Prof.K. Srinath Reddy is Founder (Past) President of the Public Health Foundation of India, where he now is Honorary Distinguished Professor.He formerly headed the Department of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Under his leadership, PHFI has established five Indian Institutes of Public Health (IIPHs) to advance multi-disciplinary public health education, research, health technologies and implementation support for strengthening health systems. He was appointed as the First Bernard Lown Visiting Professor of Cardiovascular Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in (2009-13) and presently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard (2014-2023). He holds advisory positions in several national and international bodies. He has over 570 scientific publications and published a book ‘Make Health in India: Reaching A Billion Plus’. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Emory, Sydney Universities and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the first Indian to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine, USA and was awarded several prestigious international and national doctorates and fellowships. He was President of the World Heart Federation (2013-15). He was awarded Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2005.He is also an Advisor to the Governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on Health with the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

Professor Sanjay Zodpey is the President, Public Health Foundation of India, which ranks second globally among schools of public health. He isappointed Pro-Chancellor of the PHFI Institute of Public Health Sciences (Deemed to be University).He has served as Vice President - Academics, Public Health Foundation of India and led the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi as its Founding Director. An institution builder, he played an important role in setting up Indian Institutes of Public Health across India. He has held joint appointment as Honorary / Adjunct Professor in five international universities: Georgia Southern University, Georgia; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA;The University of Sydney, Australia; Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; and Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal. He is appointed as ‘Outstanding Professor’ by Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), An Institution of National Importance established by an Act of Parliament, Government of India.

He has served as Director of Indian Institutes of Public Health at Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar. Before joining PHFI, he had a distinguished career as Professor at Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty in Clinical Epidemiology Unit and Vice Dean at Government Medical College, Nagpur, India.

Professor Zodpey is an internationally renowned epidemiologist, public health scientist, award-winning educator and a widely recognized global health leader. He is a trained public health professional with multidisciplinary qualifications. He has acquired MD (Community Medicine), PhD and post-graduate qualifications in Sociology, Public Administration, and Economics. He was conferred ‘Doctor of Science (DSc) (Honoris Causa)’ by DMIMS Deemed to be University, Wardha for long-standing contribution to medical science and public health. He has been conferred ‘Doctor of Medicine (honoris causa)’ by The University of Sydney, Australia in recognition of his eminent contributions to public health in India, the region, and the world.

Professor Zodpey is a prolific researcher. With over 442 publications [h-index (Google Scholar): 74], he features in top 2 percent scientists across the world for his research contribution in Tropical Medicine for five consecutive years as part of worldwide ranking of scientists in all science fields. Research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers, ranked Prof. Zodpey #1 in India in the category of Best Scientists in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities for three consecutive years, based on D-index (Discipline H-index) metric. He is recipient of ‘Outstanding Faculty Award: Health Professions’ for being the most research-proficient faculty of India in 2023, by CAREERS 360.

His current research interests include global health, health systems research, health workforce development and education of health professionals.He served as the Chief Editor of Indian Journal of Public Health.He earlier served as the Chair of Research Advisory Council of National Institute of Miners’ Health, Ministry of Mines, Government of India. His is currently the Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of two eminent ICMR institutions - National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune and National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal.

He is Honorary Member of Faculty of Public Health, UK and Member of European Public Health Association. He is Fellow of the Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine,Indian Society for Malaria and Other Communicable Diseasesand National Academy of Medical Sciences (India). He was the National President of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine for two consecutive terms.

He served as the Chairperson of Global Evaluation and Monitoring Network for Health. He is a Board Member of Routine Health Information Network, Inc [RHINO], Boston, USA. He was the Country Lead for Asia Pacific Network on Health Professional Education Reforms and Country Focal Point for Asia Pacific Action Alliance for Human Resources for Health. He has also served as Member on Institute of Medicine [IOM, Washington DC] Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.

His contributions to public health have been recognized through several awards and honours. Professor Zodpey’s contributions during the COVID 19 pandemic were recognized and he was conferred with the ‘COVID Warrior Award’ in appreciation of outstanding commitment, dedication, and selfless service during the pandemic. He is also the recipient of Public Health Education Leadership Award for significant contributions in promoting public health education in WHO’s South-East Asia Region.

