Asha

George

,

DPhil

Asha George is engaged with the social analysis of the frontline interface of health systems from a governance, gender and human rights perspective, as a part of policy and implementation research to improve equitable health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. She collaborates on mixed methods studies, drawing on her expertise in ethnography, rapid qualitative assessments, participatory and action research, as well as case study research. Her current research examines the socio-political processes underpinning frontline community and provider interventions. She supports implementation research on strengthening village health committees in India and on understanding how facility governing boards function in Ethiopia. She leads a network on gender analysis in health systems research across three DFID supported research consortia (http://resyst.lshtm.ac.uk/rings). She serves on the Guidelines Development Group for WHO’s review of health promotion encapsulated by the ‘Individuals, Families and Communities’ Strategy and leads the corresponding review on the promotion of human rights to increase access to maternal health services. She led the development of a new graduate course on ‘Health System Research’ and supported capacity development on health systems research across seven Schools of Public Health in sub-Saharan Africa through the Africa Health Alliance. She is an editorial advisor for three journals (Reproductive Health Matters, Human Resources for Health, Health Reform) and a co-editor with Gita Sen and Piroska Ostlin of Engendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity (MIT Press 2002) and with Kabir Sheikh of Health Providers in India: On the Frontlines of Change (Routledge 2010). She is an Indian national, fluent in Spanish and with a working knowledge of French, Portuguese, Kannada and Malayalam.