Shreelata Rao Seshadri has worked in the field of public health in various capacities for almost three decades. She is currently Professor and Director, Ramalingaswami Centre for Equity and Social Determinants of Health, PHFI, Bengaluru. She was previously Professor and Anchor of the Public Health Initiative at the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. Prior to that she was the Resident Director of the Center for Global Health Research, University of Toronto, located at the St. John’s Research Institute, Bengaluru.
Starting her career with the World Bank in Washington DC, she has worked extensively with global and national public health funding and research organizations as well as government entities. Her work has taken her across several geographies, including South Asia, East Asia and Africa. Shreelata’s professional interests are largely focused on health policy, programs and systems, on which she has published numerous books and articles. More recently, she has worked on nutrition and its impact on health and well-being of adults and children; and on health sector governance, with a focus on health sector decentralization at the district-level and below. She has a regular column in the Kannada daily, Prajavani.
Shreelata is deeply committed to teaching and training of students and young professionals in public health and has developed numerous public health courses, including Public Health Policies and Programs; Nutrition, Development and Public Health Policy; Introduction to Epidemiology; Contemporary Issues in Mental Health; among others. She also developed and mentored a Public Health specialization within the MA Development program at Azim Premji University and contributed to the development of an MPH curriculum.
Shreelata has served on several government committees, as well as President of the Indian Health Economics and Policy Association, the Board of the Center for Budgeting and Policy Studies, and the Karnataka State Audits and Accounts Board.
Advisor, Indian Health Economics and Policy Association
Member, Karnataka State Audits and Accounts Board
Member, Governing Council, Center for Budgeting and Policy Studies
- Ramalingaswami Centre on Equity and Social Determinants of Health
My research has focused on three major areas: (i) health policy, including policies relating to decentralization and governance in the health sector, nutrition and food security policies among school going children, tobacco control policies, and policies relating to access to services for marginalized communities; (ii) health systems issues, including the provisioning of health care and nutrition services, their efficacy and adequacy; availability and access to mental health services and the need for new approaches; and more recently, a focus on urban health services and challenges; and (iii) issues around food sovereignty and traditional food systems, with a particular focus on tribal communities and the challenges they are facing in a changing agro-ecological landscape. My interests are now moving more towards examining the different dimension of women’s well-being, how it is defined and measured, and the implications for health systems development.
- Adolescent Health
- Public Health Nutrition
- Mental Health
- Environmental Health
- Social Determinants of Health
- Tobacco Control
- Implementation Research
- Monitoring + Evaluation
- Impact Evaluation
- Health System