{"id":15476,"date":"2015-09-29T09:35:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=15476"},"modified":"2015-12-28T15:15:10","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T22:15:10","slug":"jyotsna-raj-candidate-comes-from-a-family-rooted-in-academics-womens-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=15476","title":{"rendered":"Jyotsna Raj, candidate comes from a family rooted in academics, women\u2019s leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist<\/a>

Artist Jyotsna Raj poses with her painting “Buddha’s Lotus” (photo courtesy Jyotsna Raj)<\/p><\/div>\n

During her last bid for City Council, artist Jyotsna Raj heard from a group of Boulder\u2019s homeless at a forum. She was taken by their issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt pulled on my heart and I saw how marginalized they were on various issues,\u201d Raj says. \u201cAfter the election, I went back and said \u2018You interest me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Raj, who was not elected to the Boulder City Council during that 2009 bid, still took it upon herself to be a civic servant. She began volunteering with the homeless clients of the Bridge House. She did Henna body art for some of the women clients and facilitated an art program at the day shelter. Raj, recognizing the many talents of the group, arranged exhibitions of their work at the library and at the Gondolier Restaurant on Pearl Street.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old University Hill resident is a painter who specializes in Indian folk art, children\u2019s art and illustrations. She\u2019s also a former professor who comes from a family rooted in academics and community involvement.<\/p>\n

Raj\u2019s grandfather, S.S. Bhatnagar, was a chemist who established the National Research Laboratory system in India. The \u201cBhatnagar Award\u201d\u2014which could be considered the Indian version of the Nobel Prize\u2014is named after her grandfather. Her grandmother was a former city council member. And, Raj\u2019s great aunt Mahadevi started a girl\u2019s school in 1902 known as Mahadevi Kanya Pathshala, which, today, is the largest women\u2019s college in India.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from a very academic family and come from a family of extremely strong women who are great women\u2019s rights advocates,\u201d Raj says.<\/p>\n

Raj, in continuing the spirit of that legacy, is a member of the University Women\u2019s Club at the University of Colorado, which awards scholarships to nontraditional students every year.<\/p>\n

Raj grew up in India and, at age 24, immigrated to the United States with her husband Rishi Raj, who is a mechanical engineering professor at CU. She earned a master\u2019s degree in English Literature and previously taught at Kanpur University. Prior to moving to Boulder, she and her spouse lived in Ithaca, New York, where she volunteered with literacy programs.<\/p>\n

During Raj\u2019s first run for council, she was focused on compatible development\u2014coming off the heels of leading a successful movement to secure historic designation for two University Hill blocks along 14th Street. Since 2009, though, her experience volunteering and serving on boards has introduced her to many more constituencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI volunteer a lot and serve on several boards and have come across a lot of people who don\u2019t feel heard,\u201d Raj says.<\/p>\n

Raj has served on boards ranging from BOHO, a community program to provide shelter to the homeless on cold nights, to the University Hill Commercial Area Management Commission, which advises the city and council on hill issues such as parking and land acquisition. An avid reader, she also started a book group at the library a few years ago called \u201cThe Great Indian Novel,\u201d focusing on literature from the Indian subcontinent.<\/p>\n

Former Boulder City Council member Crystal Gray became acquainted with Raj when Raj came before council with historic preservation efforts.<\/p>\n

Gray was impressed with Raj\u2019s focused and positive approach, as well as how she built community in the historic neighborhood, which had housed university professors in the early 1900\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really impresses me about Jyotsna is her involvement in the City of Boulder,\u201d Gray says. \u201cIt\u2019s quite deep in ways that I really think would enrich City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray also says she\u2019s impressed with Raj\u2019s \u201cgreen\u201d lifestyle that includes gardening, composting and making use of public transportation.<\/p>\n

Raj\u2019s involvement with the university can also help inform the council on town-gown issues, Gray says.<\/p>\n

Raj, a mother of three grown children, enjoys being in the outdoors\u2014hiking in Chautauqua and Shanahan Ridge. She\u2019s also an avid gardener, with a garden overflowing with flowers, tomatoes and zucchinis and she enjoys sharing her bounty with her neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also love the public library, which is truly my second home,\u201d Raj says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During her last bid for City Council, artist Jyotsna Raj heard from a group of Boulder\u2019s homeless at a forum. She was taken by their issues. \u201cIt pulled on my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1211,"featured_media":15478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1101,11,218,1092,990,148,234,120],"class_list":["post-15476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-cc-candidates","tag-artists","tag-city-council","tag-cu","tag-election-2015","tag-historic-preservation","tag-homeless","tag-library","tag-university-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15476"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15491,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15476\/revisions\/15491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}