Leadership

Amita Gupta, MD, MHS

Professor of Medicine and Public Health; Director, Division of Infectious Diseases; GKII Faculty Co-Chair Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Gupta is Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is also Faculty Co-chair of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and Professor of Infectious Diseases at the JH School of Medicine, with a joint appointment in International Health at the JH Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis

Sara Bennett, PhD

Professor & Associate Chair in the International Health Department; Director of the Health Systems Program; GKII Faculty Co-Chair Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Sara Bennett, PhD, is an accomplished and respected figure in the field of health policy and systems research. As a Professor and Associate Chair in the International Health Department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she also serves as the Director of the Health Systems Program. Her areas of expertise include health workforce issues such as motivation and planning, health financing, and health markets in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Bennett's research has had a significant impact on the development of the field, and she has made important contributions to institutional capacity development, health systems governance, and the use of evidence in policy and decision-making. Her career includes both academic and policy positions, including 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. Dr. Bennett's dedication to bridging the gap between academia and practice, as well as building institutional capacity for health research internationally, is evident in her strong commitment to making a real-world impact. She graduated with distinction from Oxford (MA), Cambridge (MPhil) and London School of Economics (PhD). Follow Dr. Bennett on Twitter @saracbennett for updates on her latest research and thoughts on health policy and systems.

Topics
  • Health Systems
  • Policy
  • Public Health
  • International Health

Melody McCoy, MSW

Executive Director of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University

Melody McCoy, Executive Director of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, leads the institution in its efforts to collaborate with partners in India. Based in Baltimore, she manages stakeholder engagement, strategic development and implementation, and the performance and sustainability of the institute’s projects. With more than 15 years of experience as the Vice President of Global Engagement and Communications at Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, McCoy has extensive knowledge in global public health. In addition, she has worked for the United States Congress and held various roles in state and local government.

Topics
  • Administration
  • Communications

Neetisha Besra

Deputy Director, Gupta-Klinsky India Institute

Neetisha is Deputy Director for the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, based out of New Delhi, India. She is responsible for developing strategy and managing operations for GKII, including external partnerships, internal liaisons, and program development. She brings her experience of working in public sector consulting and private sector operations management. As a Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow working for the Government of India, Neetisha has worked in various community development and citizen service delivery programs. She holds an MPA/ID degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MDP degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and a Bachelor in Technology degree from IIT Kanpur.

Topics
  • Administration

Faculty Representatives

Rina Agarwala, PhD

Associate Professor; Director of Undergraduate Studies Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Agarwala studies how vulnerable populations, particularly workers, assert their rights through social movements. Her research has examined a range of working populations (including informal workers and migrant workers), workers’ identities (including class, gender, and caste), and worker industries (including construction, tobacco manufacturing, garment manufacturing, trash collection, domestic work, and agricultural labor). 

Topics
  • Human Rights
  • Political Sciences

Robert Bollinger, MD, MPH

Raj & Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases; Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Bollinger is the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, and he holds joint appointments in International Health at the Johns Hopkins (JH) Bloomberg School of Public Health, and in Community Public Health at the JH School of Nursing. He is the Founding Director of the JH Center for Clinical Global Health Education (now CCGHE-ID), Associate Director for Medicine of the JH Center for Global Health, and serves on the Advisory Team for the Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine Center of Excellence for COVID-19. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and infectious diseases. 

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • COVID-19
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV
  • Pneumonia
  • Tuberculosis

Rama Chellappa, PhD

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Whiting School of Engineering

Rama Chellappa, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University is a leading researcher in the area of artificial intelligence. His work in computer vision, pattern recognition, and machine learning have had a profound impact on areas including biometrics, smart cars, forensics, and 2D and 3D modeling of faces, objects, and terrain. His work in motion capturing and imaging shows promise for future use in health care and medicine.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Digital Health

Pravin Krishna, PhD

Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business School of Advanced International Studies

Pravin Krishna is the Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University, where he is jointly appointed in the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC and the Department of Economics in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) in Baltimore. Professor Krishna is also Co-Chair of the Bernard L. Schwartz Globalization Initiative at Johns Hopkins SAIS and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Professor Krishna has previously been Professor of Economics at Brown University and has also held appointments at a number of other universities, including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Princeton University, Stanford University and INSEAD. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Topics
  • Business of Health
  • Economics

