Steering Committee

Dr Arun K Aggarwal

Professor & Head in the Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health of PGIMER Chandigarh. He did WHO fellowship on Health Care Financing from Bangkok, Thailand, and Australian Leadership Award Fellowship on HIV, at Sydney. He is on the governing board and member of many national and state level bodies. He is trainer for Integrated Training on Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI) at and Child Death Reviews (CDR) and has operationalized CDR in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state. He conducts National Workshops on Health Systems Strengthening every year. He is founder President of an association “Association for Health Systems Analysis and Strengthening” https://www.ahsas-pgichd.org/ and founder Chief Editor of online international journal “International Journal of Health Systems and Implementation Research” https://ijhsir.online/

Capt Ajitha Nair

Capt Ajitha Nair is a Nursing and Management professional with 31 years of varied experience in healthcare. Alumnus of Armed Forces Medical College Pune, Christian Medical College Vellore, and IIM Kozhikode; Ajitha has clinical, educational and managerial experience in Armed Forces and top rated corporate and charitable hospitals like Fortis, Aster, Ruby Hall Clinic, Meitra Hospital, KIMSHEALTH etc. Currently she is pursuing her entrepreneurial flair as Managing Director of Healbiz Healthcare which provides hands on consultancy services in hospital operations focusing on sustainability through capacity building, process reengineering, coaching and handholding.

Ajitha has implemented cost effective and sustainable strategies in hospital operations, patient management and maintaining efficient workforce at hospitals. Ajitha has hands on experience in JCI and NABH accreditations and has been NABH Principal Assessor, Faculty and Committee member. Currently she is the National President of Association of Nurse Executives India and Executive Committee member of Health and Environment Leadership Platform.

Dr Alexander Thomas

D.Orth, M.S Orth, MPhil [HSSM], PGDMLE
Chair – Health Environment Leadership Platform [HELP], PHFI.

He is the Founder & Patron of Association of Healthcare Providers India [AHPI], Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations [CAHO] & Association of National Board Accredited Institutions [ANBAI].

Dr. Thomas is the member, committee constituted to include climate change, air pollution & heat wave and their impact on health in the teaching syllabus of UG and PG courses by the NCDC, MOHFW, and GOI, 2023. He has also edited a book titled ‘Climate Change and the Health Sector; Healing the World’, India’s first publication on the subject, which is made available to all on open access. He is the Chairman of the SDG3 Group (only non-IAS person) to Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Well-Being, an initiative by the Government of Karnataka; Vice President of The SDGs Leadership Council Subcommittee on Health and Climate Change an Economic Times Edge Initiative; Member – Health Insurance Consultative Committee, IRDAI.

Chairperson of the Technical Committee on Grading of NABH Accredited Healthcare Organizations, QCI. Member-Secretary of the Karnataka Public Health Task Force of the Karnataka Jnana Aayoga, to draw up a comprehensive State Public Health Policy (2017); Chairman, Healthcare Sector Skill Council [HSSC]. Karnataka. He is also the Founder Member of Vayah Vikas.

Chandan Khanna

Chandan has more than 12 years of experience working with leading organizations in South Asia. He has been part of key studies like the economic valuation of tiger reserves in India, aimed at highlighting the conservational value of native ecosystems. Chandan has a professional background in environment and climate change, and holds a Masters in Forest Management from Indian Institute of Forest Management Bhopal.
At Health Care Without Harm, Chandan oversees the implementation of the India programs.

Prof. Dileep Mavlankar

Honorary Distinguished Professor of Public Health, IIPH-G

Professor Dileep Mavlankar was director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar from 2012 to May 2023. Prof. Mavalankar received an MBBS and MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, and MPH (1983) and Dr. P.H (1990) from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. His work experience includes faculty and research positions in NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Health in Bethesda, USA, Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, NY, USA. He has worked as consultant/advisor to many agencies including WHO, World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, Agakhan Foundation, AMDD program of Columbia university USA. He has been on various high-level committees/boards of government of India and Government of Gujarat, Niti Ayog, NHSRC, NTAGI, etc. Prof. Mavalankar has authored more than 200 publications. He has been advisor to key academic and government organizations and NGOs. Prof. Mavalankar was appointed by the Prime Minister to the high-level Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Government of India in 2005. He is the member secretary of the Gujarat government’s Covid taskforce appointed by CM of Gujarat.

