Arogya World Board of Directors
Select members of Arogya World’s Board.
The members of Arogya World’s Board of Directors bring years of experience and passion for public service to bear in the global fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Dr. Nalini Saligram
Nalini Saligram, Ph.D, is the Founder & CEO of Arogya World, a global health non-profit committed to changing the course of chronic disease. She is an Ashoka Fellow.
Under Nalini’s leadership, Arogya World designs and implements scalable, science-based diabetes prevention programs in Indian schools, workplaces, and the community. As a tireless advocate for NCD prevention, Nalini leverages public-private partnerships and global platforms to improve the world we live in. Arogya World has made three Clinton Global Initiative Commitments (one in 2011, and two in 2013), a United Nations Every Woman Every Child Commitment (2014), was active with MIT’s SOLVE effort (2017), and was named a finalist for the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation (2014). Her story and that of Arogya World has also been highlighted in a book – The Healthcare Gamechangers. In 2021, on her watch, Arogya World was chosen to be part of the Google AI for Social Good effort.
Nalini has lived and worked in many parts of the world, including Merck in Philadelphia, Merial in Atlanta, Glaxo Wellcome in London, and Hill & Knowlton in Hong Kong.
Nalini has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She serves on the Dean’s Council at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and is active with the Taskforce on Women & NCDs, Indiaspora, the India Philanthropy Alliance, Foresight Global Health and the Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces. She is based in Atlanta.
Pamela Yih
Pamela Yih serves as Chief Financial Officer of Arogya World, and has been serving in that capacity, working probono, right from the founding of the nonprofit in 2010.
Pamela is President of Pamela Y-F Yih, Inc., a life science consulting company. For the past 20 years, she has provided consulting services to start-ups, and pharmaceutical, biotech and med-tech/diagnostic companies of all sizes.
Pamela’s expertise is in strategic marketing, commercialization strategies and opportunity assessments, portfolio planning and development of cross-functional commercial planning and evaluation processes. Previously, as a Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pamela led global Product Planning and Business Planning for the flagship ACE inhibitors portfolio (hypertension, heart failure, diabetic nephropathy and post-MI).
Dr. Seema Bhatia
Seema is board certified in internal medicine and was in private practice for over 14 years. She currently sits on the board and serves as the chair of the medical committee of Health Reach Clinic, the only free clinic in Lake County, IL. She has been actively involved in recruiting other volunteer physicians and plays a proactive role on the executive board. She feels passionately about the role of preventative medicine in the fields of diabetes and hypertension.
Heather Nornes
Heather is an attorney licensed to practice in the State of Illinois. Heather’s practice focused on financial services and the insurance industry. Heather served as senior counsel for companies such as Aon Corp. and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. Heather also served as assistant director at Arthur Andersen advising its global captive insurer. In addition, Heather is a certified mediator and serves on a number of nonprofit boards.
Deepa Prahalad
Deepa is an author, business strategist and consultant specializing in opportunities at the intersection of consumer experience, technology and strategy. Deepa has worked as a management consultant with firms from start-ups to large multinationals.
Deepa has degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Deepa, who can be found on Twitter at @deepaprahalad, lives in Southern California with her husband and son.
Swati Chaudhary
Swati serves as a Director at Blue Meridian Partners (BMP). BMP is a pioneering philanthropic model for finding and funding scalable solutions to the problems that trap young people and families in poverty. At the nexus of economic mobility and venture philanthropy, she is committed to listening to the voices of the vulnerable in our society, and channeling philanthropy towards solutions that are rooted in the realities and experiences of communities.
Swati was formerly a Director in the Advisory practice at Synergos. She worked at the nexus of strategy building, systems thinking, and partnerships for social impact at scale. A generalist, she has worked in a diverse range of topics including financial inclusion, income inequality, gender equity, agriculture, and non-communicable diseases. Previously, Swati held the roles of management consultant at PwC Advisory and investment analyst at Acumen Fund and General Atlantic. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Franklin and Marshall College, and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. A Third Culture Kid, Swati was raised between Bihar, India and Manila, Philippines; she now lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
Latha Palaniappan MD, MS, is an internist, and clinical and population researcher. Her research has focused on the study of diverse populations, chronic disease and prevention. She was recently awarded a Midcareer Investigator Award (K24 HL150476) by the National Institutes of Health to provide mentoring to junior clinical investigators in the conduct of patient oriented research. She is currently working on implementation of evidence based genetic and pharmacogenetic testing in clinical settings. She is the Faculty co-Director of the Stanford Biobank (with Drs. Brooke Howitt and Joachim Hallmayer) designed to accelerate translatable scientific discoveries. She recently received a Fulbright Future Scholar Award and will work with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation on implementation of Precision Health in Australia.