A little about me …
Photo by Emily Brunner
I’m an author, public health anthropologist, and social justice advocate.
I find that some of the most important work happens at the edges, in the spaces between disciplines, identities, and institutions. That is where I have always lived. What happens to people who fall outside the categories systems are built to serve? What does it take to build a sense of belonging? And who fights when those systems fail? I believe the future comes from people willing to bridge and break boundaries.
The Writer
For years, I waited for someone to write the book I needed — one that spoke directly to the experience of being Multiracial in America. How to answer where are you from. Which boxes to check. How to move fluidly between worlds without losing yourself in the process. When I finally tired of waiting, I began to write it myself.
That book is Multitudes. Part memoir, part research, part love letter to everyone who has ever felt like they exist between categories, it makes the case that embracing our complexity is not a burden to manage but a path to wholeness.
The Public Health Practitioner
I've spent over 25 years weaving together anthropology, public health, adult learning, and systems thinking while living and working in over 20 countries across Europe, Africa, and South Asia. I’ve worked with many organizations including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, Academy for Educational Development and Ashoka.
I currently serve as Senior Director of the Global Ideas for US Solutions portfolio at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — the nation's largest health-focused philanthropy — where I identify promising approaches from around the world and adapt them to improve health equity in the United States. I’ve written and spoken extensively on a host of issues relevant to health and wellbeing, including health equity, child health, infectious diseases, immunizations. My career has emphasized the importance not only of listening to marginalized people but shifting power to achieve a better world for all. I’ve written three book chapters, eleven peer-reviewed papers and presentations, and over twenty blog posts. I host the ReImagined in America webinar series and recently curated a series of articles with the Stanford Social Innovation Review focused on the imperative for learning globally to act locally.
I have a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, a Master of Health Science and a Doctor of Science in International Health from Johns Hopkins University.
The Advocate
At age sixteen, my daughter was diagnosed with gyrate atrophy, a rare retinal disorder that causes progressive vision loss, eventually leading to blindness. With my husband, I founded Conquering Gyrate Atrophy to catalyze research and community to find a cure. To date, we’ve provided over $500,000 in grants to leading researchers.
I serve as a Trustee for Westtown School, founded in 1799 by the Philadelphia Quakers, and the oldest continuously operating co-educational boarding school in the country. The school that taught me how to foster belonging.
Selected Talks
Selected Writing (previous name Bhattacharyya)
