Reetu Sharma Sogani

Dr. Reetu Sharma Sogani is an Associate Professor with the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar. Her areas of academic and research work include social determinants of health, health system issues, community health workers, geriatric health and health promotion and communication. She is a qualified Public Health Professional with DPhil/PhD in Public Health from the University of Oxford (UK) awarded in 2015. She has secured an MPhil (Social Medicine and Community Health) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India in 2007 and Master in Social Work or MSW from the University of Delhi, India in 2003.

Since 2003, she has closely worked with various national and international organizations and projects e.g. CARE India, FAO funded study on Aging in India, Pitney Bowes (USA) funded ethnographic study on micro-financing in India, USAID funded Integrated Nutrition and Health Project, European Union funded project to build research capacity in India on Social Determinants of Health. She joined IIPHG in 2013. A part of IIPHG she has been leading various masters and post graduate diploma level academic courses e.g. Social and Behavior Sciences in Health, Health Promotion and Communication, Gender and Health as well as co-leading elective courses namely Qualitative Research and “Changing lifestyle and improving quality of life (QOL)”. Over all these years she has gained experience in teaching, research, training, programme management and evaluation.

Dr. Reetu also extends support to some NGOs working on the issues of adolescents and womenin her individual capacity. She is the Steering committee member for Community Health Systems in Health Systems Global Forum. She is also a member in many other public health and social sciences professional bodies. She serves as the editorial and review committee member in various national and international public health Journals.

Areas of interest

• Health System and Policy
• Geriatric Health
• Social Determinants of Health
• Mindfulness and other complementary approaches to improving quality of life
• Health Promotion and Communication
• Gender and Health

Awards and Grants

1. Gujarat State Financial Services Limited for Developing Geriatric Health Caregiving Certificate Course, 2018-2020 (PI)
2. Swedish Research Council for exploring migration as a social determinant of health; 2017-19, (Co-PI)
3. European Union funding for Asian Region Capacity Development of Research on Social Determinants of Health (ARCADE-RSDH) Project, IIPHG, 2014-15, (Developed proposal for IIPHG and Project Manager)
4. Wellcome Trust (UK) funded Doctorate level research on “Coordination of frontline workers for child health & nutrition in Rajasthan, India, (2009-2013)
5. Reetu has received various awards for academic excellence during her Graduation, Master and MPhil level courses.

Key publications (5)

1. Sharma R, Webster P, Bhattacharya S. (2014). Factors affecting the performance of community health workers in India: a multi-stakeholder perspective. Global Health Action. Volume 7: 25352.
2. Kumar M, Worren D, Srikantiah S, Singh S, Kurian G, Manoranjini M, Sharma R, Choudhury A. Making Nutrition Services Work for Socially Excluded Groups- Lessons from the Integrated Nutrition & Health Project” published in IDS Bulletin, July 2009
3. Gupta M, Marsden S, Oluka T, Sharma, R, Lucas H (2017). “Lessons Learned From Implementing E-Learning for the Education of Health Professionals in Resource-Constrained Countries” The Electronic Journal of e-Learning Volume 15 Issue 2 2017, (pp144-155)
4. Sharma R, Saha S. The Quest for Universal Health Coverage in India: Lessons from Peer Countries. Journal of HealthSystems. 2015 Oct 26;1(1):6–12
5. Sharma R, Webster P, Bhattacharya S. (2015). Community level workers: awareness generation for improving children’s health. Indian Journal of Community Health. 2015; 27, 1: 60-65.