Amita N. Vyas

Amita N. Vyas, PhD, MHS, is a tenured Professor at the George Washington University (GW) School of Public Health and Director of the GW Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence.

At the age of 20, Amita journeyed to Calcutta, India to work alongside Mother Teresa in the Missionaries of Charity. In one eye-opening summer, she was immersed in the relationship between health, education, and social inequities affecting vulnerable populations. From that extraordinary experience, inspired by a simple desire to serve those in need, she decided to pursue a career in public health. This early experience working alongside suffering and devastation continues to play a role in her teaching, scholarship, practice, and service to communities, and it is through this lens of empathy that she has led efforts to address the health, education, and well-being of women, children, and families locally, nationally, and globally. Dr. Vyas earned her Master's in Demography at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and then continued her studies at Johns Hopkins, earning her doctorate in Population and Family Health Sciences, receiving awards for outstanding academic achievement.

Dr. Vyas’ research has primarily focused on the health and well-being of adolescent girls and women, and she has led countless large-scale intervention and research studies in the U.S. and globally. Dr. Vyas is the recipient of several awards, including the George Washington University Bender Teaching Award, the National Delta-Omega Honor Society Award for Innovative Curriculum, and the Student Supervisor of the Year Award for universities in the Northeast. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the top-ranked journal Women’s Health Issues and she is currently a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council focusing on the intersection of health, violence and women’s economic empowerment.

In 2007, Dr. Vyas founded the Global India Fund, a non-profit organization committed to giving people around the world an opportunity to make a difference in India.. Dr. Vyas resides in Mclean, Virginia, with her husband and three children. She is a champion for women, children, and families in the United States and globally.