Priya Ananya Mehta was born on May 3, 1992, in Chicago, Illinois, to Suresh and Kavitha Mehta. From her earliest years, Priya moved through the world with a brightness that was impossible to ignore. She was the child who made friends on the first day of school, who remembered the names of everyone's siblings, and who could find something genuinely interesting in any subject she encountered. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2014 with a degree in Environmental Science and went on to earn a Master's degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan in 2016. She returned to Chicago to work as a sustainability planner for the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development, where she led initiatives on green infrastructure, urban tree canopy expansion, and climate resilience. Her colleagues describe her as someone who combined rigorous analysis with genuine passion — who could read a data set and then explain its human meaning to a room full of residents who had never heard the word "infrastructure." Priya was deeply connected to her Hindu heritage. She was an active member of the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago, participated in the annual Diwali on State Street festival as an organizer, and taught environmental awareness workshops to youth at the Chinmaya Mission Chicago. She practiced Bharatanatyam classical dance from the age of five and performed regularly until her illness. She was a devoted daughter, a fiercely loyal friend, and a person who made everyone around her feel that the world was worth working for. Priya Ananya Mehta left this world on July 15, 2026, at the age of 34. She is irreplaceable. Om Shanti.

Hobbies & interests

Practicing Bharatanatyam classical dance; hiking and urban trail exploration; organizing Diwali on State Street; teaching environmental workshops to youth at Chinmaya Mission Chicago; reading environmental policy and urban planning literature; cooking South Indian food with her mother on weekends

Survived by

Her parents, Suresh and Kavitha Mehta of Chicago, IL; her brother, Arjun Mehta of San Francisco, CA; her grandparents, Ramesh and Usha Mehta of Ahmedabad, India; and her many dear friends and colleagues who loved her deeply.

Preceded in death by

Her maternal grandparents, Gopal and Saraswati Iyer of Chennai, India.