Helping Communities Manage risks from the ground up.

Dr. Swati Mitra has recently joined MIA as the Dy Director Fundraising & Communications. Dr. Mitra has done her PH.D. from the School of Social Sciences, Jawahar Lal Nehru University New-Delhi.  She has previously worked in UN Agencies with a focus on Disaster Risk Management. Dr. Mitra has participated & Chaired sessions in several International forums around the world on Disaster Risk Management.

Program Communication has always been a part of her profile in all her earlier assignments,now she has shifted focus on fund-raising in her present assignment. She has developed a "Multi-sectoral model" that was presented at Davos,2008 and a "Supply-chain Model" that was presented at Stephenson's Disaster Management Institute, LSU, USA. Her work can be seen in google by typing "Dr.swati mitra, undp'.

Dr. B. Dinesh Baliga graduated from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune in 1985. He has a vast clinical experience in surgical branches esp. accident & emergencies, Orthopaedics in various hospitals in Delhi and has also published a number of articles on Lithotripsy. He has worked for the Ministry of Health in Libya. On his return from Libya in 1998, he completed his post-graduate degree in Hospital and Health Management and since then he has been working in the field of Public Health. He has also worked in the World Health Organisation as a Surveillance Officer in the National Polio Surveillance Project till 2002. He later joined a British Charity Organisation and Skillshare International as a Public Health Specialist (Health Trainer/Development Worker) and carried out field work in remote tribal areas of Kalahandi and Koraput Districts (Orissa, India) with the aim to serve the poor and develop strategies for sustainable development amongst people below poverty line. He has set up Community Health Programmes in many remote areas of Orissa, Uttaranchal, Jharkahand and Maharashtra. He has also worked with people living with HIV and has helped setting up a network of positive people in Koraput, Orissa. He has also produced training modules, IEC materials on health specific to each location. He joined the MIA as a Medical Advisor.

Dr. Nidhi Bhatt is a science graduate with Medical (M.B.B.S.) degree and Post Graduate Diploma in Health Management from IIHMR Jaipur. Has an experience of implementing NRHM within public health facilities in Government of Gujarat as Program Coordinator. While working with Gujarat Government she also supported HPV Demonstration Project of PATH organization in Vadodara by conducting trainings on Cervical Cancer for medical and paramedical staff. Before joining MIA she worked with EngenderHealth as Program Officer and Program Manager in RCH projects like  Implement Quality Assurance of Reproductive and Child Health Services at PHCs & CHCs / Block PHCs, Sub-Centres, Out Reach in Public Health System in 13 districts of Uttaranchal and 2 districts of Jharkhand and also as Technical Specialist for Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Program in Jharkhand where she has been involved in strengthening the project with technical inputs, developing project monitoring checklist on clinical aspects and building capacity of district and state stakeholders in implementing the ARSH Program in 12 districts of Jharkhand. She joined MIA in May 2011 as Researcher (Medical) for technical support on medical issues to project implementation.

Brian joins the MIA as a Training Specialist. He holds a degree in economics and political science from The University of Dublin, Trinity College, and a masters in project management from University College Dublin, where he spent part of his studies at Beijing UIBE. His experience includes working as an intern on economic affairs at the Embassy of Ireland, Washington D.C., business development in a technology company and a project management role in a startup company. He also has volunteer experience with an Irish education-focused NGO in Dublin, and with sustainable farming projects in Patagonia, Argentina.

Lashita has done a Masters in Philanthropy and Fundraising from New York University and holds a Masters in Business Administration. She has 10 years of work experience in the private sector and has recently joined MIA as a ‘Development Officer’.  Issues of poverty alleviation and women empowerment are close to her heart. During her Masters program she took keen interest in finding sustainable solutions for the poor particularly the bottom of the pyramid and wrote study papers. She is excited to be a part of Micro Insurance Academy and contribute through her extensive work experience along with her professional qualification.

