What you should know right now

I am currently assisting with a global health development policy article that will be published in a high impact scientific journal.

Self Description

• Indian-Brazilian-Canadian
  
• social justice advocate (especially social justice in healthcare)
  
• adventure-seeker (I love hiking in the great outdoors, traveling and experiencing different cultures)
  
• scientist (especially the life sciences: from biochemistry to ecology to psychology and everything in between. I love that I'm a nerd!)
  
• Daughter, sister and friend and everything I can be to the people who mean everything to me
  

Proudest Accomplishment

It's really hard to say–any goal I've ever reached has always given me a sense of satisfaction. Perhaps, my proudest and most surprising accomplishment was my reaction to the stigma and suffering I encountered while working with the HIV/AIDS home-based care and counselling program at Lenana Slum Orphans Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. I initiated a series of HIV/AIDS seminars to engage the community in the issues and quickly made contact with the national hospital and the National AIDS and STD Control Program to obtain much-needed resources (having no phone, limited information and contact, while working alone in a slum of a foreign country can make things very complicated but perseverance and hardwork can overcome almost any obstacle).

Hardest learned lesson

The most difficult life experiences always have some wisdom to offer. My personal life experiences and work in the community have taught me a lot about the issues that have yet to be resolved, given me the motivation to lead change and led to my perseverance to achieve my goals.

What inspires me

1. People who make the right decision even if it's not popular.
2. Acts of kindness that go unrewarded.
3. Perseverance of people
4. Nature and its wonderful complexity.

Who inspires me in my city

My Mom and My Sister ... They have been strong female role models as a teacher and engineer respectively. They have shown me that there is no limit to what women can accomplish.

Dr. Nancy Oliveri...................... She is a hematologist at a Toronto hospital who exposed the harm posed to patients by the adverse effects of a drug, despite it being an unpopular decision with her employer. She persevered through the fallout of her ethically-sound decision, only to be praised years later for the steps she took to protect patients.

 

Others who inspire me

The HIV/AIDS counselors and frontline health workers who I met while in Kenya, a majority of whom were female, and who have been voluntarily leading the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic while they hold other jobs to support their families in a country where poverty is rampant. Their selfless dedication (they receive little fame for their deeds) to provide support for the sick, and initiative to eliminate stigma has been a major source of inspiration.