About headSTRONG

how we started and why we care

headSTRONG is a peer-led concussion education campaign. We work with athletes, coaches, parents and legislators to make brain injury something sport talks about openly, before it becomes something it has to manage quietly.

“We ask athletes to know their sport inside and out, yet many are never taught what to do when something feels wrong. I created headSTRONG because I believe protecting your brain should never feel like letting your team down.” Anushka Nag, Founder and Executive Director

About the Curriculum

Each headSTRONG resource is written by athletes in collaboration with sports medicine/neurology professionals, coaches, and educators. All materials are grounded in current research and reviewed by experts to ensure empathy, accessibility, and accuracy. Our slideshows and workshops are based on scientific review and athlete feedback, so every resource reflects both evidence-based knowledge and real athlete experience. We are athletes talking to athletes - that's why we hope the conversation lands better paired with the forms handed out at the start of every season.

Our Founder and Executive Director

Anushka Nag is a brain injury advocate, top-10 ranked USA recurve archer, and senior at Lambert High School in Georgia. She is the founder and executive director of headSTRONG, a youth-led education campaign committed to advancing sports concussion education and destigmatizing symptom reporting for athletes of all sports and levels. Anushka has earned national and state honors in archery. Her experience with chronic tendonitis, combined with the rampant undereducation and concussion-reporting barriers she observed in her community, inspired her to create headSTRONG as a way to give athletes the confidence to recognize symptoms, speak up, and most importantly, support one another. Her advocacy has also extended to policy, including authoring a policy brief proposing changes to Georgia’s Return to Play framework and serving as the youngest Georgia State Lead for the Brain Injury Association of America’s National Brain Injury Conference and Hill Day in Washington, D.C. Beyond sports, Anushka works with Safe Living Space and the Brain Injury Association of Georgia on brain injury research, education, and advocacy, with a particular focus on underrecognized brain injury among survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence. She is also an independent research intern with Emory’s SPARC Lab, where she works on research related to sports concussion and coach-athlete relationships. Anushka hopes to pursue sports neurology, with a long-term goal of understanding and improving long-term brain health in athletes while expanding brain injury education to communities beyond sports.

Our Leadership

Our leadership team brings together peer educators and athletes with different strengths, perspectives, to unite by a shared commitment to brain health. We pride ourselves on partnering with our community to develop educational workshops, build athlete connections across leagues, and measure our impact through the conversations we start.

Special Teams

Alongside our core departments, headSTRONG has specialized teams and focus areas that bring our members together around specific areas of our work. These groups are intentionally cross-functional, allowing members from different departments to contribute their expertise beyond their primary roles. Current focus areas include advocacy, multiple research domains, and multi-disciplinary athlete engagement. Our special teams allow us to pursue emerging ideas and respond to the needs we see in the communities we serve.

Meet The Team

headSTRONG is led by student athletes and peer educators who bring together experience in neuroscience, public health, athletics, research, education, advocacy, and communications.

Misthi Chaudhary

Director of Research

Misthi is a junior at Lambert High school who is passionate about public health advocacy and interested in pursuing neurology in her future. She is committed to raising awareness about the education of concussion safety and hopes to help create a culture where athletes are able to prioritize their physical and mental health. As a dancer for more than 10 years, along with experience exploring a wide range of sports throughout her life, Misthi has developed a strong appreciation for the discipline and physical demands that come with participating in athletics. Through her involvement with HOSA, Misthi has been able to deepen this interest while exploring the world of public health. She strongly believes that preventative care and early education can empower people to prioritize and protect their health before injuries and conditions turn into long term consequences.

Ava Liggon

Director of Outreach & Partnerships

I’m Ava Liggon and I am one of the NAOL founder and Co- Chairs. I have a lot of relationship connections in the neuroscience and research field from my recent experiences in neurology. I also work with BRIDGE Labs- a lab company at the Morehouse College of Medicine that helps spread awareness about Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia, and more! headStrong’s initiative really resonates with me, especially as an athlete and advocate for mental health. I have been playing Volleyball for 3 years now, played basketball for 4 years before quitting, and in both sports I experienced extreme performance anxiety. The day I knew I had to change my mindset was when I got an injury mid season. This is why headStrong is so important to me - we can teach athletes how to manage their anxieties, read the signs and signals of injury, and remind them how important it is to take care of their body and mind through spreading awareness.

Krishitha Giribabu

Director of Workshops & Education

Krishitha is a junior at Lambert High School with a passion for neuroscience and a future goal of pursuing pediatric neurology. She co-founded NAOL (Neurology Association of Lambert), where she shares her interest in neuroscience with other students through education and service. She also has experience in healthcare through interning at pediatric and OT clinics, as well as educating and working with children as an assistant teacher at Tamil School and through an internship in early childhood education. She is especially passionate about headSTRONG’s mission to make brain health and concussion education accessible to students and athletes, while bringing more attention to how these issues can affect younger athletes and women.

