Shifalika Goenka Editor

Prof. Monika Arora is a public health scientist working in the area of preventing and managing Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) through health promotion and health advocacy. She is the Vice President (Research and Health Promotion) at the Public Health Foundation of India. She has a special interest in NCD policy research, Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and program evaluations. She is Executive Director of HRIDAY (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) an NGO working on NCD prevention and control, youth and patient engagement and hosts the secretariat for Healthy India Alliance (India NCD Alliance). She is President-Elect of NCD Alliance (2021-23), and Chairperson of South East Asia NCD Alliance (2020-23).

She has published extensively in the area of preventing NCD risk factors in different health promotion settings and particularly in the area of multi-sectoral action for NCD prevention and control. She has actively contributed to closing the research loop and her research outcomes have successfully informed policies, training and programmes at the National and Regional Levels. Prof. Arora has been a member of various national and international expert committees on NCD-related policies and programmes, including an expert committee formed by the WHO DG on Ending Childhood Obesity.

Prof. Arora has been honoured with the Best Practices Award in Global Health in 2011 by the prestigious Global Health Council, for demonstrating best practice examples in the area of preventing NCDs among youth in community settings. She has also been awarded WHO Director General’s World No Tobacco Day Award in 2012, Exceptional Women of Excellence 2018 Award by Women Economic Forum (WEF) in April 2018 and Dr. Prem Menon outstanding service award in January 2018 by the World-India Diabetes Foundation (WIDF) in recognition of her contributions to the education and prevention of diabetes among children in India.

Dr. Shifalika Goenka, is a physician and public health professional. She is Professor, Public Health Foundation of India. She also leads the Physical Activity program at the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) – a WHO Collaborating Centre for Surveillance Capacity Building, & Translational Research in Cardio-metabolic diseases. She has lead the health promotion component of the one of the largest worksite projects in India for prevention of Non- communicable diseases and obesity which was recognised by the World Economic Forum as the best practice. A Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Obesity (which got known as the Syndemic commission after publication of the report) she was co-author on the Lancet Series on Physical activity and Public Health, one and two. She is the country representative on the Global Report Card on physical activity and lead the Indian adaptation and validation of the first international physical activity measurement instrument. Her area of interests have expanded to the built environment and transport systems and its powerful role in enhancing Physical Activity in populations and lowering carbon emissions, decreasing accidents and the role of green spaces. She also heads Bioethics at the Public Health Foundation of India.