Host City USA: Bengaluru

Radha Varadan

Bridging the gap between the classical arts and academia, Radha Varadan is an emerging creative artist deeply dedicated to the evolution of the traditional dance form of Kathak. A graduate of George Washington University where she held the presidential merit scholarship for excellence in dance, Radha’s academic and artistic background spans a comprehensive range. Trained from a young age in classical ballet, Kathak, and later pursuing her degree in postmodern dance, Radha is a professional Kathak artist under the tutelage of Smt. Nirupama Rajendra and Sri. T.D. Rajendra. Simultaneously, she holds a degree in the biological sciences, and has conducted and published extensive research in molecular biology and immunology.

Much like her background, Radha’s professional and creative works span countries and cultures. She has been recognized internationally for her innovative work in translating classical ballet variations into the traditional Kathak vocabulary, and for her research on the mechanisms of the injuries most commonly experienced by practitioners of Indian classical dance. In 2024, Radha received the Maida Withers Award for Originality and Risk in Performance Art. She is also the recipient of several grants supporting her research in the molecular biological sciences.

Aside from her academic and creative endeavors, Radha is an accomplished performing artist. She has performed solo worldwide at prestigious dance festivals, including the New York Kathak Festival, the North Carolina Kathak Festival, the Youth Festival organized by IFAA San Diego, and the Au-Delà des Préjugés Festival in Switzerland. Radha also performs for the renowned Abhinava Dance Company, where she continues to deepen her study of traditional Indian arts.

While scholarship in the field of dance injuries is rapidly growing, the information that is available is almost entirely geared toward Western ballet and modern dance forms. Radha’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is addressing this disparity by integrating ancient anatomical knowledge documented in the Natya Shastra with existing Western-centric research. In doing so, the academic fields of injury prevention and kinesiology broaden in the pursuit of cultural equity and access to health information.

Sharanya Sriram

Sharanya Sriram graduated with a BS in molecular and cell biology from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2024. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on the immune environment of pancreatic islets in diet-induced obesity and also completed a senior honors thesis on ribosomal protein differences in alpha and beta cells to investigate stress susceptibility in diabetes pathogenesis. Her global health work includes volunteering with street medicine teams to serve refugee communities in Tijuana, Mexico, and participating in the CATALYST program with the UCSD Bioregional Center, wherein she worked with agricultural leaders, indigenous activists, and policy experts to study how climate-related urban challenges impact community health across the U.S.-Mexico border. Sharanya has also studied in Bali, Indonesia, where she examined how indigenous Balinese healing traditions are integrated with allopathic medicine. Her interests span global perspectives on illness, community-oriented climate justice and resilience, and narrative storytelling.

As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, Sharanya is conducting a qualitative ethnographic study across diverse clinical sites in Bengaluru, India, to examine how perceptions of social support in diabetes management are shaped by gender roles, rural–urban contexts, and beliefs in Ayurvedic medicine. Her research seeks to enhance cross-cultural understanding of the holistic and psychosocial dimensions of chronic disease care, and inform the development of tools to help healthcare providers assess and integrate social support into individualized treatment plans involving culturally informed medical practices.

Rajat Ramesh

Rajat Ramesh graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in biochemistry and history. Committed to the study of both science and social impact, Rajat has conducted diverse research across biomedical science and public history – from developing chemical tools to study post-translational modifications under Dr. George Burslem to investigating the legacy of redlining and urban renewal with Dr. Brent Cebul. Rajat has led efforts within the Guatemala Health Initiative, supporting clinic operations at Hospitalito Atitlán and conducting field research to inform sustainable health interventions. He has also served as a patient care assistant at the Center for Surgical Health, helping patients access essential surgical services. Besides, he has coordinated STEM outreach through the Netter Center’s Moelis Access Science program. His community engagement includes volunteering with children with cerebral palsy and providing clinical services at a student-run clinic for homeless populations. A recipient of the Martin Wolfe Prize and the College Alumni Society’s undergraduate research grant, Rajat is currently a postbaccalaureate fellow at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, where he investigates HIV persistence under antiretroviral therapy using single-cell sequencing technologies.

