Non-finalist 2021, Semi-finalist 2018, Semi-finalist Miss Oregon Teen USA 2015, 2nd runner-up 2014
Manju Bangalore was crowned Miss Oregon USA on 15 October 2022 and represented Oregon at the Miss USA 2023 pageant. A resident of Corvallis, Manju is a physicist and scientist-astronaut candidate who has founded two non-profits.
Miss Oregon USA 2023 Manju Bangalore is a physicist, actor, writer and founder of two nonprofits: Operation Period and Painting With Parkinson’s.
Manju is a first-generation Indian American who received her bachelor of science in physics from the University of Oregon with a minor in math. She is currently a physicist and scientist-astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM. During her undergraduate career, Manju worked at two NASA centers, Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center, on propulsion and the cockpit displays for the Orion spacecraft, as well as in the White House under President Obama on science policy. She has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since she was four years old.
She founded Operation Period, a youth-led, all-volunteer menstrual health nonprofit, in 2015. To date, the organization has provided more than 200,000 menstrual products to those in need. In 2020, she founded a second nonprofit, Painting With Parkinson’s, to provide free painting kits and art classes to those affected by Parkinson’s, in honor of her father, who has had the disease for over a decade. She is also working on a short film through a microgrant titled “for us who bleed” on menstrual freedom and the fight for liberation. Manju is passionate about ensuring others have the resources to pursue their dreams as she has been able to do.
Outside of her scientific career, Manju is also an actress. She has been acting since she was 10 years old and has since been in a Super Bowl commercial and two Microsoft commercials. Her favorite experience onscreen so far has been working with Beyoncé on the set of Black Is King for the Brown Skin Girl music video.
The on-stage moments, the tension of the final two and the glory of the crowning, here are Manju’s state pageant photos.
Lights, camera, action! Professional photoshoots are one of the perks that comes from winning a title.
There’s nothing better than watching a contestant progress from year to year! Here’s a look back at Manju’s previous pageant photos.
All beautiful things must come to an end, no matter how bittersweet. See Manju’s farewell walk and other candids from the weekend she crowned her successor Shayla Montgomery as Miss Oregon USA 2024.