SHIKHA DHAWAN

Dr. Shikha has amassed 22+ years of experience in health research and public health acumen in high-quality patient-centric healthcare solutions: preventing, intercepting and curing diseases. She is post-doctorate in Biomedical Research, USA with a PhD in Microbiology with specialization in Molecular Biology, India and a PGDM in Biotechnology Business Management, India. As Senior Advisor Program and Partnerships at USEA, Dr. Shikha works as business mentor and strategy advisor to connect the dots for agri, tech, social and development sector projects. Dr. Shikha provides technical assistance to public health projects with the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. She is currently also Director Programs at SHARE INDIA and in the past was Director TB-Empower (2022), Executive Director-Partasia Biopharm (2016-2021), National Consultant for TB laboratories and Monitoring & Evaluation, NTEP (2012-2016). As Manager-Malaria Vaccines (2008-2012) and Research Scientist (2004-2008) at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB, New Delhi), she was part of the teams engaged in the discovery of novel malaria vaccine candidates, preclinical and clinical trials. Dr. Shikha has travelled extensively within India, even to the remotest districts and villages; touched lives and made a meaningful societal impact and has presented research policy and public health work at multiple international forums in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Inspired living with conscious pursuit and passion to change lives for the less privileged makes her laser focused on girl child literacy, women health, women empowerment, organic farming and environment sustainability. Her career multiplier path is embellished with empowering local women and communities-Self Help Groups and Farmer Producer Organizations through skill development and livelihood generation under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and the Ministry of Agriculture.

As a startup accelerator, Dr. Shikha works with startups in health, agri and social sectors at Because International (USA), KIIT-Technology Business Incubator (Odisha), SIIC IIT Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), MIET Group of Institutions (Uttar Pradesh), HTIC IIT Madras (Tamil Nadu), and India Accelerator (Gurugram). She mentors startups in grant writing, pitch presentation, design thinking, developing business plan, fund-raising and business traction with expertise in creation, development and implementation of brand strategy, data analytics, customer segmentation, revenue models, innovative go-to-market strategies.

Working meaningfully with governments, academia, the development sector, non-profits, and the private sector, she is trained in Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Health Communication Campaigns and Medico Legal aspects in healthcare. She is faculty for Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India’s ‘Women Entrepreneurship Program’ and International Courses by University of Washington, USA and I-TECH India on ‘Leadership & Management in Health’ and ‘Project Management’.