Rajat’s Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating how electronic health record (EHR) systems can improve tuberculosis (TB) reporting in southern India, where communities face significant barriers to care and treatment adherence. The study is assessing the implementation of open-source EHRs in both rural and urban healthcare settings. Through semi-structured interviews with healthcare providers, it is exploring cultural, behavioral, and technical barriers – such as stigma and confidentiality concerns – that affect EHR effectiveness. This mixed-methods research aims to identify scalable solutions to enhance TB surveillance and reporting in resource-constrained regions of India.

Alexandra Mouangue

Alexandra Mouangue is an emerging researcher and practitioner in the field of mindfulness and holistic mental health. She is particularly interested in somatic (body-focused) interventions for trauma and anxiety. In 2024, Alexandra graduated summa cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in psychology and a minor in economics. Her honors thesis, “Beyond Social Class: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Resource Predictability, Uncertainty, and the Factors Influencing Temporal Discounting”, reflects her commitment to understanding how sociocultural contexts shape psychological well-being and decision-making. Her current work expands on this subject and explores the intersections of mind, body, and culture in mental health.

Alexandra’s lived experience as an African immigrant informs her research on how emotions and trauma are embodied, and how movement, breath, and meditation can facilitate healing. Within her academic and personal ventures, Alexandra has steadily pursued community-based mindfulness research. She has had a stint at Drexel University as a research coordinator co-leading educational support groups for adolescents, focusing on behavioral and acceptance-based interventions for eating disorders and weight loss. Her extensive research experience and volunteer work has instilled in her a deep passion for establishing equitable mental health care, particularly for low-income and immigrant populations. Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, Alexandra is also an aspiring yoga teacher and herbalist. Her overarching goal is to set up her own holistic mental health clinic where she can integrate the wisdom of the body and the land into evidence-based practice.

Through the Fulbright-Nehru project, Alexandra is deepening her expertise in mind–body therapies in order to contribute to the development of interventions addressing the mental, emotional, and physiological needs of diverse communities. Her project is focusing on co-regulation- and mindfulness-based group therapy, alongside explorations of yoga, acupuncture, and massage throughout South India. The aims of the study are to: examine the effectiveness of somatic practices in reducing anxiety, depression, and hyperarousal; explore the roles of co-regulation and community-building in mental health outcomes; investigate the impact of interoception and trait mindfulness on treatment outcomes; and gain valuable insights from practitioners on the application of holistic practices worldwide.

Margaret Kuffner

Margaret Kuffner graduated cum laude from Boston College in May 2025 with a BA in international studies, with concentrations in global cultures and public health. Margaret developed a passion for the world at a young age, having lived in Switzerland with her family and later in Denmark as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. During her undergrad junior year, she studied abroad in India through the School for International Training where she interned with the Comprehensive Rural Healthcare Project. Margaret’s professional experiences include working as a research assistant for the Mass General Lymphedema team, volunteering at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, and serving as a patient care intern at South County Health in Rhode Island.

She previously served as secretary general and currently holds the role of deputy chief operating officer at the Eagle Institute for Global Affairs and Leadership. In this capacity, Margaret advances the organization’s mission of fostering a globally conscious society through community collaboration, educational programming, and forward-thinking initiatives. In her free time, Margaret enjoys training for her next marathon, experimenting with new recipes, and going to the beach with friends.

As a Fulbright-Nehru research scholar, Margaret is investigating the implementation and impact of the World Health Organization Safe Childbirth Checklist (SCC) as a tool to promote a shared responsibility of safety between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and mothers. The SCC increases safe birthing practices by addressing key risks (e.g., bleeding, infection, high blood pressure) at four pause points: on admission; just before pushing; soon after birth; and before discharge. The project hopes to prove that when HCPs educate mothers and their companions about the SCC by actively encouraging dialogue around cross-checking SCC steps, mothers will be empowered, patient–HCP communication will be enhanced, and pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period will be safer for mothers and their babies.

