Dr. Shikha has amassed 22+ years of experience in health research and public health acumen in high-quality patient-centric healthcare solutions: preventing, intercepting and curing diseases. She is post-doctorate in Biomedical Research, USA with a PhD in Microbiology and specialization in Molecular Biology, India and a PGDM in Biotechnology Business Management, India
Inspired living with conscious pursuit and passion to change lives for the less privileged makes her laser focused on rural livelihood, girl child literacy, woman health and hygiene, organic farming and environment sustainability as Director, Abhya Life. Her career multiplier path is embellished with empowering local women and communities-Self Help Groups and Farmer Producer Organizations through skill development and livelihood generation under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI). Dr. Shikha’s endeavors encompass business development and building networks for development sector projects as Senior Advisor Program and Partnerships, USEA.
Dr. Shikha supports bringing new diagnostics to the market utilizing community centric Health Advancement Peer Partners Empowerment Networks (HAPPEN), Director-Public Health, Suvarna Swasthya Research Centre. She is currently engaged in collaborative projects with International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) to develop point-of-care diagnostics for Tuberculosis (TB) and latent TB infection based on host biomarkers. She is also working with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on improving quality of TB diagnostics at peripheral TB diagnostic centres in India.
In the past, Dr. Shikha has worked with premium engineering institutes and medical device manufacturers in USA, Germany and India to develop assisted heart devices. She supported various initiatives with the National AIDS and STD Control Organization (NACO) and the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India as Director Programs, SHARE INDIA (2017-2024). Dr. Shikha created e-training content for different cadres engaged with NTEP while working as Director TB-Empower School of Health (2022). Dr. Shikha bridged the gap between academia and public health to take new diagnostics closer to people’s home in a strategic role as Executive Director-Partasia Biopharm (2016-2021). As National Consultant TB laboratories and Monitoring & Evaluation- NTEP (2012-2016), Dr. Shikha supported scale up of molecular diagnostics, active interventions for TB and monitored all programmatic aspects. As Manager-Malaria Vaccines (2008-2012) and Research Scientist (2004-2008) at ICGEB, she was part of the team engaged in the discovery of novel malaria vaccine candidates, preclinical and clinical trials.
Dr. Shikha mentors startups in the health, agri, tech and social sectors at iACCEL Gulf (Dubai), Because International (USA), KIIT-Technology Business Incubator (Odisha), SIIC IIT Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), MIET Group (Uttar Pradesh), HTIC IIT Madras (Tamil Nadu), and India Accelerator (Gurugram) in design thinking, developing business plan, fund-raising and business traction with expertise in creation, development and implementation of brand strategy, data analytics, customer segmentation, revenue models, innovative go-to-market strategies to bring new products and services to the markets.
Working meaningfully with governments, academia, the development sector, non-profits, and the private sector, she is trained in Corporate Social Responsibility, The Path of Moral Leadership, Public Health Communication Campaigns, Good Clinical Laboratory Practices and Medico Legal aspects in healthcare. She is faculty for Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India’s ‘Women Entrepreneurship Program’ and International Courses by University of Washington, USA and I-TECH India on ‘Leadership & Management in Health’ and ‘Project Management’. Dr. Shikha has travelled extensively within India, even to the remotest districts and villages; touched lives and made a meaningful societal impact and also presented research policy and public health work at multiple international forums in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa.