Rani Kotha, JD, MPH
Senior Strategist
rkotha@usc.edu
Rani Kotha, JD, MPH is a Senior Strategist in the Klausner Research Group, housed in the Division of Disease Prevention, Policy and Global Health within the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Rani has over 33 years of experience in public health, global health, maternal/child health, human rights, humanitarian assistance and economic/social development and has served as a senior administrator/research academic with expertise in program design and management, resource development, strategic planning, marketing, and communications and public health education and training. Prior to joining USC, Rani served as the Senior Strategist in Global Health, for the University-wide Institute for Global Health Equity & Innovation (IGHE&I) at the University of Toronto; Executive Director of the University of Michigan Center for Global Health (UMCGH); and Director at Oxfam America (a global humanitarian non-governmental organization based in Boston). Rani began her career at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Rani joined the University of Southern California in 2020, where she serve as Senior Strategist, USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics from 2020-2025. Her work from 2020-2022 pivoted to COVID-19 research in LA County where she worked with USC faculty at the Price School of Public Policy, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences (DPPHS) at the Keck School of Medicine and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH), to recruit a community based cohort, representative of the demographics of citizens in LA County to generate data on the “true” prevalence of COVID-19 infection in LA (overall and among key subgroups) as well as its cumulative incidence (progression) over a defined period of time. This study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and participants consented to surveys and provided biological samples to test COVID-19 infection and antibodies over time, thus establishing an ongoing resource for generating evidence that informed key questions of significance to public health policy.
From 2023 onwards, Rani returned to building public health collaborations globally, with a focus on Northeast India, leveraging bi-directional research ideas developed between the State institutions of Meghalaya, India and USC faculty to develop an inter-disciplinary program of research, primarily focused on infectious diseases such as cervical cancer and TB in addition to the health effects of environmental pollutants and climate change.
Prior to USC, Rani has made significant contributions to expanding global health initiatives: 1) At the University of Toronto (IGHE&I), she led an 18 month strategic planning process culminating in a Global Health Summit and the launch of 5 main programmatic foci areas and the establishment of the Institute’s mission, vision and strategic objectives which served as the basis for a multimillion dollar gift, 2) She developed and/or deepened the University of Toronto and Government of Canada health initiatives in China, Gaza, Ethiopia, Thailand, Vietnam and led an innovative academic NGO collaboration with the Shanti Ashram in southern India, 3) Rani served as a co-organizer, collaborator and co-author on a Lancet Series on Health Equity and Women’s Cancers, 4) At University of Michigan, Rani oversaw the initial visioning process that led to the establishment of the University-wide Center for Global Health, and worked with faculty to leverage a 25-year relationship between the University of Michigan, University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana for a successful application of a multi-million dollar Gates Foundation grant of the newly formed UMCGH, focused on human resources for health and health systems strengthening in Ghana, 5) At Harvard, Rani’s efforts contributed to the creation of the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP), a collaborative research and training initiative between the Government of Botswana and Harvard; and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), an initiative designed to create independent schools of public health to meet the shortfall of public health professionals in India.
Rani holds a JD from Boston College Law School, a MPH in International Health and Health Services from Boston University School of Public Health, and a BA (magna cum laude) in International Relations from Boston University. Public Health, and a BA (magna cum laude) in International Relations from Boston University.
