Nepal Public Health Foundation

NPHF Lead

Dr. Mahesh Kumar Maskey
Founding Chair and Executive Chief (NPHF)

Mahesh Kumar Maskey, founding chair of Nepal Public Health Foundation, is a prominent public health expert. His work has included perinatal epidemiology, health policy and planning, systems research, and the generation of evidence for the creation of health policy nationally and internationally. In 2006-7, Mahesh designed basic free healthcare services for the Government of Nepal, which continue to be implemented. In 2006-2009, he was Executive Chair of the National Health Research Council, Government of Nepal. Also during this time, he served as Advisor to Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population Amik Sherchan, as Chair of the High Level Health Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health and Population, and as Chair of the South Asian Forum for Health Research. In 2007-2010, Mahesh contributed to the drafting of the Three-Year Interim Health Plan of the Government of Nepal. He has been a member of the World Health Organization’s Advisory Council for Health Research in the South-East Asia region, and served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal to the People’s Republic of China (2012-2016). Mahesh’s original contribution to the field of public health research includes the Motherhood Method, by which data for maternal, perinatal, neonatal and infant mortality is collected from local registries and focus group discussions with pregnant women and mothers, instead of from national surveys, as is traditionally the case. This method has the advantage of measuring these indicators in small areas and short intervals while also contributing to national data, and is hence better suited to the public-health needs of developing countries.

NPHF Members

Dr. Aruna Uprety
President

She received her masters degree in Arts from Women and Development Institute of Social Studies The Hague, The Netherlands . She did her M.D from Kharkov State Medical Institute Ukraine ( Former Soviet Union ). She worked in a governmental office for about 8 years inside a maternity ward. Her close hands-on experience in the maternity ward inspired her desire to advocate for women’s rights regarding abortion. Uprety was involved with many different Non-governmental organisations, which allowed her to travel to different Nepalese regions. Through her travels, she learned about women who faced Uterine Prolapse, and noticed its prevalence in rural and urban parts of Nepal. Her sympathetic and compassionate attitude towards being an advocate for change motivated her to speak out on this problem and many other problems women across Nepal faced. Currently she is working as a Team Leader for Public Health and Nutrition Promotion, Rural Health Education Service Trust, Nepal.

Prof. Dr. Lochana Shrestha
Vice President

Currently working as the Professor and Head of Department of Community Medicine in National Army Institute of Health and Sciences, Prof. Dr. Lochana Shrestha has also been working as the Chairman of Health Home Care Nepal, Chairman of Help for Change and Chairman of Institutional review board. She has completed her Masters in International Public Health from University of Sydney. She has gained more than 20 years of experience in the public health arena either as a Lecturer, Associate Professor, Epidemiologist or Medical Officer.

Dr. Sameer Mani Dixit
General Secretary

Currently working as a General Secretary of Nepal Public Health Foundation and Vice President of GARP-Nepal, Dr. Sameer Mani Dixit is a research scientist with a background of working in public health. He has been working for the past 9 years in Public Health, and over 17 years’ experience in basic/applied science, in various forms of academic and programmatic research of public health importance- usually as Team Leader/ Principle Investigator. He has completed his PhD in Probiotics from Western Sydney University, Australia.

Dr. Rajani Shah
Treasurer

Dr. Rajani Shah has been teaching public health research and epidemiology subjects for the past 12 years. She completed her (PhD) in Medical Research-International Health from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. She also has substantial experience in qualitative and quantitative research on maternal health, and program management. Dr. Shah has undertaken a significant number of studies on maternal health. Her area of interest includes conducting research and promoting utilisation of the findings in preventing maternal mortality.

Dr. Karuna Onta
Member

Dr. Karuna Onta received her PhD degree in Social Psychology from Leningrad State University, USSR Development Program Specialist with over fifteen years of experience in the South Asia Region (Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh) on broad range of women’s human rights, women’s empowerment, gender equality, reproductive health/nutrition, psychosocial well-being, social norms, behaviour change communication, social inclusion, protection related areas and water, sanitation and hygiene. Co-lead adviser for the Integrated Program for Strengthening Security and Justice in Nepal (this requires working with multiple ministries such as Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare, Ministry of Law and Justice and a range of stakeholders from the government and civil society organisation). Focus is on providing support to women and girls to effectively prevent and respond to gender based violence. She has worked with the Women and Children Service Directorate/Department of Police for legal and protection support to women and girls facing gender-based violence. She was also a Lead advisor for the Paralegal Committee Project till July 2014.

Dr. Abhinav Vaidhya
Member

Currently working as an Associate Professor and Academic Coordinator, Department of Community Medicine at Kathmandu Medical College, Dr. Abhinav Vaidhya holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has gained more than 16 years of experience in the field of medicine, be it working as a Medical Officer, Lecturer or Associate Professor.

Dr. Rajendra Kumar BC
Member

Dr. Rajendra Kumar BC did his Master’s degree in Biochemistry (major nutritional biochemistry) from the Faculty of Science, M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India (1992-1993), Post Graduate Training Course in Community Medicine from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (1998), and PhD degree in Tropical Medicine (major Epidemiology) from Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand in the year 2003. He has a long history of working (more than 17 years) in the variety of health and related fields, and has extensive experiences in conducting and leading variety of projects in Nepal as well as fostering linkages & establishing a very good networking & coordination between government, non-government, external development partners, and academic institutions. He is the Founder & Executive Board Member of Nepal Public Health Foundation. He has been affiliated and worked with Nepal Health Research Council as Research Advisor for two and half years and as Chief Research Officer for more than a decade. He is the Life Member of Nepal Public Health Association, Immediate past president of Sahara Paramarsa Kendra, General Secretary of Himalayan Association for STI-AIDS, and Chairman of Ojus Ayurveda Hospital & Research Centre Private Limited. He is the one who extensively worked on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the health sector and also on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for overall sectors with the support from National Planning Commission (NPC)/UNDP. Apart from these, he was also involved in preparing national level research guidelines (especially for research ethics and institutional review committee) and policy for conducting health research in Nepal. He contributed a lot during the preparation of national health policy (June 2014) and his contribution has been included in the health research section of the health policy. Very recently he involved himself in National Micronutrient Survey in Nepal with the support from UNICEF Nepal and CDC Atlanta USA, and also in landscape analysis on rice fortification in Nepal with the support from UN WFP.

Executive Board members of NPHF

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