Out & About – Profile: Sonia Kotecha

This story first appeared in the Austin American-Statesman. Re-posted with permission.

By Michael Barnes Sun April 10, 12:49AM

Sonia Kotecha can’t help it. She gets wonky. Even when the topic is socializing in Austin.

“Yeah, I get on my soapbox a little,” Kotecha says.

The native of Manassas, Va., has found ample opportunity to ply her wonkish inclinations as community outreach liaison for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Travis County, which matches volunteers with abused or neglected children, and as the outgoing president of the Austin chapter of the Network of Indian Professionals, a group she helped to revive.“My time gets consumed in organizational stuff,” Kotecha (pronounced Ko-TEY-cha) admits.

Her family, which moved to the U.S. in 1972, encompasses the analytical and the social. Her father, Harish Kotecha, is a retired engineer who worked for IBM; her mother, Shanta Kotecha, also retired, has returned to work at the Austin offices of the Internal Revenue Service.But her brother, Savan Kotecha, is a bestselling pop music songwriter who has written hits for Britney Spears, Usherand Enrique Iglesias and stars as a vocal coach on the United Kingdom editon of “The X Factor.”

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