Ms. Leena Lourduswamy is a PhD candidate in health sciences at Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, Meghalaya. The focus of her research is to make recommendations to education boards for modifying the existing curriculum for undergraduate nursing programs.

Ms. Lourduswamy has an MPhil in hospital health systems management and a master’s in nursing. For the past 10 years she has been the principal of the nursing college at Bangalore Baptist Hospital. She was instrumental in a collaboration with Baylor University faculty that resulted in a grant from the United States Agency for International Development to establish a state-of-the-art simulation education and training center at her institution.

Ms. Lourduswamy has collaborated on research with Baylor University faculty and has co-published research results in scholarly journals on education policy and planning subjects, including the impact of simulation education in nursing curricula in India. She visited Baylor University in 2014 and 2017.

Through the Fulbright-Nehru fellowship, Ms. Lourduswamy is exploring the use of simulations to foster healthcare communication skills among undergraduate students. She is conducting focus group discussions with faculty and students at Baylor University to understand how cultural gaps can influence communication skills.