Sita Shankar Wunnava

Sita Shankar Wunnava is Director of Maternal, Child Health, and Nutrition in PATH India. She has over two and a half decades of experience with international health programs, including community-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs and adolescent reproductive health projects in India. She has worked with UN, International, and National Organizations, in a multi-cultural environment. Her core competencies include designing, developing, and managing large public health and development programs; institutional capacity building, mentoring and team building; proposal development; developing training curricula and modules, and action research.

Prior to joining PATH, Ms. Shankar worked for Pathfinder International, India Country Office, where she served as the Deputy Country Representative. In this position, she led the PRACHAR Project, which focused on promoting change in key behaviour that impacts the reproductive health of adolescents and young adults.

Ms. Shankar also worked as a research consultant with Project Concern International, New Delhi, where she carried out research and authored the report, “Migrant domestic working girls/women and their vulnerability to HIV/ AIDS,” which explored migration issues, social isolation issues, labour rights, general health issues, and HIV/AIDS issues. In addition, Ms. Shankar has worked as National Consultant for UNDP and collaborated with National AIDS Control Organization-India (NACO) on the project, “Strengthening Community-Based Responses to HIV/AIDS in India.” Ms. Shankar was involved in reviewing action plans submitted by NGO planning groups of six states viz. Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh, and she collaborated with the NGO core groups and the State AIDS Control Societies in each of these states with a view to identifying opportunities for synergy with the state plans. Ms. Shankar also supported each State AIDS Society to develop monitoring & evaluation mechanisms. She worked as a social counselor for several years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, New Delhi.

Ms. Shankar holds a Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and Bachelor of Arts from the Madras University, Chennai, India. She is a Population Leadership Fellow from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.