Faculty Feature: Padmini Chelluri

If you ask Professor Padmini Chelluri about her career trajectory, she will not begin with titles or achievements, though there are many. She starts somewhere far more personal. “I’m a daughter of very grateful parents, and a mother of two beautiful kids,” she says, as if to anchor her entire story to the people who shaped her. That grounding presence follows her everywhere, from her work at Apple as a Senior Engineering Program Manager to her classroom at Northeastern University and to every student who crosses her path.

Her journey into project and program management was anything but planned. Growing up in India, Padmini completed a master’s degree in economics and explored computer science and business courses, fascinated by the idea of blending data, technology, and decision-making. The turning point came when she moved to the United States – a shift she describes as both a cultural adjustment and a personal transformation.

“I had to unlearn so much and learn everything again,” she recalls. Her first job in the U.S. was in sales, a role she embraced with determination. “You learn to convince people. You learn resilience.” That willingness to start anywhere and keep moving forward would become a defining pattern in her life.

From sales she moved to programming, then testing, and later release management. After taking time off to raise her children, Padmini returned to a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Rather than feeling discouraged, she immersed herself in learning again. A manager soon recognized something in her – clarity, steadiness, and an ability to see the bigger picture. He told her, “You would be a very good program manager.” It was the nudge she didn’t know she needed.

Her expertise deepened through roles at Microsoft, Agilent Technologies, Sony, and ultimately Apple. She became known for her leadership in Agile and Kanban, training hundreds of employees and contributing to internal tools used across the organization. Her ability to transform ambiguity into structure, along with her talent for guiding diverse teams, made her a trusted voice in program management circles.

But through all the career turns, she kept studying. At Stanford, she pursued advanced project and program management and later applied for one of the university’s highly selective executive programs. Northeastern’s access to Harvard writing resources helped her craft an application essay she felt deeply connected to. When the admission email arrived, she felt a quiet and meaningful affirmation that the path she had been on was exactly where she was meant to be.

Teaching came into her life just as unexpectedly. A Northeastern recruiter reached out on LinkedIn, looking for seasoned program managers who could bring lived experience into the classroom. Padmini interviewed without expectations and walked out with a teaching offer that would become one of the most meaningful threads of her life.

When she talks about her students, her voice softens. “I see their naiveness, their excitement, and their potential. And I know they will thrive.” Her classroom is intentionally open and fear-free. She invites questions, stories, mistakes, and reflection. She blends her lessons with lived examples from Apple, from Stanford, and from her years navigating change. More than anything, she encourages empathy: understanding people not just on the surface but deeply.

Her students often come from fields far outside tech, including law, healthcare, pharma, and design. Their perspectives breathe life into project management concepts, and Padmini learns from them as much as they learn from her. “They bring their own lenses, their own stories. I grow with them.”

Outside of work, Padmini devotes her skills to the Sankara Eye Foundation, a nonprofit focused on eliminating curable blindness among the underserved in rural India. Most recently, she singlehandedly managed an event at the Santa Clara Convention Center that welcomed nearly 4,700 attendees. “It’s just project management,” she says modestly, though the pride in her voice reveals just how meaningful the work is to her.

Her personal life is filled with stories of its own. She has traveled to all seven continents and makes it a ritual to visit a grocery store wherever she goes, cooking something local to understand a place through its ingredients. On a family trip to Antarctica, she tried to ration snacks for the ship journey ahead, only to have her children uncover and finish everything before they even boarded. “They tell me I’m a good seller because I can convince them,” she laughs. “But that day, nothing worked.”

Creativity fills the quieter corners of her life. She loves gardening, though she admits she first had to overcome her son jokingly calling her a “plant murderer.” She learned what grows in the Californian soil and how to make her garden flourish. She also makes beautiful things out of scraps, whether fabric, paper, or anything that can be transformed. “It’s about making unnecessary things necessary,” she says, seeing possibility in even the smallest materials.

As she reflects on her journey, she credits her inspiration to people: her kids, her parents, her students, and the countless individuals who come to the U.S. chasing dreams with courage she deeply admires. Their stories remind her to rise each day with gratitude and purpose.

She often recommends books that have shaped her as both a leader and educator. Getting (More Of) What You Want by Margaret Neale and Thomas Lys, Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, and Resonate by Nancy Duarte have all influenced her approach. Duarte’s work, in particular, transformed her understanding of storytelling and continues to guide her thinking today.

Looking ahead, Padmini hopes to build her own framework, one that bridges industry and academia with compassion, clarity, and leadership. It is a natural continuation of her life’s work: guiding others, sharing the lessons of decades, and helping students grow not just in skills but in understanding.

Her story is not just about becoming a program manager, an Apple leader, or a distinguished scholar. It is about weaving together every experience, every challenge, class, culture, journey, and conversation, to create a life centered on impact, curiosity, and heart.

And in her classroom at Northeastern, that story continues to grow through every student she teaches.