Trisha Gongalore

Trisha Gongalore is a dedicated multidisciplinary scholar who recently completed her BA in neuroscience from Pomona College, where she engaged deeply with coursework spanning neurobiology, biochemistry, genetics, and public health. Her academic and research interests lie at the intersection of molecular neuroscience, neurodegeneration, and health equity, with a specific focus on Parkinson’s Disease (PD). She has conducted research across five laboratories, mastering techniques such as electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular cloning. Notably, she has investigated alpha-synuclein aggregation in fruit flies, heteroplasmy in mouse myoblasts, and cholinergic signaling in C. elegans. Her work has been shared at the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders and the Genetics Society of America’s 66th Drosophila Research Conference. A paper that she co-authored is currently under review to be published in peer-reviewed journals like Developmental Biology.

Trisha’s commitment to health equity is embodied by her leadership in the student-run organization, Health Bridges, at the Draper Center for Community Partnerships in Pomona College, where she organized health fairs and gathered and analyzed uniquely disaggregated data for the Tongan American populations in the Inland Empire. She has also studied abroad in Argentina, where she learned about public health issues on an international scale and worked with dementia patients to explore the benefits of community-based, non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Trisha’s Fulbright-Nehru research at NIMHANS under Dr. Indrani Datta is investigating the mechanism behind exosome-mediated delivery of a neuroprotective drug to midbrain organoids derived from sporadic PD patients in India. Addressing the limitations of current PD therapies, the treatment aims to reduce oxidative stress and support neuronal regeneration using mesenchymal stromal cell-derived exosomes that cross the blood-brain barrier. Leveraging NIMHANS’ expertise in the LRRK2-I1371V mutation, more common in the Eastern Hemisphere PD populations, Trisha is evaluating treatment efficacy through advanced imaging, electrophysiology, and biochemical assays. The study aims to develop more effective, non-invasive therapeutic approaches tailored for the PD population in India.

Anjali Brown

Anjali Brown is an honors graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a BA in philosophy while completing a rigorous pre-medical curriculum. A multiple-year James B. Angell Scholar, Anjali pairs humanistic inquiry with empirical research to address global mental health inequities. At Michigan Medicine, she worked under Dr. Maria Muzik on the NIH-funded prenatal stress and postpartum studies, performing EEG acquisition, clinical intakes, and longitudinal data analysis on mother–infant dyads. Previously, she had co-led a 3,000-participant wearable-sensor study of resident physicians in the Sen Lab to produce actionable insights into disability and burnout in medical training.

Beyond the laboratory, Anjali directs evidence-based service initiatives. As a peer counselor, she delivers one-on-one psychological support to fellow students, and as the volunteer team lead for Michigan Medicine’s Hospital Elder Life Program, she trains volunteers and designs engagement protocols that reduce delirium and isolation in older inpatients. She has also co-developed a biodegradable menstrual pad for women in rural Peru. Anjali has won top honors at the Center for Global Health Equity pitch competition and has authored an illustrated menstrual-health guide for girls at the Chinmaya Vijaya Orphanage, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Anjali aspires to become a psychiatrist-researcher who integrates culturally responsive clinical practice with policy-relevant scholarship to advance maternal mental health worldwide.

Anjali’s Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating how maternal depression shapes mother–child interactions in urban India during five years of the postpartum period. Working with Dr. Prabha Chandra at NIMHANS, she is coding and statistically analyzing 300 video recordings from the Bangalore Child Health and Development Study to illuminate how maternal depression shapes mother–child interactions. She is also holding caregiver interviews to supply the sociocultural context. In parallel, she is conducting a systematic study on adolescent perinatal mental health and the impact of neighborhood violence during pregnancy in order to identify policy gaps. Her findings will inform culturally attuned interventions that strengthen community-based maternal mental health services in low-resource settings.

Frank Barnas

Mr. Frank Barnas is one of the leading global scholars in developing programs in broadcast journalism and mass media. His academic history includes teaching in Bulgaria and Lithuania, delivering seminars in Russia, developing online coursework in Germany, and working with study abroad programs in Russia and Ireland. He has also professional experience as a television news reporter and news/talk radio host.

