Deepshikha is invested in the growth of Rockford University (RU) and the greater community of Rockford. Since arriving in Rockford in 2015, she has relentlessly worked towards that goal: she modernized the Physics program, established an annual STEM outreach program, led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts at RU, partnered with area not-for-profits, served on the Board of American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Executive Council of the Illinois Section of American Association of Physics Teachers (ISAAPT), and the 2019 Sigma Xi (Scientific Research Society) Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference.

Under her leadership, Rockford University hosted the Annual ISAAPT meeting in 2017 and is scheduled to host again in 2024. Other notable partnerships include the Sister Cities organization, where she helped host the 2023 Illinois Sister Cities Annual Conference and led a partnership with Rockford-based Kids Around the World (KATW) to establish an international study and serve abroad that occurs every two years where Rockford University students build a playground in Ecuador that serves as a center for community growth.
Deepshikha always puts her hands up for whatever needs to be done; in her eight years at Rockford University she has served in various leadership roles as the Global Faculty Fellow, Dean of the College of Science, Math and Nursing, Co-Chair of the DEI task force at RU, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and is now the founding Dean of the College of Professional and Extended Learning at RU that would actively seek to build capacity for programming in professional/extended learning and community/business partnerships.

Her background as a faculty member of the Department of Math, Computer Science, and Physics (her Ph.D. is in Physics) coupled with her MBA give her the background to think both as a faculty member and as a savvy manager with the capacity to assess the business workings of a university.

Deepshikha is passionate about equity, inclusion, and justice. She led the first RU task force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her focus has evolved to support all marginalized populations and not just women. During her early career, she worked actively for Women in Physics, and Girls in STEM and continues to do so.

In her early career, Deepshikha was an accomplished and internationally published researcher in theoretical Nuclear Physics and a Physics instructor. She served on the graduate student senate at Ohio University, the Postdoctoral Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, led a STEM Outreach program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro called “Tech Savvy for Girls,” and DEI task force, the Council of Global Affairs, ISAAPT, Sigma Xi, and various committees at RU, etc.

Dr. Shukla received her B. Sc. (Hons) degree in Physics with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry from Cotton College in Guwahati, India, and her M. Sc. (Physics) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India. Thereafter, she taught pre-engineering Physics in New Delhi, India before joining Ohio University for a Ph. D. in Physics. Dr. Shukla joined the theoretical Nuclear Physics group at Ohio University and completed the Ph. D. requirements in the fall of 2006. She was awarded the 2008 Division of Nuclear Physics (of the American Physical Society) dissertation award. She completed her MBA from Rockford University in fall 2022.