Conor is an economist by training, and works on the MIA's quantitative research activities. He is currently managing quantitative research and experimental design on the three EC-FP7 funded Randomised Control Trials being managed by MIA. He also provides sampling, survey design, fieldwork and analytic support to other projects at the MIA, including those in Nepal and Rajasthan. Conor holds a BA in Economics and Politics from Trinity College Dublin, and an M.Sc. in Economics from University of Warwick, UK. He previously worked as an Overseas Development Institute fellow with the government of Sierra Leone, where he handled a variety of quantitative and policy research briefs - including welfare analyses, development of costing models for healthcare and education services, and macroeconomic forecasting.

Sudeshna holds M. Phil degree in Population Studies and has recently submitted her PhD dissertation at International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. She also holds a Master’s degree in Geography and Bachelor’s degree in Education. She has about 7 years research experience in planning, execution, monitoring and management of various projects related to health and development. She is trained in both quantitative and qualitative research techniques including ethnographic studies. She has developed research proposals and survey tools, and has done monitoring, data analysis and report preparation during her work as Senior Research Executive, ORG (I), Kolkata and Research Manager, GfK MODE, Delhi. She also attended a training workshop on ‘Communicating to Policymakers on Population and Health’, organized by East West Center, Honolulu, USA. This apart, she has presented research papers at various International Conferences held in France, Austria and Pakistan. Sudeshna joined MIA as a Qualitative Researcher and manages the qualitative research activities and provides inputs related to qualitative techniques and analysis for the FP7-EC funded project.

Chanchal joined MIA from the Panasonic service center. Chanchal has 3 years of experience with Panasonic service center where she handled the front desk and took care of the administrative work of the office. At the MIA, she is the data entry operator.

Ashutosh Kaushik joined MIA as Deputy Director of Administration in October 2010. As a senior member of the MIA Team, he leads the administrative functions of MIA (Accounts, Finance, Statutory Compliance, Donor Reporting, Human Resource and IT). He brings with him over 13 years of rich experience in the field of Administration and Finance. He has worked in different industries starting from manufacturing to retail to BPO; and for last few years he is specializing in Administration & Finance roles in the development Sector. He has experience of working with large international multinational, multidimensional NGOs and has done executive MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM Calcutta). His other academic qualifications include B.com from Jiwaji University and a PG diploma in Financial Management.

Manish is a post-graduate in Rural Management from Xavier Institute of Social Service (Ranchi) with approximately 10 years experience in the development sector (particularly in the area of women empowerment, HIV/AIDS & Civil Society Building/networking). Previously he has worked for Gram Vikas (Orissa), State SACS (Jharkhand), Central Project Support Unit (New Delhi) and RCSHA. Manish has joined MIA from the Voluntary Action Network of India (VANI). 

Manish’s current responsibilities as a Project Manager at MIA, include coordinating and managing project activities, technical support to project stakeholders, etc.

Atanu is a post-graduate in Statistics from Indian Statistical Institute (Kolkata) with over 20 years of experience in commercial and development sectors (particularly in the area of health). His experience in the health sector ranges from HIV/AIDS to RCH, from improving health care delivery system to microplanning. At the MIA he works as a Researcher with the primary responsibility of providing technical support to various research initiatives and developing management information system for micro health insurance projects. Previously he has worked for GOPA-EPOS (in the Basic Health Project, Govt. of West Bengal), UNICEF (as a Consultant) and renowned NGOs like Child In Need Institute and Bhoruka Public Welfare Trust.

Ritu Mendiratta has completed an MBA in HR from IGNOU, PG Diploma in Industrial Relations & Personnel Management from Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan and MA in Public Administration from Himachal University. She has 15 years of diversified experience in Operations & Human Resources.  She has worked with various industries like Manufacturing, Garments, IT, Telecom, Hospitality in addition to six years of working in the Development Sector. She has rich experience of working in HR and administration including employee recruitment, HR MIS, policies development, employee engagement, overall administration, office management, procurement, assets management, contracts and legal compliance. She joined MIA as Human Resource Officer in September 2011 and is responsible for Human Resource Management. She comes with a “Can Do” attitude and believes in the saying “Nothing is Impossible”.

