Anaka Srinivas

Age: 22

Home Town: Madison, Wisconsin

Education: BA Cognitive Science, Northwestern University

Specific Field Interests: Public Health, Reproductive Health, Oncology, Social Determinants of Health

Placement: Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, Karnataka

Area of Focus: Public Health, Health Education, Community Development, Women's Health, Cancer Prevention, Health Policy

Fellowship Project: Improvement in HPV vaccine acceptance and cervical cancer screening uptake low health-literate groups through population-specific, culturally sound community educational material.

Highlights: Anaka graduated from Northwestern University in 2022 with a degree in Cognitive Science and aspirations of attending medical school. She is deeply passionate about the intersection of the social determinants of health and access to medical care, and has worked, researched, and volunteered extensively in the public health field. For the last six years, she has been a fierce advocate for breast cancer awareness and screening within the South Asian diaspora – she has worked to increase the representation that South Asians receive in clinical research and medicine, alongside raising awareness for specific medical issues disproportionately impacting the diasporic population. Other public health endeavors have included collaborations with the Wisconsin State Assembly to introduce bills mitigating the impact of lead poisoning, providing movement therapy to pediatric cancer patients from disadvantaged backgrounds, and working on the ground to determine the health-related impacts of climate change on marginalized communities. As a researcher, she has been involved in projects investigating public health and precision care throughout her undergraduate studies, at the Feinberg School of Medicine and the Medical College of Georgia. Anaka is keen on pursuing a career in public health as a physician and is extremely excited to broaden her experiences by serving with the Public Health Research Institute of India as a Banyan Impact Fellow. Through her Fellowship period, she hopes to better understand how to build sustainable healthcare interventions and combat low-health literacy – along with eating as many Mysore Masala Dosas as she can manage.