Kavita Batra Editor

Dr. Kavita Batra serves as a Biostatistician with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and the Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. She provides statistical and research training to Medicine’ s faculty, residents, and fellows. Dr. Batra also serves as a Co-vice chair for the research planning committee housed within the School of Medicine. Her research interests include maternal and child health, impact of COVID-19, and disparities among racial and gender minorities. Dr. Batra is an expert in qualitative and quantitative research and presented her work in several state and national public health conferences. She has published multiple peer reviewed articles to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and social connectedness across different demographic and workforce groups. Currently, she is editing three special issues with the Healthcare journal. Besides, she serves on the reviewers’ panel of several journals, including BMJ, BMC, and Plos one. Dr. Manoj Sharma, MBBS, Ph.D., MCHES® is a public health physician with a medical degree from the University of Delhi and a doctorate in Preventive Medicine from The Ohio State University. He is currently a tenured Full Professor & Program Coordinator of the Social & Behavioral Health program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the School of Public Health. In his career, spanning over 30 years, he has trained/taught over 6,000 health professionals. He has worked for local health departments; state health departments/agencies; federal government agencies; non-profit agencies; professional organizations; and international agencies including governments of other nations in his career. He has been awarded several prestigious honors including American Public Health Association’s Mentoring Award, ICTHP Impact Award, J. Mayhew Derryberry Award, William R. Gemma Distinguished Alumnus Award at the Ohio State University among others. His research interests are in developing and evaluating theory-based health behavior change interventions, obesity prevention, stress-coping, community-based participatory research, and integrative mind-body-spirit interventions.