Aparna Ananthakrishnan is a Senior Program Officer with a strong technical background in health systems research and policy analysis, translating and incorporating these findings to design interventions, build coalitions and facilitate dialogue across diverse stakeholders.
Prior to joining Panorama, Aparna served as a civil servant at the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand, leading programmatic engagement for health systems strengthening across Asia and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Under her portfolio, she established learning communities, workshops and other capacity building initiatives across Laos, Ghana, and the Philippines. Aparna was also responsible for managing critical policy research on Thailand's pandemic response, distilling learnings on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and the use of vaccine certificates for cross border movement in the ASEAN region. With a rich experience in varied issue areas such as maternal health, neglected tropical diseases and social determinants of health, Aparna's multidisciplinary academic foundation aids her intersectional, system-level understanding of global health.
Aparna grew up in India and completed both her Master of Science degrees in London; in Development Planning at the University College London and Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. She now lives in Washington DC with her partner and several houseplants. When away from her desk, she is usually birdwatching, biking, gardening or thinking up the next home renovation project.