 6 cities in our region. He is also involved with several nonprofit and entrepreneurial organizations, helping connect technology, business, and community impact. Prasad strongly believes in preserving cultural heritage while inspiring the next generation to contribute meaningfully to society.

Latha Sambamurti

Educator, Community Leader

Latha Sambamurti has won the 2023 Humanities Washington Award, the highest award in the state for public humanities. The award recognizes her leadership, Scholarship,service and advocacy in support of humanities, arts, and culture. She is the producer and director of several large-scale arts and culture festivals in the State of Washington. She has been a Washington state Arts Commissioner and a vice president of Redmond Arts and Culture Commissioner. 

She is an educator, community leader, trained musician, and a band leader. She also won the Kirkland Performance Center’s You Rock award for community service. She serves as a board director for several state and regional arts and cultural organizations. She also serves as a panelist on various prestigious grant panels of City, King county, Washington and Federal govt Arts, cultural and heritage organizations. 

Latha Sambamurti, Indo Canadian, holds a Master's degree in English Literature, pursued her higher studies in Canada and has carried out research on Shakespeare's translations into Indian languages.

Ragini Sri Mani

Founder, RASAA & Musician

Ragini Sri Mani — a name that has graced concert stages, film studios, television screens, and classrooms across two continents.

A truly versatile artist, Ragini brings deep training and mastery across Carnatic, Hindustani, and Western classical traditions. She made her playback debut alongside Yuvan Shankar Raja and has since lent her voice to the films and concerts of some of Tamil cinema’s most beloved composers — A.R. Rahman, Ilayaraja, Harris Jayaraj, GV Prakash Kumar, and Anirudh Ravichander.

Tamil television audiences will know her well — as the title winner of SPB Sir’s Ennodu Pattu Paadungal on Jaya TV, personally invited by the maestro himself to perform alongside him on multiple occasions, and as a finalist and host of Super Singer on Vijay TV, as well as a celebrated guest on many of the channel’s flagship shows.

As one of Tamil cinema’s finest voice actors, Ragini is the voice of Kajal Aggarwal in the blockbuster Thuppakki — a performance that earned personal praise from Actor Vijay, the Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She has also voiced-over for heroines in Director Shankar’s Kappal and Actor Parthiban’s Kadhai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam.

As a composer, her debut album The London Bridge Sessions was hailed by world-renowned producer Chris Craker as one of the finest music albums of all time — and was released personally on his inaugural label, Karma Studios.

Beyond the spotlight, Ragini is a devoted teacher and mentor. Her academy, RASAA — Ragini Sri Academy of Arts, stands as one of the leading Carnatic music schools in the Pacific Northwest, where over 95% of her students have scored distinction in the highly competitive Silicon Andhra University music examinations.