Our Team

Dr Mallika Biddappa Tharakan is a social scientist working in the development sector for the last 18 years. She has a PhD in Development studies and Master’s Degree in Social Work from the TATA Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

She currently plays the role of Lead, Knowledge Management at KHPT supporting the organisation with learning, knowledge collaboration and strategy . Her expertise is in designing community centred program models, Social behaviour change strategies, and strengthening grassroots community institutions.

She liaisons across KHPT’s core themes for strengthening organisational impact. She has led the design of several community-based tools and processes specifically with vulnerable populations in underserved settings. She is  Motwani Jadeja Fellow 2024 representing India’s vibrant development sector at the United Nations General Assembly week at New York, 2024.

Her passion is to bring community voices into grassroots governance specifically to address social determinants of health. She has dedicated her career to two things- Firstly, redefining public health response from a risk paradigm to a social vulnerability paradigm and secondly, actively preserving the development sector culture of inclusion, rights, deep community understanding and risks being a bit “old school” in doing so. She believes in simplifying words, deepening actions and taking everyone along, to stay true to her motivations.

Manoj is a public health professional with more than 10 years of experience in health systems research and program implementation. He has years of experience in leading implementation research and population-based randomized controlled trial programs. His expertise lies in designing, implementing, and ensuring quality improvement techniques for improved health care; he brings experience in the organization of chronic care systems especially at the primary healthcare level. He is recently engaged in designing and implementing population-level programs in the area of non-communicable diseases, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health. He is leading the quality improvement and quality of life portfolio in the CPHC thematic area at KHPT; in the past, he led an urban health system based project aiming to strengthen the continuum of care for non-communicable disease in primary health care settings. He has several publications in peer-reviewed, indexed international/ national journals.

Dr Suresh Chitrapu, Deputy Director, Communications has worked at KHPT for over a decade. He has more than 15 years of work experience in the areas of community engagement at the grassroots and community mobilization of marginalised and socially excluded groups.

He specialises in planning, designing and implementation of behaviour change, outreach and communication tools and strategies for public health programs. He has the experience in developing and directing various audio-visual aids, using creative art forms such as intimate interactive theatre and folks art and music. He has working experience in deferent themes such as HIV AIDS, Tuberculosis, mother and child health, nutrition and non-communicable diseases facilitating capacity building programme with various focussed group such as female sex worker, sexual minorities, people living with HIV aids,, adolescents, panchayat members, front line health workers. He is the recipient of PhD fellowship from the International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program offered by the University of Manitoba, Canada.

With a Master’s Degree in Journalism, Avinaash Kastura leads KHPT’s communications for the Adolescent Health thematic area.
With more than 12 years of combined experience in advertising, journalism, and the development sector, he has experience in communications, documentation, managing social media campaigns, and organizing events.
Avinaash started his career as a journalist with NDTV-HINDU and later moved into the development sector. In his first role, he worked for the Banyan, a mental health organization, and then with REACH, an NGO working for the welfare of persons with TB. Before moving to KHPT, he worked as a Media Consultant at United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Avinaash loves travelling and filter coffee, and lives by the mantra Live, Laugh, Love!

Abhishek is a communications professional with over six years of experience in journalism, marketing, and development sector. With a Master’s degree in Audio-Visual Communication, he brings solid knowledge about leveraging multiple types of media for effective messaging across various channels. He excels at managing brand presence on digital platforms using both organic and paid strategies.

Starting out as a journalist, Abhishek gained valuable skills in communication and storytelling. Later, he moved into marketing, which helped him develop his talent for creating engaging content which appeals to target audiences and promotes products or services successfully. Currently, Abhishek manages the social media presence of KHPT.