SumitaB@discoveryctr.net

Leading Discovery Counseling Center is a deep and personal honor for Sumita Bhandari. As the child of immigrant parents, she grew up understanding that connection to community can look different for every family, and that the path to accessing support, including mental health care, is shaped by culture, language, and lived experience in ways that are not always visible from the outside.

That understanding has guided Sumita’s career long before she came to DCC. A Bay Area native and graduate of Monte Vista High School (’92) and UC Davis (’96), Sumita earned her J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 2000. She began her career as an Immigrant Civil Rights Attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, formerly the National Asian Pacific American Law Consortium, in Washington, D.C. Her work was rooted in the same conviction that continues to guide her today: people deserve support systems that recognize who they are, not simply what they need. She returned to the Bay Area in 2007, later establishing her own practice before joining Gagen, McCoy, Markowitz and Fanucci, where she practiced from 2016 to 2021.

In May 2022, Sumita returned to the nonprofit sector as Executive Director of Discovery Counseling Center, a community mental health clinic and training agency that has provided affordable mental health services to individuals and families for more than 50 years. In this role, she is building on DCC’s legacy by breaking down barriers to mental health care, strengthening the Center’s clinical training program, expanding culturally responsive services, increasing access to care, and forging partnerships that help mental health support reach the diverse communities of the San Ramon Valley and beyond. Her work is grounded in an understanding that culture, language, family experiences, and other personal circumstances can shape how people seek care, and sometimes whether they feel comfortable seeking it at all.

This work is also personal in another sense. The San Ramon Valley is where Sumita spent many of her formative years, where she raised her own children, and where she continues to live today. She is a graduate of Leadership San Ramon Valley’s Class of 2018 and served on its Board of Directors from 2019 to 2026.