South Asian Public Health
Association
A Brown Paper:
The Health of South Asians
in the U.S.
A Brown Paper:
The Health of South Asians
in the U.S.
|
|
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South Asian Public Health
Association
A Brown Paper: The Health of South Asians in the U.S. |
Brown Paper Authors' Biographies
Neelam Gupta, MPH, MSW
ngupta@picf.org
Ms. Gupta is a Program Manager with Partners in Care Foundation, overseeing
projects to improve health care access and delivery in Los Angeles County in
California. Active in the South Asian community, Ms. Gupta has also been involved
with the South Asian Network in Los Angeles, the South Asian Public Health Association
(SAPHA), the National South Asian HIV/AIDS Network (NSAHIVNET), and Asian Pacific
Islanders for Human Rights (APIHR).
Kalpana Bhandarkar, BA
saphakalpana@yahoo.com
Ms. Bhandarkar works at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center (AHC) in New
York, where she provides programmatic support to the Center and also works with
the Downstate Center for Excellence, AHC's technical assistance arm. She is
also NY/NJ Chapter Lead of Project IMPACT for South Asian Americans and is a
Founding Board Member of the South Asian Public Health Association.
Amishi M. Gandhi, MPH
amishi@boo.net
Ms. Gandhi currently works at Eastern Research Group where she provides industrial
hygiene and other research services to federal agencies. Her community interests
include working with the homeless.
Mona Shah, MSSW
mona510@hotmail.com
Ms. Shah is currently working as a Project Associate for the ACCESS and EQUITY
in AFTER SCHOOLS PROJECT at California Tomorrow. Her background is in working
with youth in a direct service setting and youth program development.
Women's Health
Sharmila S. Rao, MPH, MPA
ssr20@columbia.edu
Ms. Rao is an independent consultant with experience in health research, program
development, communications, education, and advocacy. She has worked with the
Ford Foundation on issues of sexual & reproductive health, rights, and policy,
co-founded Sakhi's Women's Health Initiative in New York City, and has been
active with SAPHA since its inception in 1999.
Shazia Akram, MPH
nazanam@yahoo.com
Ms. Akram works at the Asian American Federation of New York, providing technical
assistance and health promotion programs for Asian community-based organizations.
She is also a member of SAPHA and the Women's Health Initiative at Sakhi for
South Asian Women.
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA
sliveymd@socrates.berkeley.edu
Dr. Ivey is a board-certified family physician and chronic disease prevention
researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a long-standing
interest in heart disease among women, particularly ethnic minority women.
Bhaswati Bhattacharya, MD, MPH, MA
bhaswati@aol.com
Dr. Bhattacharya is an attending physician in the Department of Family Practice
and Community Medicine at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in New York City, where
she serves as Director of Research, Development and Education. Her work in the
South Asian community includes projects with SAPHA, AAPI, AIF, and Sakhi.
Abhijit Ghosh, MPH
saphaabhijit@yahoo.com
Mr. Ghosh is a fellow in Health Communications at the National Cancer Institute.
A SAPHA member and co-founder since its inception in 1999, he has been involved
in health advocacy for the South Asian community.
Rashmi Gupta, PhD, LMSW
drrgupta@attbi.com
Dr. Gupta is a private practitioner and works in Dallas, Texas where she operates
a private clinic. She has published numerous articles on the Asian Indian elderly.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health
H. Patrick Mangto
patmangto@aol.com
Mr. Mangto is Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islanders for Human Rights
(APIHR) and previously helped create TrikoneLA and Queer Awaaz. He has also
served as a co-chair of the API HIV/AIDS Caucus in Los Angeles and as a Board
Member for Immigration Equality-LA of the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights
Task Force and Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council.
Micah Carvalho
hoku@stanfordalumni.org
Mr. Carvalho is currently an independent consultant focusing on public policy
issues relating to health disparities among minority communities and social
justice. He has served as Health Policy Advocate for the LA Gay and Lesbian
Center and the Research and Policy Fellow at the Policy Institute of the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, where his work focused on Census research, LGBT
health, domestic partnership education and racial and economic justice.
Sapna Pandya, MPH
spandya@psi.org
Ms. Pandya completed her Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology/Biostatistics
from the George Washington University in 2001. She has designed research and
participated in outreach work with the gay community in Mumbai, India, and has
been working at Population Services International (PSI), a non-profit health
social marketing company since 2001.
