Department of Public Health Sciences
College of Health and Human Services
Associate Professor
Education: PhD, MSW
Courses Taught: Intro Health Professions & HR, Global Health Issues, Comparative Health Systems, Health System Organization Development and Behavior, Foundations of Global Health, Healthcare Leadership, Ethics, and Inter-Professional Communication
Biography:
Dr. Monika Sawhney is presently working as a Tenured Associate Professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC, USA. Dr. Sawhney previously served as an Associate Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Public Health Program at Marshall University. She also served as a Clinical Associate Professor with Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine (Department of Cardiology Services). Dr. Sawhney serves as an adjunct and visiting professor with the Global Institute of Public Health across reputed academic institutions in India. Currently, Dr. Sawhney is collaborating with organizations in India, Rwanda, and Tanzania. These assignments focus on an overall aim to eradicate diseases and improvise healthcare outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. During her professional career, Dr. Sawhney also worked as a consultant for UNICEF, WHO, and John Snow Inc. in program implementation and evaluation projects. Working in Ethiopia with WHO and CDC, she managed the measles immunization campaign and coordinated POLIO surveillance assignment. Dr. Sawhney also worked with the ministry to help strengthen their health system by focusing on designing and implementing training programs for their health staff working at different levels.
Dr. Monika’s professional and research interests primarily focus on reducing the disease burden from Neglected Tropical Diseases and its association with non-communicable diseases and its interaction with communicable diseases, more so across low- and low-middle income countries. Working on various projects in her areas of interest, Dr. Sawhney has developed and sharpened her skills for program/project management and administration, monitoring and evaluation, research and human resources management for the health sector, communication, training, and presentation skills. Some of the recent Public/Global Health assignments Dr. Sawhney has been involved with focus on – (i) Assessing determinants of preeclampsia in Rwanda, (ii) Evaluation of Effectiveness of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Interventions with a focus to achieve a continuous reduction in new HIV infections, (iii) Gender dimensions of Tuberculosis in Tanzania, (iv) Facility-based assessments (mainly in African countries), (v) Health systems strengthening to improve the burden of disease from non-communicable and communicable diseases across low and low-middle income countries,(vi) Health services and outcomes research for specific health conditions, (vii) Human Resources Management/Development for the health sector, (viii) Training of health workers/staff, and (ix) Focus groups to measure area-specific health outcomes. Dr. Sawhney has teaching, research, field, and program-related experiences in the varied areas of International/Global Public health in countries such as Austria, Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, and the United States of America.
