Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project

Binita Adhikari is a public health professional from a nursing background, working at the intersection of academia and practice. She is currently a faculty member in the International Health Department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her key interests are in institutional strengthening of public health organizations, human resources of health, primary health care and mental health. She has been involved in health systems strengthening practice and research in Nepal, India, Liberia, Zambia, Kenya, and Sierra Leone. Binita is committed in strengthening of primary health care system of Nepal through integration of mental health. She currently leads a non-profit, Health Foundation Nepal, that implements community health mental health projects in Nepal. She is also a member of executive team of Nepal Institute of Mental Health. She completed her MSPH degree from Johns Hopkins and is currently pursing a DrPH degree at Johns Hopkins.

Smisha Agarwal, PhD, MPH '09, MBA, aims at improving maternal and newborn health in low-income settings through strengthening community health systems and leveraging innovative technological solutions. Over the last decade, Smisha has developed methods for evaluating programs that employ digital tools such as mobile phones for health service delivery. She has also led a series of systematic Cochrane reviews that have been leveraged by the WHO to develop global guidelines on the use of digital tools to strengthen health services. Smisha continues to work with bilateral and multilateral agencies to support development and implementation of routine health information systems.

Sana is a Program Coordinator with the Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Support Project (UP HSSSP) and works on capacity building of the state's Directorate of Medical and Health Services (DOMH). She has previously supported legislators and bureaucrats as a policy researcher and has carried out extensive field work as a health journalist reporting on maternal and child health. Sana has a postgraduate degree in public policy (MPP).

Sara Bennett PhD is Professor and Associate Chair in the International Health Department, and Director of the Health Systems Program, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Sara is broadly interested in health policy and systems in low and middle income countries having studied issues in health workforce (including health worker motivation, and workforce planning) health financing and health markets. Her research has also addressed institutional capacity development, health systems governance, and the use of evidence in policy and decision-making. Sara’s career encompasses both academic and policy positions. She played a significant role in the development of the field of Health Policy and Systems Research being former Chair of Health Systems Global, editor of Health Policy and Planning, and Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at the World Health Organization. Sara is strongly committed to bridging the worlds of academia and practice, and building institutional capacity for health research internationally. She graduated from Oxford (MA), Cambridge (MPhil) and London School of Economics (PhD). You can follow Sara on Twitter @saracbennett

Cyrus Engineer, DrPH, '07, MHS '03, MHA, is a practice leader in health sector performance management, including quality, patient safety, and project management.

His research interests include: monitoring, evaluation, quality management, quality improvement, patient safety, impact evaluation, hospital management

Aman is a  public health professional, with 9 years of professional experience at international, national and sub-national levels providing technical support in public health sectoral reform initiatives. He holds a postgraduate degree in Epidemiology and Public Health from National University of Ireland, Cork. His interest lies in the domain of Health Systems Strengthening in the public health ecosystem which leads to providing high-quality universal health coverage (UHC) and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Aman has worked with various development partners like WHO, UNICEF, Bank of America, and Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, where he has led various research studies, planning, and implementation. Through his work he has helped the Department of Health & Family Welfare in Comprehensive Primary Healthcare, Maternal & Child Health, Adolescent Health, Non-Communicable Diseases, while also supporting in implementation of health system and market analyses & WASH and in streamlining essential health services during and after pandemic.

Kanchan is multifaceted Administration Associate with a voluminous background in variety of administration duties. Kanchan holds a master’s degree in Human Resource and Finance from Bangalore University, Bengaluru. She has worked in the corporate, educational institution before foraying in the social sector. Before this role, she worked with Technical Support Unit-UP. Her forte is Administration, HR, Logistics, Event Management, Procurements, Inventory, Asset Management, and communication, both verbal and written. On the whole, she has 6 years of robust experience in her domain.

Raghukul is working as a Senior Research Officer in the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health. He is a public health professional and trained infectious disease epidemiologist with 25 years of experience.

He holds postgraduate degrees in Public Health and Environmental Sciences and a graduate degree in law. He is pursuing his doctorate from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.

He supported the department of Medical Health & Family Welfare, Uttar Pradesh in many critically important tasks including the prevention and control of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

Krishna D. Rao, PhD '04, MSc, finds ways to improve access to health services in resource poor areas and the application of research methods drawn from the social sciences and economics to seek solutions to these issues. He has primarily worked in Afghanistan. Latin America, and India. Within health systems, Krishna has largely worked on three areas - human resources, primary health care, and health financing. His work in human resources has primarily focused on quality of care, task shifting, and the retention of health workers in underserved areas. In the area of health financing, his most recent research work has focused on the burden of out-of-pocket payments, expenditure tracking in health systems, and insurance programs in low and middle-income countries. Other health systems research includes studying the interactions between vertical programs and health systems, and universal health coverage (UHC) policies in low and middle-income countries. In terms of research methods, his interest lie in techniques related to measuring process and structural quality of care, cost-effectiveness analysis, program impact evaluation techniques, household survey methods, and the application of microeconomics to health. He serves as an Assistant Editor of the International Journal for Equity in Health.

Daniela C. Rodríguez, DrPH, MPH, studies how politics, public health, and evidence intersect in policies that impact vulnerable communities around the world. Her special interests lie in evidence-informed decision-making, understanding the factors that influence policy development over time and across settings, and understanding the process of donor transition and its implications. She conducts research and evaluations in multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural teams in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, including the Dominican Republic and Mexico. She plays several leadership, management, and coordination roles across projects, including several multi-country projects. 

Harshini is a public health practitioner and academic working in areas of implementation science and health systems research. Her current work includes designing and implementing innovative solutions for a more resilient health system in low and middle income country settings. Harshini's interest is in community engagement and local stakeholder buy-in for creating sustainable systems, public health training and capacity building of local institutions, and qualitative and quantitative research for more data driven initiatives in LMICs. 

Shalini, is an Associate at the Department of International Health and Senior Researcher with Johns Hopkins India. Her work focuses on primary healthcare strengthening in India and LMICs. Passionate about aligning field realities with policy transformation, she currently is working on strengthening community partnerships for PHC in tribal settings of India. She is working on a collaborative governance model for responsive PHC in Karnataka, state and has reviewed global training models for developing a global prototype curriculum for CHW training.

Prior to joining Hopkins, she worked with the National Health Systems Resource Centre established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, closely engaging with central, state governments, and district-level health systems across India. In this capacity, her focus was to strengthen implementation of the ASHA program and the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres through program reviews, capacity building, technical mentoring and enabling responsive policy formulation. She also led the state team for designing and implementing pilots for UHC, prioritizing primary healthcare reforms in Karnataka, while working with the Public Health Foundation of India.

A dentist with an MPH from BSPH, she is also a member of the Delta Omega Honor Society, USA.

Swati Srivastava, MPH, MBA, BBA is a Senior Program Support Officer, Uttar Pradesh Health System Strengthening Project. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from IMI, Belgium and pursuing Master’s in Public Health from University of Lucknow. She has over 11 years of experience in teaching, training, management, human resources, and research in the public health and education sector. Her key interest areas include women’s health, family planning and health systems strengthening.

Brian Wahl, PhD, MPH is a health systems researcher, infectious disease epidemiologist, and faculty member in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research focuses on approaches for strengthening public health and management training in resource-constrained settings. He has also researched the changing epidemiology of vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases in children. He leads field studies and employs mathematical modelling to address critical questions related to vaccine program performance, optimization, and equity. He has been based in South Asia for more than a decade where he collaborates with researchers from leading institutions in the region, including those from India and Nepal.