Carmel City Councilor Anita Joshi named 2025 Interfaith Ambassador of the Year

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Carmel City Councilor Dr. Anita Joshi, who serves the West District of the city, was recently named the 2025 Interfaith Ambassador of the Year by the Center for Interfaith Cooperation. Dr. Joshi will receive her award at the Interfaith Banquet in early 2025.

Anita Joshi, MD, FAAP was born and raised in New Jersey and is a graduate of UConn Medical School. She has been an Indiana resident since 1998 and is the owner of Joshi Pediatrics, a private pediatrics practice in Crawfordsville, Ind.

Dr. Joshi has served on Boards of Orchard School and Brebeuf Jesuit, where she worked on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She completed her term as the Vice Chair of the Board at Brebeuf and received the Heart of Brebeuf award in 2022 for her work as chair of the medical task force during the COVID pandemic.

She was a founding member of the Women for Riley Board, a charitable board member for Riley Children’s Hospital, the Grants Chair for Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, Executive Board member and advisory board member of Patchwork Indy, Chair of Fiscal Sustainability at the Center for Interfaith Cooperation, and chaired the Interfaith Ambassador Dinner honoring Betty Brandt in 2020.

Dr. Joshi has been a speaker at the Center for Interfaith Cooperation, the Carmel Interfaith Alliance, Butler University, University of Indianapolis, Salesforce, Lilly, and Corteva.

She has been an active member of the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana serving as a teacher in the children’s program, Balagokulam. She has also served as the community relations liaison for the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana and given countless tours of the temple and explained principals of Hinduism to university, high school and middle school students, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, and many diverse faith congregations throughout central Indiana.

Seeing the need for more flexibility she worked to obtain a grant from the Center for Congregations to create an individualized iPad tour for the Hindu Temple of Central Indiana that is available and still in use today. She has spoken at local congregations representing the Hindu Temple to condemn acts of violence, and antisemitism and at Martin Luther King Day celebrations. She has testified before the Indiana State Legislature on the importance of hate crimes legislation.

Dr. Joshi has continued to use her voice to serve her community and was elected to the Carmel City Council in 2024 where she is serving a four-year term.