Our Team

Mohan H.L is a social scientist with three decades of experience as a Senior Technical Advisor for programmes, communications and community interventions. Presently, he is also Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KHPT, he leads and provides overall direction to management of programmes, communications and community mobilisation systems and activities. He has played a key role in strengthening KHPT’s partnership with both state and national governments in India.

A firm believer in community centric planning and decentralisation, he has been responsible for design and implementation of innovations in areas of MNCH and HIV/AIDS. His area of interest include institution building and leveraging information and communications technology for empowering grassroots communities.

Prior to joining KHPT, he has spent more than two decades in government and non-government organisations, working specifically in the areas of education, health, decentralisation and adolescent education. He has worked as an advisor and consultant in several development projects of UNFPA, UNESCO and UNICEF, within the country as well as outside.

He has a Master’s degree in Rural and Urban Community Development from the School of Social Work, Mangalore. He has several peer reviewed publications and abstracts to his credit.

A highly driven professional with more than 23 years of experience with a proven track record in driving ambitious digital transformation plans and new digital assignments, Bisujaksha has over 18 years of experience in the NGO sector, He has handled management positions, applied creative problem solving and lean management skills to achieve optimum utilization of its resources complemented with IT infrastructure experience in other sectors. He is well versed in IT, Finance and Process management with a specialization in systems security, IT quality requirements, audits and documentation.

At KHPT, Bisujaksha is Digital Transformation lead, where he is responsible for cross-functional insights co-ordination, directing insights process transformation to digitalization and much more. Bisujaksha holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Bangalore University and earned Certified Lead Auditor (ISO 9001:2005), ITIL Foundation Certification and Senior Leadership Accelerator Program Certification from IIM Bangalore.

Mallika Tharakan is a social scientist working in the development sector for the last 14 years. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the TATA Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She currently plays the role of the Results Delivery Officer and Lead, Knowledge Management at KHPT. She was a journalist with the New Indian Express before she found her call and crossed streams.

Her expertise is in designing community centred program models, Social behaviour change strategies, and strengthening grassroots community institutions. She leads strategic communications, branding and knowledge translation at the organisation level. She also liaisons with the Board and thematic teams to ensure delivery of organisational priorities for impact. She has led the design of several community-based tools and processes that have been scaled at national and global levels.

She has been a resource person with UNDP and BMGF to design and implement community mobilization strategies in Tanzania and North-Eastern India. She has several publications and abstracts to her credit. Mallika is passionate about creating an equitable society for the most vulnerable and socially excluded populations in India. She has dedicated her professional career to do exactly that!

Arin Kar holds post-graduate degrees in Economics and Population Studies. He has over 15 years of experience in the monitoring and evaluation of public health programs. At KHPT, he supports in the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems for intervention projects. Prior to joining KHPT, he worked with the Technical Support Unit of Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society as Strategic Planning Team Leader and at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, as a research officer.

Dr K.Karthikeyan, a medical doctor, trained in HIV medicine and mental health. His 25 years of clinical and public health experience covers grassroots, state, national and international levels.

In the early years of the HIV epidemic in India, led his team to establish home-based care in 15 districts of Tamil Nadu. He served as the nodal person in WHO India office, in 2006-2008, led the ART training roll out in India. He served as the WHO country focal point for HIV, in the Maldives and Timor Leste.

Since 2005, he has been associated with KHPT in various capacities. He is the thematic lead for Tuberculosis in KHPT. He led the technical team in USAID funded THALI project, continues in the same position in USAID funded Breaking the Barriers project. He is passionate about building the team at work.

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.

Dr. Satyanarayana Ramanaik is a social scientist with over 20 years of impactful work in public health and developmental issues in India. His extensive engagement with marginalized communities spans a range of critical areas, including HIV/AIDS, Gender-based Violence (GBV), Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), Migration, Child Marriage, School Dropout, and Adolescent Health. He has been a pivotal force behind large-scale public health interventions and collaborative research initiatives in partnership with esteemed donors and academic institutions such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, WHO, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of Manitoba, the Government of Karnataka, and the Government of India.

