Public health challenges are deeply human challenges, shaped by culture, context, and community. Our work must bridge worlds - from high-level policy to grassroots implementation - while recognizing that gender equality and women's empowerment are fundamental to achieving lasting health impacts.

Lakshmi is a population and behavioral health scientist whose work centers on advancing gender equality and women's empowerment through public health research. Her innovative approach recognizes that engaging men and transforming couple dynamics are crucial for achieving gender equality and better health outcomes. While her research primarily focuses on South Asia, she has contributed to research initiatives across India, Nepal, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, and the Philippines over the past 17 years. Her research spans four key domains: gender norms and women's health, digital health interventions, community health workers, and couples-based interventions for perinatal mental health. Through this work, she examines how gender norms and power dynamics influence health outcomes and develops interventions that promote women's agency while actively engaging men as partners in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCH+A) in resource-limited contexts.

Years of working in resource-constrained settings have taught her that transformative solutions must address gender inequality as a root cause of health disparities while recognizing men's crucial role in challenging harmful gender norms. Whether designing interventions or conducting research, her focus remains constant: creating sustainable change that empowers women, transforms couple relationships, and engages communities as equal partners.

Lakshmi holds a doctorate in Health Policy (Population Health Sciences) from UC Berkeley, a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Fulbright Scholar, and a Master's in Information Systems from the London School of Economics (LSE). Her research is supported by competitive funding, including R01 collaborations and a K99/R00 award, with over 20 publications to date.