Nadia Islam, MPH
nsi3@columbia.edu
Ms. Islam is the South Asian Outreach Coordinator for NY AANCART and a doctoral
student in the Division of Sociomedical Sciences at the School of Public Health
of Columbia University. Through her work with AANCART, Ms. Islam has been actively
involved in building a sustainable network of community-based organizations,
health professionals, and activists to conduct health research in the South
Asian community.
Naseem Zojwalla, MD
Naszojwalla@hotmail.com
Dr. Zojwalla is a National Cancer Institute Training Fellow at the Mailman School
of Public Health of Columbia University. She recently completed her residency
in Internal Medicine and began a Clinical Oncology Fellowship at Columbia in
July 2002.
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA
sliveymd@socrates.berkeley.edu
Dr. Ivey is a family physician engaged in prevention research with a focus on
disparities in health, particularly in immigrant communities. She is currently
conducting a study of cardiovascular risks among Asian Indians in 3 communities
in California.
Meenakshi Khatta MS, CRNP
Mkhatta@medicine.umaryland.edu
Ms. Khatta is a cardiology Nurse Practitioner at University of Maryland Medical
System. Her interests include the prevention of cardiovascular diseases among
South Asians.
Rajesh Vedanthan, MD, MPH, MS
rajesh_vedanthan@alum.swarthmore.edu
Dr. Vedanthan recently received his MD from the University of California, San
Francisco, School of Medicine; his residency in Internal Medicine is at Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. He is a co-founder of the Swasthya Community
Health Partnership in Sringeri, India.
Diabetes
Swapnil Rajpathak MBBS, D.Diabetology, MPH
srajpath@hsph.harvard.edu
Dr. Rajpathak is a physician from India, with training in care of people with
diabetes. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Harvard School of
Public Health, focusing in the area of prevention of diabetes.
Pinaki Mukherji, MD
piktu@yahoo.com
Dr. Mukherji is a practicing emergency physician in Queens, NY, and is an Assistant
Professor of Emergency and Internal Medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center,
campus for Albert Einstein Medical School. His interests include fly-fishing,
14th century German literature, and sarcasm as a sport.
Linda Groetzinger, AM
lgroet1@uic.edu
Ms. Groetzinger is a PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Illinois
at Chicago researching HIV/AIDS among people of South Asian heritage in the
US. In the future she plans to teach cross-cultural practice in social work
and public health, and work in the field of reproductive health and HIV in the
US and South Asia.
Jhumka Gupta, MPH
jhumkag@hotmail.com
Ms. Gupta is a public health fellow at the Office on Women's Health within the
US Department of Health and Human Services. She has worked both nationally and
internationally to help promote the health and lives of women and their communities.
Ushma D. Upadhyay, MPH
ushma@jhu.edu
Ms. Upadhyay is a research writer on international reproductive health issues
and a PhD candidate in Women's Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg
School of Public Health. She is a former volunteer for Sakhi for South Asian
Women.
Meera Rastogi, PhD
MRastogi@edgewood.edu
Dr. Rastogi is an assistant professor of psychology at Edgewood College in Madison,
Wisconsin. Since completing a PhD in Counseling Psychology from The Ohio State
University in June 2001, Dr. Rastogi continues to work with and explore mental
health issues within the South Asian and Asian American communities.
V. Suthakaran, MA
sveerasa@nd.edu
Mr. Suthakaran is a doctoral candidate in Counseling Psychology at the University
of Maryland, College Park. He is currently completing his internship at the
University of Notre Dame, and he conducts research in the area of ethnic/racial
and religious identities.
Satya S. Jonnalagadda, PhD, RD, LD
sjonn@gsu.edu
Dr. Jonnalagadda is Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Georgia
State University, Atlanta, GA. The focus of her research is on diet, chronic
disease prevention and treatment and she is currently conducting research on
factors influencing the health and well-being of Asian Indian immigrants.
Sadhna Diwan, PhD, LCSW
SWOSSD@langate.gsu.edu
Dr. Diwan is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Fellow of
the Gerontology Center at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. The focus of
her research is aging and health care and she is currently researching factors
influencing health and well-being of Asian Indian immigrants.
Shilpa Patel, MPH
npshilps@yahoo.com
Ms. Patel is an Analyst at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
(APIAHF) in San Francisco. Her public health interests include HIV/AIDS and
substance abuse issues among communities of color.
Resource Guide
Shazia Akram, MPH
nazanam@yahoo.com
Ms. Akram works at the Asian American Federation of New York, providing technical
assistance and health promotion programs for Asian community-based organizations.
She is also a member of SAPHA and the Women's Health Initiative at Sakhi for
South Asian Women.