Prof. Monika Arora is a public health scientist working in the area of health promotion, non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control, oral health, and child and adolescent health. She is Vice President (Research and Health Promotion) at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). She is the Immediate Past President of the NCD Alliance (2023-2025), the Founding Chairperson of the South East Asia NCD Alliance (2020-23), and the Director of the Centre for Empathic Healthcare in India. Her areas of research include epidemiological research, designing and evaluating group randomised trials, mixed-methods research, behavioural research, policy research, and implementation Research. With over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals, her research outcomes have informed the national health programme in India and the countries of Southeast Asia region. Her recently edited book, Public Health Approaches to Health Promotion, provides a global perspective on health promotion, focusing on contextual challenges in South Asia and India. Prof. Arora served as a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health in 2016 and currently serves on several national and international expert committees on NCD prevention and management, as well as on adolescent health.

Prof. Arora’s contributions have been widely recognised through prestigious national and global honours, including the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine 2023 International Chapter Award for Northern Hemisphere recognizing her work in improving adolescent health in India and globally, the Exceptional Women of Excellence Award (Women Economic Forum (WEF), April 2018), Dr. Prem Menon Outstanding Service Award (World-India Diabetes Foundation (WIDF), January 2018), the WHO Director General’s World No Tobacco Day Award (2012), and the Best Practices Award in Global Health (Global Health Council, 2011) for demonstrating best practice in the area of preventing NCDs among youth in community settings.

Prof. Monika Arora is a public health scientist working in the area of health promotion, non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control, oral health, and child and adolescent health. She is Vice President (Research and Health Promotion) at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). She is the Immediate Past President of the NCD Alliance (2023-2025), the Founding Chairperson of the South East Asia NCD Alliance (2020-23), and the Director of the Centre for Empathic Healthcare in India. Her areas of research include epidemiological research, designing and evaluating group randomised trials, mixed-methods research, behavioural research, policy research, and implementation Research. With over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals, her research outcomes have informed the national health programme in India and the countries of Southeast Asia region. Her recently edited book, Public Health Approaches to Health Promotion, provides a global perspective on health promotion, focusing on contextual challenges in South Asia and India. Prof. Arora served as a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health in 2016 and serves on several national and international expert committees on NCD prevention and management, as well as on adolescent health.

Prof. Arora’s contributions have been widely recognised through prestigious national and global honours, including the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine 2023 International Chapter Award for Northern Hemisphere recognizing her work in improving adolescent health in India and globally, the Exceptional Women of Excellence Award (Women Economic Forum (WEF), April 2018), Dr. Prem Menon Outstanding Service Award (World-India Diabetes Foundation (WIDF), January 2018), the WHO Director General’s World No Tobacco Day Award (2012), and the Best Practices Award in Global Health (Global Health Council, 2011) for demonstrating best practice in the area of preventing NCDs among youth in community settings.

Dr. Venkatesh Rao Aiyagari is an expert in Research Management, Science policy studies and planning and specializes in the areas of operations research, systems analysis and industrial engineering problems, research-academia-government networking, Human Resource Development, and coordination of national and international S & T programs

Dr Rao Aiyagari has served as the Scientific Adviser with the Ministry of Science and Technology for over 35 years. He has made significant and outstanding contributions towards the promotion of R&D in Frontier and Emerging areas of Science and Engineering through the Science and Engineering Research Council and in formulation of policy statements on science and technology. He has greatly contributed to the formulation of the science and technology policies and plans in the country and also has considerable international exposure to the issues connected with science policy and management of R&D.

In the Department of Science & Technology, he was handling one of the most important programs titled “Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC)” which is responsible for promoting R&D in newly emerging and frontier areas of science and engineering. The SERC has been making increasing efforts to promote basic research particularly in the universities and academic institutions and encouraging young scientists and engineers. Shri Rao Aiyagari has greatly contributed to the success of the SERC programs which involves intricate management and coordination skills involving scientists and engineers coming from various academic and scientific institutions , national laboratories and industry. SERC has done a yeoman service to the scientific community over the years which has helped them achieve outstanding research results.

He has also played an important and significant role in the Establishment of the New Autonomous Science and Engineering Research Board to provide greater thrust, autonomy and funding to promoting Basic research in the country.

