Amanda Ajodhia, PhD

Dr. Amanda Ajodhia is the Founder and Director of Mandala Educational Therapy Inc. She is deeply committed to supporting children and families from diverse backgrounds through a strength‑based, inclusive, and compassionate lens. Mandala Educational Therapy Inc. reflects her long‑standing advocacy for equitable opportunities and meaningful belonging for young people with neurodevelopmental disabilities. With more than 20 years of clinical experience in the GTA, she has supported children and youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger syndrome, global developmental delays, and speech and language delays. She has worked as an ABA/IBI therapist, social‑skills coordinator, program developer, and consultant across private centres, homes, and community organizations. Her therapeutic approach blends applied behavioural analysis, cognitive behavioural therapy, and creative arts therapy. 

Dr. Ajodhia holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, an MA in Early Childhood Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University, and an Honours BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto. Her work centres on school inclusion, belonging, and equitable learning for ethnoculturally diverse young people with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Her research examines school inclusion, belonging, and learning for ethnoculturally diverse young people with neurodevelopmental disabilities in Canada and internationally. She has led research projects in Guyana, Cambodia, and Kazakhstan, with a strong commitment to participatory work with young people with disabilities. Her 2016 monograph, Voices and Visions from Ethnoculturally Diverse Young People with Disabilities received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship (SSHRC) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She continues to publish on diversity, equity, and inclusion in education.

Dr. Ajodhia is currently a Professor in the School of Early Childhood Education at Seneca Polytechnic and has previously held academic roles at Humber Polytechnic (Bachelor of Behavioural Science and Bachelor of Social Science programs), Toronto Metropolitan University (School of Early Childhood Studies), and Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan (Graduate School of Education). She teaches across human rights, equity and inclusion, disability in childhood, curriculum design for diversity, international perspectives on inclusive education, and research methodologies.