SATHI Program

Sunanda Gaur, MD

Sunanda Gaur, MD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Robert Wood Johnson AIDS Program at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) in New Brunswick, one of the largest Pediatric HIV Programs in New Jersey. She also serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the New Jersey Statewide Family Centered HIV Care Network. Dr. Gaur is he founding director of SATHI, and also serves as the Director of both Adult and pediatric Clinical Research centers at RWJMS. Her research interest includes pediatric HIV, CMV, South Asian and Global health.

Usha Ramachandran, MD

Dr. Usha Ramachandran is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is actively engaged in health education and community outreach efforts in the South Asian community through SATHI. Dr. Ramachandran is passionate about promoting early childhood development, especially in underserved communities, and is the New Jersey Medical Director of Reach Out and Read, which is a national organization that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating literacy promotion into pediatric care. She also serves as the Early Childhood Champion for the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Her professional life has been dedicated to providing compassionate and high-quality pediatric care to the underserved, and through teaching medical students, residents and public health students, she strives to inspire future generations to do the same. She has been invited to give talks to other healthcare professionals at the state and national level on topics related to early childhood development and South Asian health. She is currently involved in several studies funded by the National Institutes for Health relating to South Asian health and early childhood development, including the CHALO study to reduce obesity and oral health risks in children of South Asian origin.

Kitaw Dimisse, MD, PhD

Kitaw Dimisse, MD, PhD. is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and serves as the Director of the Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities Rutgers School of Public Health.  Dr. Demissie has a strong track record of NIH-funded research in the areas of social and biological determinants of perinatal, respiratory and cancer outcomes .Dr. Demissie has lead courses at the national level and was a recipient of several excellence teaching awards and was a member of the Stuart D. Cook, MD Master Educator’s Guild. Dr. Demissie is a recognized investigator in molecular epidemiology, cancer disparities, cancer prevention and control and population sciences with diverse funding portfolio, including NIH/NCI, American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen foundations and others.

Sneha Jacob, MD, MS

Sneha Jacob, M.D., M.S., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at RWJMS and also serves as Director of HIV Clinical Services at the Eric B Chandler Health Center at RWJMS. She completed a primary care internal medicine program at Johns Hopkins and an HIV clinical fellowship as well as an M.S. in Epidemiology at Columbia University. In 2013 she developed the SATHI- IDO (Infectious Disease Outreach) project for SATHI. In recognition of her work with SATHI the U.S. Office of Minority Health funded her proposal for SATHI-IDO to lead a health information campaign     to increase HIV awareness among Asians in Central New Jersey.

Pravien Khanna, MD, MPH

Pravien Khanna MD, MPH is an Interventional Cardiologist practicing at Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas health in New Brunswick, NJ and St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Khanna received his medical and public health degrees from Columbia University in New York, NY. He completed his post-graduate residency in Internal Medicine & fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. He then received additional fellowship training in Interventional Cardiology from Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, NY. Dr. Khanna specializes in cardiac and peripheral interventions. He has published in areas interventional cardiology, heart failure and nuclear cardiology. His current research interest includes the prevention and management of coronary artery disease in South Asians.   

Robert Like, MD, MS

Robert Like M.D., M.S., is the Professor and Director of the Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity at Rutgers- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is a board certified Family Physician with a background in medical anthropology. He is actively involved in funded research and provides training and technical assistance related to the delivery of patient - and family centered, culturally responsive care to diverse populations by clinicians, health care organizations, and academic medical centers.

Shailja Mathor, MS, M, Ed, RDN
Shailja Mathur, M.S., M. Ed., RDN, has been in the field of dietetics for over two decades. Shailja has provided leadership to nutrition education outreach projects on behalf of Rutgers Cooperative Extension at the national, state and county level since 2001. She served as the Division Chair for the Social Marketing Division of the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) for several years. On the national front, she served as the Co-Chair of the Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA) from 2013-2015. Shailja teaches online leadership classes and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Sodexo Internship Program.

Ranita Sharma, MD

Ranita Sharma, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine and Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers-RWJMS. She is also the Chief of the Division of Education and Director of the Medicine Residency Program. She serves on the NJ ACP Governor's Council and served as Governor for Northern NJ. She received her training in internal medicine at RWJMS and served as the program's chief resident at Princeton. She practices hospital medicine at RWJUH. Ranita is the recipient of numerous teaching awards and was inducted into the Gold Humanism and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor   Societies in 2005

Varsha Singh, MSN, APN

Varsha Singh MSN, APN, an Advance Practice Nurse and health care leader associated with SATHI since 2009. At present, she is President of NJ Stroke Coordinators Consortium, a member of Stroke Advisory Panel and President-Elect for Nurse practitioner’s forum in NJ. She was the recipient of March of the Dimes Advance Practice nurse of the year 2015 and JONAS scholar for her doctoral studies at Seton Hall University. She has presented at many local, state and national conferences about stroke, chronic diseases, and wellness. She advises her patients on care coordination and navigation through the complex healthcare system.