Our Team

Dr. Prarthana B S is a medical doctor with over 15 years of experience in clinical and public health, specializing in HIV/ Sexually Transmitted Infections, family medicine, and public health law and ethics. She has worked as a clinician and as a technical and training coordinator on projects related to HIV, MNCH, and tuberculosis since 2010. As former Strategic Lead for tuberculosis at KHPT, Dr. Prarthana provided key inputs on private sector engagement, community involvement, and patient care. She also served as the State Lead for the Technical Support Unit, focusing on mainstreaming private sector and multi-sectoral engagement in Karnataka. She is passionate about integrating health with development across various sectors.

Agnita is an experienced nutrition and public health specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the social development sector and nutrition research with 10 years of experience. She has her first Masters in food science and nutrition and recently completed a second Masters in global health and infectious diseases from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She also obtained a certificate of advanced studies in public governance and administration from ETH, Zurich. She participated in the 2018 Global health Academy, the University of Edinburgh with a focus on the One Health approach. She is also a certified diabetes educator by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

She is currently the Strategic Lead for the Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health thematic area and has been associated with KHPT for 6 years. She has worked closely with the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSA) of multiple states in the country to promote and strengthen the fortification of staples through advocacy with Government departments and building the capacity of food business operators on fortification. Earlier she was involved in providing technical expertise for a nutrition pilot project focusing on alleviating nutrition in the most backward blocks of the state of Karnataka. She supports nutrition interventions in the organization in terms of planning and execution of both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions based on evidence.

Earlier she was a senior research fellow at St. John’s Research Institute, Bangalore involved in advanced research in the maternal and child nutrition area using, or developing, the appropriate research methods. Her interests are in global health, food systems, governance, and administration. She looks forward to working towards strengthening the food systems aimed at alleviating the nutritional landscape in the country.

Prathibha Rai, currently is a Manager-Community Interventions at KHPT, with more than 17 years of experience in the social development sector.

Her key areas of work at KHPT are in community mobilization, program development and program management in the areas of Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) & Non-Communicable Disease. Her work focusses on strengthening community systems (Community health workers, community structures like VHSNC & ARS) through the development of training modules, job aids and capacity building. In the MNCH area, she majorly contributed to the development of ASHA diary and led the pilot of ASHA diary.

In her initial assignment, she managed and mentored a team of counsellors in the HIV/AIDS Care and support centre. At FICCI & PSI, she led the implementation of a workplace intervention program on HIV/AIDS & TB in the industries.

She holds Masters in Social Work and M.Phil in Sociology. She is a counsellor by passion. Currently, she is also a member of POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the workplace) committee at KHPT.

With an M.Phil degree in Biostatistics & Demography, Mani Deep has over five years of experience in implementing and analyzing large-scale surveys. He specializes in designing and implementing Monitoring and Evaluation plans for MNCH projects.

Prior to his current position, Mani Deep worked on the “National Family Health Survey round Five (NFHS-5)” project at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS). He also served as a Data Analyst for the “National Research Study on Human Trafficking in India” project at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Additionally, he worked as a Bio-Statistician at YAGNA, where he analyzed various health-related data sets, including HIV Sentinel Surveillance and National Integrated Biological & Behavioural Surveillance, NFHS(Round III & IV), and District Level Household Survey Round IV.

Mani Deep’s contributions have been recognized through publications, awards and presentations. He received the Dr. C. Chandrasekharan Young Scientist Award for his research on handling missing data in large-scale health surveys. He also received the PROF. S N SINGH Best Poster Award for his work on the prevalence of hypertension in the southern Indian population.

Outside of work, Mani Deep actively participates in co-curricular activities and sports. He has been a member of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and has achieved high grades. He has also pursued karate and has reached an advanced level. In addition, he enjoys playing football, skating, and swimming.

Dr Ayeesha Begam holds a Master’s degree in Hospital Administration from St. John’s Medical College and a Post-graduate Diploma in Medical Law & Ethics from National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru. Her previous assignments have been in leading roles in healthcare academics, research and industry across public and private sectors. She is passionate about democratising affordable healthcare to the most needy and believes in a holistic approach to well-being. Biomedical ethics and research are her interest areas. She loves travelling, discover places, understand cultures and prefer to get lost in the magic of nature, reflecting on the wonders of cosmos.

Dr Sangeetha M R is an accomplished health professional with over 12 years of diverse experience in the field of public health. Her core competencies include project designing and implementation, health policy formulation, medical and mortality audits, pharmacovigilance and developing monitoring and evaluation plans for health programs. Before joining KHPT, she worked as an Assistant Project Manager at Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), a Karnataka government agency, and as a Research Scientist at Karnataka Evaluation Authority. During her six years at SAST, she efficiently handled the implementation of Ayushman Bharat- Arogya Karnataka, the flagship health care scheme of Karnataka and was instrumental in conceptualization and implementation of other health schemes. As a member of the Mortality/Medical Audit cell at SAST, she has contributed significantly in process and quality improvement by identifying gaps and delays in medical treatment through data analysis. She also has experience of evaluating impacts of large government/ donor funded programs. She aspires to integrate sustainable health practices into programs, build strong connections with the community and introduce innovative healthcare solutions thereby working towards attaining equitable, accessible and quality health care to all.

Nikita holds a doctoral degree in Food Process Engineering from IIT Delhi; her expertise encompasses a wide array of domains within the realm of food science, including novel food processing technologies, quality control, food safety, and analytical food chemistry. She has presented her research findings at various international conferences, including EFFoST held in the Netherlands and IUFoST in Singapore. She has also authored a book consolidating comprehensive data on ‘Aromatic and Medicinal Plants in the Trans Himalayan Region of India’.

In addition to her research prowess, Dr. Nikita has excelled in project management roles, leveraging her expertise to secure funding, oversee budgets, and deliver impactful outcomes. Her experience as a Senior Research Fellow in an NMHS-funded project equipped her with valuable skills in stakeholder engagement and sustainable resource management. Beyond research and project management, she has also been a Lecturer at Kumaun University, Nainital.

Having received multiple awards for research excellence, Dr. Nikita persists in leveraging her experiences from research and academia to contribute to the development sector.

With over five years in the development and public health sector, Mihika Wakhloo has experience in capacity building, community engagement, program and knowledge management, psycho-social support, monitoring and evaluation.

She has worked as an integral part of the National Project Management Unit in USAID_LON ALLIES Project, REACH, where she provided support to the state teams in implementing a Community-based Accountability Framework (CAF) to improve the quality of care and quality of services in community-based TB Care, conducted research and analysis, and supported 15 Media Fellows across India.  She also presented an abstract at the Union World Conference on Lung Health 2022 at the Youth4Lungs event.

Mihika holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and Human Resource Management from the Department of Social Work at Jamia Millia Islamia University.