A distinguished qualitative researcher, Dr. Ramanaik has contributed significantly to the field. His work has led to the publication of over 40 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious national and international journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Work, a testament to his scholarly commitment. His research journey was enriched by a fellowship from the HIV Research Trust, UK, which supported his doctoral research. His academic pursuit also led him to be a part of CIHR International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program (IID&GHTP), offered by the University of Manitoba, Canada.

Presently, as Thematic Lead for Adolescent Health at KHPT, Dr. Ramanaik spearheads efforts in Gender Based Violence, nutrition, menstrual hygiene, and mental health for adolescent girls in rural India. His exceptional journey blends academic excellence, ground breaking research, and dedicated community engagement, establishing him as a driving force in the realm of public health and social advancement.

R. Maithreyi is the Strategic Lead of the Adolescent Thematic at KHPT. Her work spans research and interventions, and draws upon the areas of childhood studies, gender, and the sociology of education. Maithreyi has a PhD from the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), and also has over 10 years of experience as practising child psychologist. She has several international conferences and publications to her credit, including two books – one on ‘Educating Youth: Psychosocial Regulation through Skilling’ (Sage Ltd), and a co-edited book titled ‘Modernity, Schooling, and Childhood in India: Trajectories of Exclusion’(Routledge Ltd).

Dr Swaroop N is Thematic Lead – Comprehensive Primary Health Care, and Maternal Neonatal and Child Health, and Deputy Director – Quality Improvement at KHPT. Dr Swaroop earned his MD degree in Community Health from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore. He has also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in 2019 as a part of the International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program conducted by University of Manitoba, Canada.

He has 9 years of experience in designing, implementing and disseminating a wide range of public health projects covering HIV, non-communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal and child health. Currently, he has taken a lead in conceptualizing and implementing projects on non-communicable diseases in Mysore. The aim of the projects is to identify the gaps in diagnosis, care and treatment of diabetes and hypertension and develop a model to promote early screening, early enrolment to care and support mechanism, regular follow-up and adherence to medications. He has also taken a lead in developing a model for implementing Comprehensive Primary Health Care in an urban setting. He has several publications in peer-reviewed, indexed international/ national journals and also presented scientific papers in many international/national conferences.

Mr Raghavendra.T is an Indian national and an experienced professional development worker, with a career background in Social work specialized in community development. He has more than 25 years’ experience in managing the interventions with the active involvement of the community at all levels of program planning, designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The summary of his expertise are

• A professional with 25 years of rich and varied experience in Project Management, strategic planning, designing, implementation, training and development, Organizational Development and team management.
• Presently associated with Karnataka Health Promotion Trust as Director, managing and implementing USAID/BMGF supported projects in high HIV prevalence region of Karnataka
• Worked in developmental sectors like water & sanitation, Human resource development, community empowerment, education for adolescent girls under different donor agencies like DANIDA, USAID, BMGF, WORLD BANK, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• Co-authored more than 20 abstracts which are presented in national/international conferences
• Possess expertise in working with multi-discipline team members towards improving growth and meeting organizational goals.
• An enthusiastic & thorough trainer with the skills of being able to convey information with clarity and patience.
• Highly organised and responsible, able to execute complex projects & programmes to meet organisations needs.
• Personal skills include: commitment, meeting the target within the time limits, ability to manage independently and inter-relate & integrate within a team.

Dr. Joseph holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Epidemiology from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi. He has been with KHPT in various capacities; as Deputy Project Director of USAID THALI (Tuberculosis Health Action Learning Initiative) program, Project Director for the Care and Support programs of PLHIVs, and as Strategic Lead of HIV thematic area; was also a member of the Global Technical Team of KHPT and UoM to support the African and Caribbean countries for KP intervention under Linkages Program.

Prior to joining KHPT, he headed the Technical Support Units (TSU) to the State AIDS Control Society of Delhi State between 2014-16 and at Karnataka State between 2016-18. He was also the Team Lead for Targeted Interventions in the TSU in Karnataka.

He developed the family-based care and support model, focused on orphan and vulnerable children (OVC), including adolescents, during his stint with Presentation Society in Goa. He presented this work at the International AIDS Conference in Busan, South Korea. He has authored more than 10 publications; was also a key designer in the big city intervention plan for Delhi NCT.

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.