Campbell South Asia is pleased to confirm the appointment of Ashrita Saran as Director, following her successful six-month term as Acting Director.
She said, “I welcome the opportunity that heading Campbell South Asia brings, to engage with researchers and decisionmakers across the region, and to increase the use of evidence to inform policies and practices which affect the lives of millions of people”.
Ashrita joined Campbell in December 2016 as an Evidence Synthesis Specialist. She has played a central role in the development of evidence and gap maps as a Campbell evidence product and led the research teams for a number of maps. She has run workshops for researchers in Bangladesh, China, Croatia, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines and Uganda.
President of the Campbell Board, Jeremy Grimshaw said, “The future of evidence synthesis is in the low- and middle-income countries where the majority of the world’s population lives. We anticipate that in 10 years’ time the majority of Campbell reviews will come from these countries.”
“Campbell South Asia is not only a production centre for evidence synthesis, it also has an important role to play in mentoring study teams from the region and developing networks of engaged researchers and policy decisionmakers. I congratulate Ashrita on her appointment.”
Ashrita holds a Master’s in epidemiology from Manipal University. She has previously worked with Cochrane South Asia and at the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Her work has focused on strengthening the evidence base for informed decisionmaking.
Her research interest areas are child welfare, education, gender and diversity, HIV/AIDS, and socio-economic aspects of health and wellbeing.
Ashrita is also an Editor of Campbell’s International Development Coordinating Group and a member of the editorial board member for the International Journal for Innovative Research and Review.
For more information, please contact Campbell South Asia by email: southasia@campbellcollaboration.org or visit our website: https://campbellcollaboration.org/southasia/.