As an active documentary producer with credits ranging from Antarctica to Moldova, his projects have received nearly 60 awards from festivals, including from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Telly Awards, and Worldfest Houston. His latest documentary, The Cost of Caring, examines the high suicide rate within the veterinary community. It has been distributed on PBS stations throughout the U.S. as well as on Vimeo and Amazon Prime.

Mr. Barnas holds degrees from the University of Missouri, the University of Texas, and Florida State University. His ninth and tenth textbooks will be released in 2026. When he is not in the studio, he hikes the Appalachian Trail, enjoys rock climbing, and produces the Voca Vacay travel podcast with his wife Marie.

Jared Mazzanti

Mr. Jared Mazzanti currently serves as the director of Strategic Initiatives in the Dean’s Office at the University of California (UC), Berkeley School of Public Health, where he has designed and operationalized multiple programs focused on health innovation internationally and domestically. He spearheads a novel partnership with J.P. Morgan that brought a new healthcare conference to Asia, oversees a Health Innovation Accelerator for Taiwanese start-ups, and previously built a Social Impact Innovation Grant Program to provide student teams resources and training to effect positive change in their communities.

A Boren scholarship to China in 2009 ignited Mr. Mazzanti’s lifelong drive to build bridges between peoples and cultures, especially in Asia. He has launched and sustained multi-country partnerships in his previous roles at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, UC Berkeley’s Office of the Chancellor, and the HNA Group in China.

Mr. Mazzanti received his BA in political economy with the distinction of magna cum laude from UC, where he concentrated in East Asia and minored in Chinese. He received his MBA in 2016 after completing a Chinese-taught program at Central South University (中南大学) in China’s Hunan province. He is an active member of UC Berkeley’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council, regularly volunteers for the Asia Society of Northern California, and maintains professional credentials in HR and project management.

Mr. Mazzanti’s Fulbright project is conducting a comparative analysis on how universities in India (Indian Institute of Science), Japan (Tohoku University), and South Korea (Seoul National University) are bridging the gap between invention and innovation, especially in health-related deep tech; this is to identify success stories and pain points, the latter preventing faster uptake of university research by industry. His research aims to answer one key question through surveys and stakeholder interviews: what factors best position a university to integrate into local and national innovation ecosystems and drive entrepreneurship among its faculty, students, staff, and alumni?

Kristian Dambrino

Dr. Kristian Dambrino is an ANCC board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner and founder of Dambrino Wellness, an evidence-based outpatient mental health clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. During her Doctor of Nursing Practice program, she studied the impact of high-deductible health insurance on mental health treatment through a retrospective analysis, exploring how cost transparency between the provider and patient can mitigate financial decision-making for patients accessing psychiatric care.

As a national speaker and psychopharmacology expert, Dr. Dambrino regularly delivers continuing medical education programs for Psych Congress, HMP Global, and conferences across the United States. Her academic contributions include authoring accredited graduate nursing courses in psychopharmacology, guest lecturing at Vanderbilt University, and holding adjunct appointments at Michigan State University and Marian University.

Dr. Dambrino is the creator of The Limbic Music, an R&B musical about neurotransmitters in mental health, which is currently in pre-production. She has also authored a masterclass in jazz vocal improvisation, delivering the six-hour curriculum completely in French in Caen, France, in May 2023. An accomplished vocalist, she performs at annual jazz concerts in France and has shared stages with Oprah Winfrey, Morgan Freeman, Jean Smart, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ray Romano. She has also been featured on U.S. national television – MSNBC, CNBC, and CMT – as an entertainer, and has released three original jazz albums, one of which was awarded the 2017 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for Best Contemporary Music Composition.

Committed to service, Dr. Dambrino volunteers regularly with Rotary International, Project C.U.R.E., Habitat for Humanity, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Nashville International Center for Empowerment. Recently, she produced a sold-out benefit concert, Music City Without Borders, raising $20,000 for refugee resettlement in Tennessee.

Dr. Dambrino’ s Fulbright-project is working on reducing mental health stigma among nurses and nursing students in Indonesia and India through a photovoice-enhanced intervention. Via participatory photography and workshops, the project participants are documenting and reflecting on their experiences with stigma. The goal is to strengthen mental health nursing capacity by building sustainable global partnerships.