BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Usha Manjunath is a Professor and Director at IIHMR Bangalore. Her education includes M.Sc. Speech & Hearing from AIISH, Mysore and M.Phil. (Hospital and Health System Management) and Ph.D. in Management from BITS, Pilani. She holds a certificate on ‘Strategic Leadership and Management in Healthcare’ 2012 by IIHMR, Delhi and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is trained in Implementation of NABH Standards for Hospitals in June 2019 by NABH/Quality Council of India.

Dr. Usha has a unique experience in allied health/disability, communication, entrepreneurship, general and health system management research/academics. She has 13 years of experience as a Speech and Audiology professional with a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) in Speech Pathology from ASHA, USA (1990). During these years, she worked in various organisations including NGOs, Schools and Hospitals in India and USA. Speech Therapy and Deaf Children Education form the core of her contributions. In 1999, she made a career change and joined BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan, as a teaching faculty in management which propelled her into academics/higher education, and pursued her passion in healthcare further. She joined IIHMR Bangalore in 2010, and is a dynamic leader backed by her long unique experience in academics/teaching, consultancy & research projects, training & capacity building, community/social development work with special focus in health system management. Her competencies include healthcare delivery system analysis, social mobilization, SBCC/IEC, communication, management principles, organization behaviour, marketing, HRM, quality and strategy. She is adept at training and undertaking MDPs for different stakeholders in her area of expertise, using a variety of platforms: live-physical, on-line and hybrid modalities.

Dr. Usha’s research work includes Total Quality Service Management Model for Healthcare, nutrition-health-life cycle approach, IEC pre-testing, MCH, WASH, Women Empowerment, Health, Stress Management etc. Her research strengths are in field work, mixed methodology approach for field and organization research, writing of reports, manuscripts, research briefs, and content writing etc. Research projects successfully completed include those funded by GoI, GoK, ICMR, Unicef, WHO, Alive & Thrive, Deaf Child Worldwide – UK, HCL Foundation, United Way India, BDT School for the Deaf and others. Her Consultancy projects include: Impact Evaluation of Primary School Education project by APD in four districts of Karnataka supported by DCW; Market Research for Ophthalmic Products – BIRAC Project by a private Ophthalmology group in Bangalore; Strategy and Future directions for BDT Deaf School in Laxmeshwar, Gadag; Impact of COVID 19 on Health and Nutritional Status among Young Children: A Qualitative Study in Selected Anganwadi Centres in Bengaluru Urban.

Dr. Usha has published widely in National and International Journals and print-/e-media. She has published a book “Total Quality in Healthcare-An Empirical Investigation” 2012 by Rawat Publications based on her Ph.D. thesis supported by ICSSR grant. Endowed with excellent communication and documentation skills, she was conferred with an Outstanding Editor Award by AIMS, International in 2012. She was awarded Bharat Rathna Indira Gandhi Gold Medal Award – for Excellence by GEPRA, New Delhi. March 8th, 2018. She likes to take up volunteering whenever time permits and is humbled by her role of social responsibility in mobilizing and supporting Global Grant application to Rotary International and Local Rotary Club (Matching Grant) for BDT Deaf School for strengthening education through technology including Hearing Aids, Audio-visual Lab, Smart Classrooms, Audiometry Set Up, and STEM Mini Lab.