He has long experience of working in India and internationally on family planning, maternal and child health, Reproductive health and Rights, public health policy and management. He is a very well recognized public health expert in India. He helped develop the Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan in 2013 which has now been scaled up in many cities of India. He is currently a Short-Term Consultant to the World Bank.

 Professor Dileep Mavalankar was involved in guiding analysis of heat related mortality in Ahmedabad during heat wave of 2010. He also guided development of Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan which was a pioneering plan in South Asia. He was involved in various studies related to heat and health in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and other places. He made several presentations to NDMA, and various state and national bodies regarding heat and health and heat action plan development. He is currently working as a Short-Term Consultant to the World bank on climate change and heat health. He is one of the key experts in the area of heat action plans in India.

Dr. Karan Thakur

Dr. Karan Thakur is the Group Sustainability Lead & Vice President – Public Affairs for the Apollo Hospitals Group. He is a seasoned healthcare administrator with wide experience in the field of health policy, hospital operations, projects, health communications and healthcare sustainability & ESG.

He is an alumnus of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and National Law University, New Delhi. He was the 2022 Global Fellow from India for the Eisenhower Fellowships. He is the Chair of the CAHO Program on Sustainability (CAPS), Member – Steering Committee of the Health & Environment Leadership Platform (PHFI), Member – Healthcare Committee of ASSOCHAM, and Member – FICCI ESG Taskforce.

Dr Lallu Joseph

Dr. Lallu Joseph is the Quality Manager and Associate General Superintendent of Christian Medical College Vellore, the largest hospital in the country accredited by NABH. Prior to joining healthcare, she was vice president of a software company and was a teaching assistant at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. A Mechanical Engineer by profession, she went on to complete her masters and doctorate in business administration, Diploma in CQI from the Canadian Healthcare Administration and Executive General Management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. A passionate teacher, trainer and ISQua Expert, she involved in training quality implementation
across the country through NABH, CAHO, AHPI and hospital administration programs. Principal assessor of NABH and National Secretary General of the CAHO, Board member of ASQua, NABH and member of working group of ISO-TC-304 Healthcare Quality Management Standards. Many book chapters and publications to her credit and was part of developing the entry level guidelines of NABH standards, technical advisor for NIMHANS accreditation and has developed about 40 training programs of CAHO.
The best outgoing student of VIT Business School (2000), won many awards: young quality achiever award (2016), Dr.M.S.Ashraf Award Indian Medical Association (2018), BMJ Southeast Asian Award (2017) and the International Medal for the Asia Pacific Region by the Australian Council (2021).

Nick Thorp

Nick Thorp joined Health Care Without Harm in April of 2013 and serves as the Network Director for Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH). He has over 15 years of experience working with a variety of NGOs conducting toxicological research and developing innovative and interactive tools to advance education and public engagement around issues related to community and environmental health.

Nick holds a dual degree from the University of Oregon in International Environmental Studies and French. He is based in Oregon in the United States.

Professor Sanjay Zodpey

Professor Sanjay Zodpey is the President, Public Health Foundation of India which promotes inter-
disciplinary and health system connected professional education, research, knowledge translation
and technology development. Earlier he has served as Vice President – Academics, Public Health
Foundation of India and provided leadership to the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi as its
Founding Director. An institution builder, he played an important role in setting up Indian Institutes
of Public Health (IIPHs) across India and developed multi-disciplinary technical teams in public
health. He has led the development of PHFI’s academic portfolio for advancing the mandate of PHFI.
He has gained national and international recognition for his work in public health education.