Dr. Rakhi Dandona is Professor of Public Health at the Public Health Foundation of India, and Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, USA.  She is also Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia and Honorary Professor at the University of Bristol, UK.

Dr. Dandona has over 25 years of research experience in the areas of disease epidemiology, causes of death, health metrics, monitoring and evaluation, and social determinants for health.  Her notable research accomplishments include seminal primary studies on blindness, HIV/AIDS, injuries, and stillbirth.  Her current areas of interest include understanding sociology of suicide deaths, improving cause of death estimation, maternal and newborn health, adolescent health, gender differentials in health across the life course, and gender-based violence.

Dr. Dandona has published widely with over 300 peer-reviewed publications.  She serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of The Lancet Public Health, The Lancet Psychiatry, Injury Prevention, and PLOS Global and Public Health.  She serves on various international technical committees and task forces on mortality, injuries, maternal and child health, data science, and capacity-building, including for the World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health in the US, and National Institute for Health and Care Research in the UK.  She is Vice-Chair of the International Stillbirth Alliance.

She was previously Associate Professor at the University of Sydney School of Public Health and Head of Research at the George Institute for International Health India.  She obtained her PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Dr. Preeti Kumar is the Vice President- Health System at the Public Health Foundation of India. She is an Ophthalmologist with a MSc in Public Health Policy and Financing from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and PhD Health Economics. Till recently she was also the Director – Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi. (2022-25)

​She has over thirty years’ experience of public health practice and research in health system strengthening, public health policy, access to medicines, primary healthcare, infectious and neglected tropical diseases, especially HIV, TB, Visceral Leishmaniosis.

She has been part of key strategic initiatives in the National HIV AIDS Program in the country since 2008, including development and formulation of the National AIDS Control Program Strategy (Phases III, IV, V); establishment of the National Technical Support Unit in the National AIDS Organization (NACO) to monitor 1800 NGOs across the country. She has led several implementation projects with the national programs and State governments on HIV, TB and Visceral Leishmaniasis.​

Dr.Kumar has been actively engaged in public health policy at the national and state level. She led the report on Post COVID Revitalising and Transforming Health Systems in Punjab (2021) and the State Health Policy for Uttar Pradesh in 2018.

I am a medical doctor with a Doctorate qualification in Public Health working across Health System Strengthening projects focusing on Human Resources for Health. I lead teams that support various health system strengthening initiatives at the state level.

I have expertise in assessing the supply side of human resources for health, conducting capacity assessments, and formulating interventions to address HRH shortages. I also work in the Monitoring and Evaluation of national public health programs at scale.

I work as a Director to support and strengthen the roll out of public health educational programs across a network of public health institutions. I have also worked as the Faculty Lead for a Master of Public Health program. I am currently supporting efforts towards strengthening the capacity for offering Online Blended Learning programs across public health schools.

Debarati Mukherjee’s work bridges lifecourse epidemiology, neuroscience, and public health approaches to improve women and child health in India. She is Professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health-Bengaluru, and Professor-in-Charge of the PHFI-Centre for Developmental and Lifecourse Epidemiology (PHFI-CDLR), Public Health Foundation of India, where she leads multidisciplinary teams working at the intersection of maternal health, child development, mental health, and environmental exposures.

Trained in cell, molecular, and developmental biology at Purdue University-USA, and later in neurobiology at the National Centre for Biological Sciences-Bengaluru, she brings a translational lens to public health research - advancing scalable digital tools for early cognitive assessment, cohort-based research on neurodevelopment, and is currently training on implementation research methods to be able to improve health systems focused on women and child health. Her portfolio spans major grants from the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, ICMR, NIH, and other global academic partners.

She is President of the DOHaD India Regional Society, Co-Lead of the Karnataka Birth Cohorts Consortium, and Honorary Adjunct Faculty at the Institute of Public Health Bengaluru. She has a strong commitment to mentor and strengthen India’s next generation of early-career and women researchers, and expand national capacity for lifecourse research by supporting data harmonization efforts across major birth cohorts.

Prof. Shailaja is a medical doctor trained at Sree Ramachandra Medical College Chennai, and has a Double Masters- MPH from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute Trivandrum,and Masters in Medical Sciences from Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Her PhD in injury epidemiology from LSHTM (UK) was through the Wellcome Trust Fellowship.

