Aruna leads work on urban health, health systems policy research, and health impacts of climate change in vulnerable and marginalised settings at the IIHS School of Human Development. She is trained in medical anthropology and holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Delhi. She has been working in the health systems policy research space from the vantage point of implementation of national health programmes in marginalised settings, since 1998.
Aruna has taught public health and carried out several research studies at the intersection of public health and health systems policy research as Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PI with national and international funding, as Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
Aruna was part of the Government of India’s Common Review Missions for National Rural Health Mission / National Health Mission (NRHM / NHM). She is an active member of the Health Systems Global (HSG) SHAPES consortium. Aruna is trained in ‘Ethics in public health research’ at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a recipient of the Australia Leadership Award Fellowship (ALAF) for public health practice in HIV/STI. Aruna has long-standing collaborations with the Harvard School of Public Health, Sydney University, and the University College of London among others, for research and capacity building in public health.