Vidya Mave, MD, MPH & TM

Associate Professor, JHUSOM; Director, Indo-JHU Research Program, Pune, India Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Mave has more than 18 years of experience in clinical practice, education, and research in infectious diseases. Is the co-director for the Center for Infectious Diseases in India. She directs all clinical research activities for the Indo-JHU program, which conducts phase I, II, and III clinical trials of therapeutic drug interventions for HIV and co-morbid infections, including TB and hepatitis, in adults (including pregnant women) and children in Pune, India. Her research interests includes antimicrobial resistance, comorbidities (including diabetes, HIV), and the use of novel tools (Hair PK, whole genome sequencing, host biomarkers) to study TB treatment outcomes.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Non-Communicable Diseases

Nagpurnanand Prabhala, PhD

Professor of Finance and Francis J. Carey, Jr. Carey School of Business

Dr. Prabhala's work on India focuses on banks, financial intermediaries, and corporate finance in India. His prior and ongoing research includes work on credit scoring and its adoption by Indian banks, bank runs, the use of robo-advisors for wealth management, lowering frictions in consumer credit search, retail lending under fairness criteria, the impact of regulations and government programs such as laws to strengthening creditor rights, priority sector lending programs to aid small businesses, and PMJDY, a large-scale financial inclusion program.

Topics
  • Finance

Kunal Parikh, PhD

Research Associate Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Whiting School of Engineering

Dr. Parikh leads the Global Institute for Vision Equity (GIVE), an initiative that partners with high volume, social-justice driven eye care systems across India to enable equity in eye care globally through development and translation of novel solutions addressing critical needs in ophthalmology and designed for the patients, care providers, and the context of care in under-resourced settings.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Eye Disease

Nancy Reynolds, PhD

Professor and Associate Dean Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Nancy Reynolds is a Professor and Associate Dean of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing; the Director of Center for Global Initiatives; Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing Information, Knowledge Management; and Co-Secretary General, Global Network of the WHO Collaborating Centers of Nursing and Midwifery. She is a member of the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). She is an NIH-funded researcher whose global health research in India has focused on development of interventions that use low-cost cellphone technology to bring health care services to vulnerable populations affected by HIV.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • HIV
  • Mental Health

Sridevi Sarma, PhD

Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Vice Dean for Graduate Education at the Whiting School of Engineering Whiting School of Engineering

Sridevi Sarma, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and vice dean for graduate education at the Whiting School of Engineering, develops computational, data-driven, and biological approaches to advance the knowledge and treatment of diseases of the nervous system including epilepsy, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and insomnia. She also harnesses dynamical systems and control theory to understand how the brain governs complex behaviors, including motor control and decision making.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Engineering

Anita Shet, MD, PhD

Director of Child Health, International Vaccine Access Center Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Anita Shet is a pediatrician and a public health specialist and director of the Johns Hopkins Maternal and Child Health India program that focuses on addressing health issues among women, infants and children, and strengthening public health capacity in India. Her interests span maternal and child nutrition, pediatric and adolescent HIV, dengue infections, social determinants of health, childhood immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases. Her practice areas include addressing pandemic-related disruptions of routine childhood vaccination and essential health services, and advocacy efforts to expand vaccine access in India and globally. At present, she also focuses on empowering disadvantaged children and youth to live with good health and dignity.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • HIV
  • Pneumonia
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health

Sunil Solomon, MBBS, PhD, MPH

Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Solomon's work focuses on HIV, viral hepatitis and other infectious diseases across India. He currently has operations in almost 20 Indian states and partners with national and state governments as well as community-based organizations.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV

Brian Wahl, PhD, MPH

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Wahl is an infectious disease epidemiologist with an interest in the changing epidemiology of vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases in children. He leads field studies and employs mathematical modeling to address critical questions related to vaccine program performance, optimization, and equity. He has also led several public health training and capacity development efforts with several partner organizations. He has been based in South Asia for more than a decade where he collaborates with researchers from leading institutions in the region.

Topics
  • Public Health
  • International Health
  • Vaccines

Emeritus Members

David Peters, MD, DrPH

Dean of the Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto CA

Dr. David Peters, Dean of the Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, is a founding member and former faculty co-chair of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University. He studies how to strengthen health systems in low- and middle-income countries, particularly to better serve poor and vulnerable populations.

Topics
  • Health Systems

Mathuram Santosham, MD, MPH

Professor of Public Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Santosham studies International Health; Epidemiologic studies of enteric infections; improved oral rehydration therapy; field testing of vaccines; h. influenzae tybe b; pneumococcal; neonatal health; Zinc supplementation; rotavirus.

