Professional Experience:
I started my career as a Medical Social Worker at Gandhi Hospiatal in Hyderabad and after six months became a Psychiatric Social Worker at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital at New Delhi. Later I worked as Programme Co-ordinator of a community service and student welfare programme of M.S.Universty of Baroda. During this time I competed to get an Indian Council of Social Science Research Fellowship for completing a Ph.D in Social Work (1990). A year later I was promoted as a Reader/Associate Professor in Faculty of Social Work Baroda (1991 to 1997). Stepping into international NGO sector, in 1997, I was appointed as Project Director of Expanding Contraceptive Choices Project in Gujarat State. This two year assignment was funded by USAID and my employer was the South East Asia Region office of Population Council. This assignment provided me a great opportunity to work in diverse cultural environment over and above my one year fellowship in the Council of International Programs in the USA (1992-93). Another noteworthy accomplishment was my winning the position as Project Director of University Grants Commission's Field Action for Social Develoment study for 5 years.Soon I had the honour of being nominated as a member of National Panel on Social Work Education set up by the University Grants Commission for a 4 years tenure(1997-2001). I also had the distinction of being on the Board of Research Advisors of the American Biographical Institute. During this period I presented several papers at national and international professional events and also published some papers and one book.
In 1999,I went back to M.S.University as a full professor for three years. In 2002, I worked at another international NGO - Population Concern International as Project Director at their Pune office to head a project for providing home based care to HIV/AIDS affected and infected people living in the slums. This project was financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA. In 2005, I became a professor at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and worked on 11 major consultancies in the fields of poverty reduction, gender,women's empowerment, reproductive health of adolescent girls/boys, HIV/AIDS,orphans & vulnerable children. These assignments were offered by UNFPA, UNDP, Population Council, Midwest AIDS Technical Education Center of University of Chicago for short and medium term work in Ethiopia and Tanzania.In 2010 I returned to India and have been working as a certified mentor for HIV/AIDS counselors in Mumbai.