On Tuesday, January 18, Health & Medicine welcomed Gita Krishnaswamy as Deputy Director. Gita is responsible for the oversight of day-to-day operations, working with program directors and staff to ensure alignment with our mission and vision. In addition, she will manage implementation of a new strategic plan and closely support Executive Director Margie Schaps.
“In this period of expanding need and demand for the programs and policy work Health & Medicine provides, I am so excited to welcome the Gita as a partner in leadership. Gita has just the right mix of commitment to the values and mission of Health & Medicine, and skills to help strengthen both internal and external capacity and amplify our impact,” Margie says.
Gita began her professional career as a K-12 classroom teacher and later as a public health professional, she continued to work with school districts and nonprofit organizations interested in policy changes to support health equity and lifelong health for students. Just before joining Health & Medicine, Gita was the Acting Director of the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program at the University of Washington in Seattle where she also taught courses on the social determinants of health, community health assessment, and participatory evaluation.
“I’m pleased to join Health and Medicine right as we undertake a strategic planning process to revisit our mission, vision and values and set our priorities for the next several years,” says Gita. “I’m passionate about exploring ways our organization can continue to expand ways to produce excellent work that is facilitated by processes and practices we are most proud of. I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to engage with and learn from a progressive Board and leadership with a long tradition of organizing and advocacy for structural change to support health equity.”
Gita is passionate about building equitable community partnerships and views a strong anti-racist organizational culture as essential to this work. Originally from Illinois, Gita earned a B.A. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Northwestern University, a M.Ed. from DePaul University, and MPH from the University of Washington. Outside of work, you can find her in the kitchen, yoga studio, forest preserve, or vying for the attention of aloof cats everywhere.