Topics
  • Pneumonia
  • Neonatology
  • Vaccines

Core Team

Colter Billings

Communications Specialist Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Colter Billings is a Communications Specialist for Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the Center for Infectious Diseases in India. He creates content and manages projects that amplify the mission and work of the GKII and CIDI. Generating and executing cross-platform communications plans, developing strategic messaging, tracking engagement and coordinating with other JHU communications teams are elements of that role.

Topics
  • Communications

Molly Bowen

Communications Lead Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Molly Bowen is Communications Director for Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the Johns Hopkins Division of Infectious Diseases at the School of Medicine, and the Center for Infectious Diseases in India, develops communications strategy, sets goals, serves as managing editor, and oversees content development and production across platforms including website, social media, newsletter, videos, and reports. She has 20+ years of experience in infectious diseases communications.

Topics
  • Communications

Ira Pundeer

Communications & Outreach Specialist

Ira Pundeer is a Communications Consultant for the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Based out of New Delhi, India, she’s responsible for enhancing the Institute’s brand visibility and implementing a communication strategy within India and the US. Prior to joining GKII, Ira has worked in communications, outreach, and brand management for private and inter-governmental organizations across the domains of global health, development finance, public-private sector engagement, and higher education. She was the India Communications Manager at Harvard’s Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, where she worked with faculty and scholars to develop compelling stories and multimedia about the Institute’s programs, research projects, and events. She holds a master’ degree in English Literature from Hindu College, Delhi University.

Topics
  • Communications

Beth Romanski

Program Manager Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Beth Romanski is a transformative influence in professional education, known for her ability to turn visionary concepts into tangible learning opportunities. With a collaborative approach, she blends educational leadership, strategic planning, and relationship-building to drive innovation. Beth is a resilient leader of continuing education with over 20 years of experience in versatile roles; spearheading strategic educational operations, overseeing the development of portfolios 80+ online micro-credentials, leading new online degree and certificate programs, and forging strategic partnerships for higher education institutions. Her vision for delivering accessible, superior-quality learning experiences has elevated global learner engagement and significantly impacted learners worldwide. Beth's expertise in curriculum development, instructional design, data analysis & research, enrollment management, project management, event coordination, and marketing complement her commitment to promoting lifelong learning and student success in diverse settings. With a Master of Science in Higher Education Administration and Leadership and specialized training in Instructional Design, Beth actively contributes to numerous industry organizations in leadership roles. Beth is also a certified Health Coach and Workplace Wellness consultant, integrating her specialized knowledge to support the mission of the JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health and Department of International Health. In her appointment as the U.S.-based GKII Program Manager, Beth is dedicated to elevating the impact of JHU GKII’s educational and student engagement initiatives.

Topics
  • Administration

Meghashish Sharma

Program Manager

Meghashish Sharma is Program Manager for the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, based out of New Delhi, India. He is an experienced professional with a dynamic background and expertise in the fields of global public health and development. Proficient in the areas of health economics and health systems strengthening, he has worked with various organisations including The World Bank, Jhpiego, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India. He is currently a fellow with the Health Systems Transformation Platform India, and is part of the second cohort of the Health Policy & Systems Research Fellowship. He has also served in various remote and hard to reach areas including Navrongo, UER, Ghana, (NHRC, Ghana Health Service) and Bolangir, Odisha, India. Apart from his MSc. in Global Health from Georgetown University (Class of ‘17), Meghashish received his bachelor’s degree in dentistry from Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, Vijaywada in 2014

Topics
  • Administration
  • Public Health

Hugh Sullivan

Director, International Development Johns Hopkins University

As director of international programs in the Johns Hopkins University’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations, Hugh Sullivan leads the university and medical institutions’ international fundraising and external affairs. Hugh brings nearly 15 years in professional and volunteer roles related to business development and education, with over nine years at Johns Hopkins in progressive fundraising roles.

Topics
  • Administration

Hunter Tereyla

Budget Analyst Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I am a budget Analyst for Johns Hopkins School of Public health. As a budget analyst my job is to ensure all financial transactions that are done within each ledger are properly accounted for along and meet the budget guidelines. Before working at Johns Hopkins, I worked as a teller in the banking industry for four years. While working as a teller I completed my bachelor’s degree in finance from University of Maryland Global Campus. During my education I learned how to analyze financial transactions as well as estimate the value of different financial securities using multiple methods.

Topics
  • Administration

April Wilson

Administrative Coordinator

April Wilson is an Administrative Coordinator for Gupta-Klinsky India Institute and International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University. She offers support to the Executive Director, Senior Advisors, Faculty and Staff. She supports with organization, communication, planning and numerous other tasks within the institute. April has more than 10 years of experience in customer service and providing administrative support in other roles.

Topics
  • Administration