Get to know Inspired to Explore's

Neil Bhandari

Founder

And Co-Founder

DOM ACHARYA

Neil Bhandari is a Bhutanese-American entrepreneur, home and community-based healthcare executive, real estate strategist, and lifelong advocate for the healing power of nature. His remarkable journey began in a refugee camp in Nepal, where his family resettled after being displaced from Bhutan. Growing up without access to basic necessities instilled in Neil a deep resilience and strong sense of purpose—qualities that would later shape both his professional career and his passion for adventure.

After resettling in the United States in 2009, Neil pursued higher education, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Southern New Hampshire University. He also completed executive training at the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Neil went on to lead one of eXp Realty’s top-performing Sales & Marketing teams and built a successful career in the home and community-based healthcare industry.

The year 2022 marked a turning point in Neil’s life. “I was overweight, prediabetic, and stressed out of my mind,” he recalls. “I didn’t like the version of myself and who I had become.” That same year, he enrolled in the Wharton School’s Management Development Program. The coursework, particularly in leadership and personal growth, reignited a dormant part of him. “It wasn’t just about business—it was about getting back in touch with who I was and who I wanted to be.”

With a renewed focus on purpose, fulfillment, and well-being, Neil began reimagining his life and how he could make a positive impact on others. Yet the exact path forward remained uncertain—until a life-changing trek through Nepal’s Annapurna Circuit in October 2022. That journey rekindled his deep connection with the outdoors and clarified his mission.

Today, the organization continues to grow, bringing together participants, volunteers, and donors who share a belief in the power of nature to transform lives and communities. The nonprofit collaborates with local organizations and community partners to promote health and wellness on a broader scale.

In 2023, Neil set an even higher personal goal: to complete the Seven Summits—the tallest mountain on each continent—and the World Marathon Majors. So far, he has successfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, and Mount Vinson, and is currently training for Denali and Aconcagua. On the running front, Neil completed the Chicago Marathon in 2024, is training for the New York City Marathon, and looks forward to conquering the London and Sydney Marathons in 2026.

Neil’s journey from a refugee camp in Nepal to the peaks of the world’s tallest mountains is a testament to resilience, transformation, and the unyielding power of purpose. Through Inspired to Explore, he is committed to helping others unlock their own potential—one step, one summit, and one adventure at a time.

“It was the happiest moment of mylife being close to the mightymountains and nature. I felt sodrawn to it. I decided then that Iwould summit this mountain oneday. Hence, I decided to climb theSeven Summits, raise awarenessabout health and wellbeing, inspirechange, explore possibilities, andpush the limits for humanendurance.”

- Neil Bhandari

Inspired by his expedition experience, Neil worked with his colleague, Dom Acharya and founded Inspired to Explore, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to personal growth through outdoor challenges. The organization’s mission is simple yet profound: to inspire individuals and families to engage with nature—whether through walks, hikes, backpacking trips, or treks. Neil believes these activities can foster grit, build confidence, reduce stress, enhance creativity, spark joy, and cultivate meaningful human connections. “Inspired To Explore is about rediscovering ourselves through the natural world,” Neil says. “Nature doesn’t just heal—it transforms.”

For Dom Acharya, nature has always been more than just a backdrop—it’s been a teacher, a healer, and a quiet companion through life's many transitions. Reflecting on his early days in the United States, Dom recalls one defining moment: "In the early days of my life in the United States, one of my first true adventures brought me to a place that would become a cornerstone of my journey: Presque Isle State Park." It was the summer of 2008 when a kind-hearted volunteer named Ruth drove him and his sister to the shores of Lake Erie. There, standing before the vast water for the first time in his life, something shifted. “The lake’s horizon reached out like an invitation to dream bigger, to feel smaller in the best way. The rhythm of the waves spoke in a language I didn’t yet understand but instantly trusted.”

Presque Isle quickly evolved from a scenic destination into a sacred refuge. With his mentor Bob, Dom explored wooded trails and biked shoreline loops, grounding himself in the steady rhythm of shared silence and spoken wisdom. Foraging for wild raspberries and tart pears became more than survival—it became communion. “Each bite tasted like belonging,” he writes. It wasn’t long before Dom began guiding others—his siblings, neighbors, and friends—through the same serene landscapes that had once guided him. Teaching his brothers to drive on winding park roads, hosting picnics under old trees, and leading hikes, he turned personal ritual into community experience.

As life took Dom from Erie to Harrisburg, his connection to nature deepened, not weakened. He found new green spaces—Wildwood Park, the Capital Area Greenbelt, Boyd Big Tree Preserve—where birdsong, deer sightings, and the golden hush of sunrise hikes continued to meet him like old friends. He remembers a hike with his brother Tara where they encountered a doe and her fawn: “Time slowed. Words dissolved. We just stood and watched, breathing in the quiet miracle of their presence.” These moments, he says, are reminders that “nature is not a backdrop but a co-inhabitant, full of its own dramas and grace.”

"Each encounter reminded me that nature was not a backdrop but a co-inhabitant, full of its own dramas and grace. These small discoveries, consistent and unassuming, carried out a profound steadiness. They whispered: life continues, adapt and thrive.
College brought new depth to my connection. In botany class, field trips to Presque Isle felt less like assignments and more like reunions. I walked familiar trails armed with names goldenrod, milkweed, sassafras. Each species told a story of resilience, adaptation, and harmony. I recognized in them my own journey of growing where I was planted.”

- Dom Acharya

This reverence for nature and its healing potential eventually sparked the birth of Inspired to Explore—a vision shared with his friend Neil, who rediscovered his own strength on a bike trail. What began as personal transformation grew into a movement. Dom writes, “One hike can be enough to crack open a long-held silence. One bike ride can ignite a new sense of agency.” Through trail cleanups, outdoor meetups, and wilderness trainings, Dom and his team cultivated a space where people could reconnect—with the land, with each other, and with themselves. As he puts it, “Under the open sky, surrounded by trees and timelessness, healing feels not only possible, but inevitable. Nature did that for me. And now, through Inspired to Explore, I hope it can do that for others too"