Sujatha Rao

Ms. Sujatha Rao is a former Union Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Of her 36 years service as a civil servant, she spent 20 years in the health sector at the state and federal levels.

Ms. Rao represented India in the Boards of the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM); WHO and UNAIDS. She was a member of the 6 Member Global Advisory Panel of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Founding member of the Public Health Foundation of India; Member of the Advisory Board of the Ministerial Leadership Program of the  Harvard School of Public Health, Member of the High Level Panel on Global Risk Framework of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Trustee of Population Council, USA, Board Member of AIIMS, Raipur and the BSNL.

Currently, Ms. Rao is member of the NHSRC, GOI and Independent Director in several organizations.  

A MA from Delhi University, a MPA from Harvard University, USA 1991-92, she was a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health 2001-2002 and Gro Harlem Brundtland Senior Leadership Fellow at HSPH in 2012.

She is author of the book entitled DO We Care? India’s Health System – published by Oxford University Press.