Her areas of interest range from NCDs -public health impacts of transportation choices, especially on injuries, physical activity and air pollution, to One Health, pandemic and disaster preparedness. She continues to work on safe and sustainable mobility and injury Epidemiology, arising from everyday journeys to work, school and other anthropogenic activities.
She also leads teaching modules (environment health, disability, disaster preparedness) curriculum development, short term trainings and student mentoring.

Prof. Shinjini Bhatnagar is a physician scientist with a MBBS from Lady Hardinge Medical College, (University of Delhi), a post-graduation in Pediatrics and a Ph.D. (Pediatrics) from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. She worked with the Dept. of Pediatrics at AIIMS for 25 years as a pediatric gastroenterologist and a physician scientist. Her group’s hypothesis driven research led to the introduction of several interventions in the management of acute and persistent childhood diarrhea such as dietary algorithms, modified low osmolarity ORS and zinc. These were incorporated as part of the national and global policy. She led the development of diagnostic tests for Celiac disease that were introduced in the market for clinical use. She moved to the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Dept. of Biotechnology GOI as a founder faculty. She was the Dean Clinical Research for 6 years and is currently a Distinguished Professor at THSTI where she heads large interdisciplinary research studies that bridge classical clinical research and modern biology to find solutions for diseases with public health importance in maternal and child health. One example is the Garbh-ini (an interdisciplinary group for advanced research on birth outcomes- DBT India initiative) programme that has a mandate to find innovative accessible solutions for preterm birth, fetal growth restriction and other adverse birth outcomes. She served as Professor of Eminence at THSTI until February 2023 and was subsequently appointed Distinguished Professor at THSTI until May 2025. She currently serves as the ICMR–Dr. C. G. Pandit National Chair at ICMR, New Delhi.In order to fulfill the mission of conducting large translational programs she has established stable clinical partnership programs by linking basic science and clinical departments across district and tertiary hospitals and research institutes. She advises on the medtech innovation program in the School of Diagnostic innovation in Biodesign (SiB) at THSTI, where she mentors innovators on the Bio design process of clinical immersion and health care product development. Her leadership has facilitated the MSc. Clinical Research programme at THSTI among others.Prof. Bhatnagar is a fellow of all the four national academies (FASc, FNA, FNAMS and FNASc) and has been awarded prestigious research awards (BioSpectrum Excellence Awards 2025, Dr. S.T Achar Gold Medal, Hotam Tomar Gold Medal, Shri. Har Bhagwan Kumar Oration) for her work in child health.

Tulsi Patel is a sociologist with four decades of teaching experience. She retired from the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. She also taught at Miranda Hose and Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi. Upon her retirement from Delhi University she was invited to take up the SK Dey Chair at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi from 2018 to 2021. Her research interests are in the area of Human fertility, Anthropological demography, Medical sociology, New reproductive technology and surrogacy, Gender studies & kinship. She has authored and edited several books published by Oxford University Press, Sage Publications and Orient BlackSwan. She has published research papers in national and international peer reviewed journals and books. She has had research fellowships and visiting assignments at various universities in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark , Canada and the US. Tulsi Patel has been on the Governing Board of many Universities and Research Institutions in India. She was member of State Appropriate Authority for PCPNDT for Delhi NCR, for cases related to sex selective abortions. She was elected as secretary of Indian Sociological Society. She is presently the co-chair of PHFI’s central ethics Committee.

Dr Tina Rawal is a nutritionist by training with extensive experience conducting research in India on lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). She currently serves as a Senior Research Scientist at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

Dr Rawal has over 15 years of research experience in the area of preventing and managing NCDs and associated risk factors, including unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco, and alcohol use. The large majority of her research portfolio is focused on strengthening the food environment and adolescent health. She has been actively contributing to designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions. During this time, she has also been actively involved in initiatives at the regional, national, and international levels, engaging adolescents meaningfully in health promotion programming. For example, she served as a member of the National Technical Working Group on developing the School Health Curriculum under Ayushman Bharat, formed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. She has led a study to examine the status, distribution, education capacity, and future requirements of India’s healthcare professional workforce under the aegis of NITI Aayog.

