40 Under 40 Leaders in Health: 7 South Asian Americans in National Minority Quality Forum’s List

Seven South Asian Americans are included in the National Minority Quality Forum’s list of ’40 Under 40 Leaders in Health.’ The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) is a research and educational organization dedicated to ensuring that high-risk racial and ethnic populations and communities receive optimal health care. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization integrates data and expertise in support of initiatives to eliminate health disparities. Despite the unexpected trials in health care, these 40 leaders persevered in strengthening their communities and reducing health disparities. 

Indian American clinicians, patient advocates, researchers and policy makers included in the list of next generation of thought leaders in reducing health disparities are Dr. Angel Desai, Assistant Professor, University of California Davis; Vishalli Loomba, MD/MSc. student, Joint Medical Program at UCSF School of Medicine and UC Berkeley School of Public Health; Dr. Sudhakar V. Nuti, Internal Medicine/Primary Care Resident Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital; Dr. Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri, Assistant Professor, Rutgers University; Megha Ramaswamy, Professor, University of Kansas School of Medicine; Anita Ravi, CEO, co-founder, PurpLE Health Foundation; and Megan L. Srinivas, Infectious Disease Clinical Instructor and Translational Health Policy Research Fellow, University of North Carolina Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease. 

Annually, since 2016, NMQF has selected 40 minority health leaders under the age of 40 who have been leading the charge to better patient outcomes and build sustainable healthy communities. Winners will receive their awards during the 2021 NMQF Leadership Summit on Health Disparities and Spring Health Braintrust Virtual Summit April 26 to 27.

Dr. Angel Desai is an infectious diseases physician and Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis. Her other work includes global infection prevention and control measures in resource-limited settings. Desai obtained her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 2007 and M.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Washington and her infectious disease fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. She also completed a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2019.

Vishalli Loomba is a Bay Area native who is deeply passionate about eliminating health disparities and centering the priorities of historically underserved and marginalized populations. She completed her undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and Global Poverty at UC Berkeley where she became the first South Asian Student Body President. After graduating, she conducted research on trauma-informed care for low-income women of color living with HIV at UCSF, and later helped establish the UCSF Center to Advance Trauma-informed Care. She completed her Masters in Public Health, and then went on to serve as the Senior Project Manager for the California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative. Currently, she is an MD/MSc. student at the Joint Medical Program with UC Berkeley School of Public Health and UCSF School of Medicine. 

Dr. Sudhakar V. Nuti is an internal medicine/primary care resident doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School, where he cares for a minority and immigrant population at the MGH Chelsea Healthcare Center. He is driven by his experience as an immigrant growing up poor in Connecticut to improve the health and well-being of disadvantaged people in America. In public service, he is special advisor to the New York City Commissioner of Health on health equity, helping develop an anti-racism agenda to promote health equity and address racism as a public health crisis. He was also special assistant to the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to caring for patients on the front lines, he has worked at the city, state, and national levels on expanding COVID-19 testing and addressing vaccine hesitancy. He received his BA magna cum laude with Distinction from Yale College, MD cum laude from Yale School of Medicine, and MSc in Public Health (Health Promotion) from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as a Rotary Service Above Self Scholar.

Dr. Sangeeta Pudasainee-Kapri is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Rutgers University-Camden, and a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner. Her current research focuses on the role of early parenting and social factors in long-term developmental trajectories of children born low birth weight and/preterm birth. She has more than a decade of clinical experience as an RN in various Hospitals in Nepal and in the U.S. She also holds a specialty certification as a Certified Pediatric Nurse. Her clinical experience also extends in other areas, including postpartum unit, neonatal intensive care unit, medical/surgical unit, and rural community health settings. She has been recognized through the receipt of numerous fellowships, scholarships, and awards for her dedication to family centered care, and excellence in teaching and research.

Dr. Megha Ramaswamy, currently Professor of Population Health at University of Kansas School of Medicine, has worked for the last 15 years studying the intersection of urban living, race, class, and gender structure health and social risk for women and men involved in the criminal legal system. Some of her previous positions include co-director of an undergraduate public health program at Hunter College City University of New York; site-director of a master of public health program at University of Kansas School of Medicine, and a leadership role on the University of Kansas School of Medicine’s Science Education and Partnership Award. She has served on the boards for a Kansas City domestic violence shelter and Planned Parenthood of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. She serves the scientific community as grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health community influences on health behaviors study section. She has a PhD in Sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center; a master’s degree in public health from University of Kansas School of Medicine; and a BA in Journalism from New York University.

Anita Ravi is a board-certified family medicine physician, public health scientist and nationally renowned expert in the area of gender-based violence and trauma-informed care. She is the co-founder and CEO of the PurpLE Health Foundation, a non-profit organization that advances the health of communities by investing in the physical, mental and financial health of women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence. Prior to PurpLE Health Foundation, Ravi founded and directed the “PurpLE Clinic” in New York City – a pioneering primary care clinic for survivors of human trafficking and other forms of abuse and exploitation. Ravi is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, received her Medical Degree from the University of Michigan School of Medicine, her Masters in Public Health from Yale University and her Masters in Health Policy research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. 

Dr. Megan Srinivas is an infectious disease physician and translational health policy researcher at the University of North Carolina who resides and practices in Iowa. She’s currently leading a NIH-funded study on how legislative defunding of family planning health centers impacts access to healthcare in rural America. Srinivas was the first student member on the Iowa State Board of Education, appointed by Secretary (and former Governor) Tom Vilsack. She previously worked for the World Food Prize Foundation in Kenya analyzing factors influencing household food security and was awarded the John Chrystal Award for outstanding contribution to hunger issues. In college, she co-founded Boston’s Peer Health Exchange, a non-profit teaching comprehensive health education in socioeconomically-disadvantaged schools. She also studied the evolution of malarial drug resistance in South America, changing national treatment policy in Peru and earning one of Harvard’s most prestigious undergraduate awards, the Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize. She currently works with Project Echo to provide hepatitis C care via telehealth in the rural U.S. She is a national delegate to the American Medical Association and currently serves on the Iowa Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission. During fall 2020, Dr. Srinivas served as the chair of President-Elect Biden’s Iowa COVID Response Council. She co-founded the COVID Health Animation Project (CHAP), which creates culturally-informed health animations to help address COVID’s racialized disparities. Srinivas, who grew up in rural Iowa, graduated from Harvard College in 2009, University of Iowa Medical School in 2014, Harvard School of Public Health in 2014, and completed her medical residency at Johns Hopkins University in 2017.