Vishesh Sood

Director of Operations

I’m a high school student interested in healthcare and biomedical research. Through six years of HOSA and my involvement in health related research, I’ve explored how research can improve patient care and health outcomes. This lead me to want to advocate for a better quality of life for underserved and underrepresented groups. HeadSTRONG’s mission aligns with my values because I believe supporting athletes means advocating for their health and well being both on and off the field.

Riya Kapoor

Director of Media & Communications

Riya Kapoor is a student at Lambert High School with an enduring interest in neuroscience and a dedicated Varsity Swim and Dive athlete on her high school’s team. In addition, Riya serves as Lambert HOSA’s Reporter, overseeing the chapter’s media, outreach, and public presence while using its social media platforms to strengthen engagement and expand the chapter’s reach. Riya’s background as a Swim and Dive athlete for over 11 years has taught her firsthand the importance of concussion and injury education before athletes begin their competitive season. Through headSTRONG, Riya hopes to draw on her personal experience as a once-injured athlete to educate and impact student-athletes and parents alike, and reduce the stigma surrounding voicing concerns regarding possible injury. Her connection with both the Lambert Varsity Swim and Dive team and Swim Atlanta, a competitive swim organization serving nearly 2,000 athletes, provides headSTRONG with a valuable platform to expand its advocacy and impact beyond Forsyth County.

Navya Gorrepati

Research & Advocacy Team

Hello! My name is Navya Gorrepati and I am a public health advocate, and a junior at Lambert high school in Georgia. I am passionate about behavioral health, community health education, and public health. I am committed to expanding access to health information, supporting people who are not able to advocate for themselves, and advancing awareness of issues affecting mental health across the world. Through my work with Leadership Initiatives’, public health initiative, I was able to contribute to efforts focused on substance abuse awareness, and community education in Birshi Gandu. As a peer leader, with Sources of Strength, I have become involved in promoting pure support among my peers. Additionally, my internship at a behavioral health hospital has provided me exposure to behavioral healthcare, and it has further developed my interest in the relationship between mental health and public health. I am particularly interested in research and advocacy within the fields of neurology and behavioral health.

Suhas Suggu

Education & Advocacy Team

Suhas Suggu is a public health advocate who is committed to improving health equity and health awareness in underserved communities. His research into Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), his work as Executive Director for South Forsyth's HOSA chapter, and his founding of Mindful Motion, his mental health awareness program, all give him a strong desire to ensure all young people receive health information and support, regardless of social, economic or cultural status. He is dedicated to assisting in education and advocacy efforts for headSTRONG, understanding the importance of raising awareness and educating the youth sports community about brain injuries and how to prevent them. He sees that systems and access barriers have an impact on health outcomes and strives to connect the dots between health evidence and community action. He is committed to helping people understand the importance of public health advocacy and that information is not enough. To bring about real change, you need to connect with people where they're at, build trust and establish support systems that help youth put their health first. Suhas is committed to a systemic approach to health, whether it's through peer-led education, curriculum development, community engagement, or direct advocacy. Public health advocacy means to Suhas that no young person is denied the information and support they deserve in maintaining their health, and that a new generation of health leaders and advocates will see health as a right, not a privilege.

Shloka Mopuru

Outreach Team

Shloka Mopuru is a junior at Lambert High School with a strong interest in medicine and student-athlete health. She is a Varsity Basketball player at Lambert, where her experience as an athlete has shown her firsthand how injuries can affect an athlete both physically and mentally. Outside of school and athletics, Shloka works at Commonwealth Primary Care, where she has gained valuable exposure to the healthcare field and strengthened her interest in pursuing medicine. Through headSTRONG, Shloka hopes to combine her experiences in athletics, healthcare, and community involvement to help educate student-athletes about concussions and the importance of speaking up when something does not feel right. She hopes to use her connections within Lambert’s athletic community and her experience in a medical setting to build relationships with athletes, coaches, schools, and healthcare professionals while helping headSTRONG expand its outreach and impact.

Bill Zhou

Workshops & Advocacy Team

My name is Bill Zhou and I am a junior at Lambert High School with dreams of becoming a orthopedic surgeon. As a basketball athlete for Lambert, I've had first hand experiences with injuries such as concussions and much more. That's why it's my goal, as a person who enjoys sports, to help players recover from injury, regain confidence, and ultimately help players return to the game feeling better than ever before. My passion for medicine increases every day - I am interested in how the body works and moves. Most importantly through headSTRONG, I want to raise awareness about head injuries to people who don't have access to education to help protect themselves and others. In my role, I can provide this team with a first hand experience of when it happened, when I found out, and recovery.