Raj Kamal comes with experience of working in public sector banking followed by a decade of work in the microfinance sector. In the microfinance sector, he has worked with NGOs and microfinance institutions to strengthen their microfinance programs and with Sa-Dhan, the industry association to develop performance standards for microfinance institutions and in initiating sectoral reports, the 'Side by Side' and 'Quick Report' on progress and trends among microfinance institutions. He was a member of the committee set up by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to devise accounting standards for microfinance institutions. He has conducted several training programs for NGOs and microfinance institutions on issues of governance, performance monitoring and reporting. Raj Kamal coordinates development of training processes at the MIA and works on standard setting and advisory services to MIA's clients.

Dr. Pradeep K. Panda is a population economist by training and has been associated with academic and action research for the last two decades. He has held positions at the University of Bombay, Mumbai and Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum where he engaged in teaching and research. He has also contributed to applied research at the National Council for Applied Economic Research and the Population Council, New Delhi, and at the Institute for Rural Research and Development, Gurgaon, where he was Director of Rural Research. He has published papers in peer-reviewed journals and has undertaken empirical research on gender dimensions of poverty, employment, violence, health and human rights. In his role of Deputy Director of Research,  Dr. Panda coordinates the research activities of the MIA, and specifically leads a team of researchers for the EC-funded project on the impact assessment of community based health insurance schemes in India.

Ashok is part of the Operations Team at MIA. Ashok has been with the MIA since inception, and is a key pillar of the smooth running of the organization on a daily basis. His tasks include logistics and procurement for the MIA.

Sumitra joined the MIA after over 6 years of working in remote tribal areas of Odisha (India) where she specialised in the fields of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, leprosy, eye care, RCH, gender, adolescence issues, and water-sanitation with a number of international agencies - LEPRA, Spanish Red Cross and UNFPA. She has experience in implementing and managing projects the field of public health. She has studied Gender and Social Work at postgraduate level and holds a BA in Law from Utkal University and a Diploma in Rural Development from IGNOU. She focuses on issues of public health, community mobilization, capacity building and IEC/BCC design.

Sumitra joined MIA as a Project Manager and she is currently working on the implementing of microinsurance schemes in Odisha.

Bhawana did her masters in Ecology from Tribhuvan University Kathmandu Nepal and worked in Nepal for six years for USAID and LINKAGES Project. Under the  AusAid Scholarship she got another Masters in International Public Health (MIPH) from Sydney University Australia. After  MIPH degree she started working in India since 2005 with Futures group International and Save the Children India. Main areas of expertise are maternal child health, training, nutrition and research.

Siddharth joins MIA with an MSc in Operational Research. He has worked on a project with NHSRC (under the Ministry of Health) in Haryana involving adaptation of a Balanced Scorecard for performance reporting of RCH training programmes. He has previously worked in the area of Health Informatics with an NGO (HISP India) in Jharkhand, validated pedestrian route models and undertook trend analysis on passenger movement at London Underground and worked as a Software Engineer with Infosys. A qualified journalist and an ex Space Science student he gets his most valuable education from long distance rides on his Enfield, the football field and unplanned travels. He is currently working as a researcher on Baseline surveys and other projects in the area of Performance Management of Micro Insurance Units, Integrated Risk Management and Monitoring and Evaluation.

Mackenzie joins the MIA after completing a post-graduate program in International Project Management and an Honours degree in Medical Science from the University of Western Ontario. She has previous work experience within the Canadian health care system, on community construction projects in Guatemala and for child-focused NGOs within Canada. Since joining MIA, Mackenzie has worked on consultancy projects in Tanzania, Cambodia and Nepal, and has conducted research on microinsurance, health financing and social protection. Her areas of expertise include situational analyses, project design, proposal development, and monitoring and evaluation. Mackenzie currently splits her time between MIA's Development team; working on fund development and communications, and the Advisory Services team; offering technical advice.