WISH Foundation names Rakesh Kumar Chief Consultant – Global Health

Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Healthcare (WISH) Foundation USA has appointed Dr Rakesh Kumar as Chief Consultant – Global Health to catalyze its global programs.

In this role, Kumar will advise on developing a global strategy and help scale WISH USA’s technology and AI-enabled public health delivery model to under-resourced regions of the Global South, according to a media release.

Till recently, Kumar successfully led a non-profit, Lords Education and Health Society (LEHS) as its CEO. He was instrumental in bringing a turnaround in the organization by implementing digital health and data models and thus scaling up Comprehensive Primary Health Care in India in a short period.

A Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, a Fellow of the Global Health Leadership Program at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Kumar is a senior member of the premier Indian Administrative Service, according to his profile.

He has a distinguished career spanning over three decades while working in the policy and program implementation space at senior levels with the Indian Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, state governments, and UN agencies.

He brings a wealth of experience and expertise to WISH Foundation USA. While at the helm, Kumar was instrumental in polio eradication (2014) and maternal & neonatal tetanus elimination (2015) and was the chief architect of the world’s largest immunization program, Mission Indradhanush (2015).

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He also facilitated the expansion of the vaccine basket by introducing six new vaccines in India in a record period. He pioneered the concept of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) and scaled it up across India.

Kumar has also served as a global expert member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on MNTE at WHO Geneva and as Regional Technical Advisor of WHO-SEARO on the validation of PPTCT of HIV in Thailand.

He has authored more than 25 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and has penned down 30 Op-Eds on public/global health in prestigious newspapers in India.

He has received multiple fellowships from the Harvard School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is the recipient of several national and international awards for his contribution to public health in India and globally.

WISH Foundation USA is scaling its successful public health solutions to low- and middle-income countries in the Global South, according to the release. This strategic direction would enhance the Foundation’s impact and position the organization at the forefront of technological advancements in global development.

Kumar’s appointment will help develop WISH’s programs better and create a positive impact for the populations in the Global South, it said.