She obtained her PhD from Maastricht University. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive intervention in improving dietary and physical activity patterns among adolescents. She has published widely on the prevention and control of NCDs and associated risk factors.

Debarati Mukherjee’s work bridges lifecourse epidemiology, neuroscience, and public health approaches to improve women and child health in India. She is Professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health-Bengaluru, and Professor-in-Charge of the PHFI-Centre for Developmental and Lifecourse Epidemiology (PHFI-CDLR), Public Health Foundation of India, where she leads multidisciplinary teams working at the intersection of maternal health, child development, mental health, and environmental exposures.

Trained in cell, molecular, and developmental biology at Purdue University-USA, and later in neurobiology at the National Centre for Biological Sciences-Bengaluru, she brings a translational lens to public health research - advancing scalable digital tools for early cognitive assessment, cohort-based research on neurodevelopment, and is currently training on implementation research methods to be able to improve health systems focused on women and child health. Her portfolio spans major grants from the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, ICMR, NIH, and other global academic partners.

She is President of the DOHaD India Regional Society, Co-Lead of the Karnataka Birth Cohorts Consortium, and Honorary Adjunct Faculty at the Institute of Public Health Bengaluru. She has a strong commitment to mentor and strengthen India’s next generation of early-career and women researchers, and expand national capacity for lifecourse research by supporting data harmonization efforts across major birth cohorts.

Dr. Preeti Kumar is the Vice President- Health System at the Public Health Foundation of India. She is an Ophthalmologist with a MSc in Public Health Policy and Financing from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and PhD Health Economics. Till recently she was also the Director – Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi. (2022-25)

​She has over thirty years’ experience of public health practice and research in health system strengthening, public health policy, access to medicines, primary healthcare, infectious and neglected tropical diseases, especially HIV, TB, Visceral Leishmaniosis.

She has been part of key strategic initiatives in the National HIV AIDS Program in the country since 2008, including development and formulation of the National AIDS Control Program Strategy (Phases III, IV, V); establishment of the National Technical Support Unit in the National AIDS Organization (NACO) to monitor 1800 NGOs across the country. She has led several implementation projects with the national programs and State governments on HIV, TB and Visceral Leishmaniasis.​

Dr. Kumar has been actively engaged in public health policy at the national and state level. She led the report on Post COVID Revitalising and Transforming Health Systems in Punjab (2021) and the State Health Policy for Uttar Pradesh in 2018.

Dr Pushkar Kumar is a Medical Post Graduate with over 21+ yrs of health sector experience in the field of Public Health programme planning, implementation, evaluation, policy, stakeholder management, health financing, capacity building in arena of Maternal Health & RMNCH+A, NCDs, HRH, HIV/AIDS, Blood Safety, Primary Healthcare, Environmental Health, and Health System Strengthening. He has a rich public health experience having served in the Government, NGO and private sector. He he leads the capacity building initiatives for Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) & other Healthcare professionals in clinical conditions and various public health domains.

He has vast experience of program collaboration with national and international agencies, academic and research institutions and organizations, development partners and governments.

He has worked for more than 9 years in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as Lead Consultant in Maternal Health and Sr. Technical Officer and Programme Officer in the Blood Safety Division at NACO. He has worked in all aspects of policy, planning, programme implementation, health system strengthening, capacity building, supporting State Governments and been a part of over 30 Policy and operational guidelines of Govt. of India. He has also managed the blood transfusion services in a tertiary care hospital at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

Experience and Areas of Interest

Intervention and implementation research, Training, Treatment and outcome of schizophrenia, autism, public education, advocacy for mentally ill persons and rehabilitation

Awards and recognition

Member, Academic Council and Standing Selection Committee, NIMHANS- 2014-18

Member Subject Expert Committee DCGI, DGHS, MOHFW GOI,2015-21

Chair, Committees for developing guidelines for evaluation and certification for Mental Disabilities, Neurological Disabilities and Multiple Disabilities, MOSJE, GOI,2017

Co-Chair, World Psychiatry Association, Section on Genetics since 2020

World Psychiatric Association International Congress, Best Poster Award: 2015, Dr G C Boral Award for best presentation at the 38th Annual Conference, IPS NZ 2013, New Delhi