top of page

SHWETHA MANGALESH

Physician | MPA/MPH Candidate, Brown University | Head of International Programs, KIDROP

shwetha_mangalesh@brown.edu  |  CV  |  Google Scholar  |  PubMed  |  LinkedIn

 

Shwetha Mangalesh is a physician trained in pediatric retina and a dual MPA/MPH candidate at Brown University's Watson School of International and Public Affairs and School of Public Health. Her work is on screening premature infants for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness, and on how health systems in the United States, India and sub-Saharan Africa staff, finance and pay for that care.

 

She is Head of International Programs at KIDROP, the telemedicine ROP screening program of Narayana Nethralaya in Bengaluru, where she manages the Uganda program and its expansion to five general hospitals. In August 2026 she set up screening programs in Harare, Zimbabwe. At Brown she is a Graduate Research Fellow at the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, working with Roy K. Aaron on prosthetic care after conflict related amputation and on attacks on health care in Ukraine, and a research assistant in the Department of Economics.

 

Before Brown she was a research scholar in pediatric retina at Duke University, where she led the BabySTEPS studies of bedside retinal imaging in preterm infants, and research lead at the EYESHA Foundation, designing newborn eye screening programs with ministries of health in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. She trained in ophthalmology at Narayana Nethralaya, where she analyzed the cost savings of expanding KIDROP across India. Her current research asks what screening programs cost in different health systems, why those costs differ, and what AI grading will change.

 

Selected highlights

  • Co-author of a submission (PDF) cited three times in the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights' 2026 report to the UN General Assembly (A/81/180)
  • Contributor to Uganda's first national retinopathy of prematurity guidelines, Ministry of Health (2026)
  • 56 peer-reviewed publications, h-index 24 (Google Scholar); Expertscape top 10 expert in retinopathy of prematurity in India (2023)
  • Nora Kahn Piore Grant, Brown University School of Public Health (2026)
  • Organizing committee and health care panel lead, Brown Technology and Science Policy Summit (April 2027)
  • Watson School study group with Iván Duque, former President of Colombia (Fall 2026)
  • Associate Editor (Neonatology), Frontiers in Pediatrics; Section Editor, Children; Handling Editor, Frontiers in Medicine
Headshot of Shwetha Mangalesh

EXPERIENCE

Positions

Brown University

MPA/MPH candidate at the Watson School and the School of Public Health, and Graduate Research Fellow at the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. My work there covers prosthetic care after conflict related amputation and attacks on health care in Ukraine.

KIDROP, Narayana Nethralaya

Head of International Programs. I manage the Uganda program and its expansion to five general hospitals, and I'm helping set up screening in Harare, Zimbabwe.

UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Policy Analyst through Brown's MPA Policy in Action program. Our submission on corporate governance and human rights is cited in the Working Group's 2026 report to the UN General Assembly (A/81/180).

Duke University

Research Scholar in pediatric retina. I led the BabySTEPS studies, NIH funded research on bedside retinal imaging in preterm infants.

EYESHA Foundation

Research Lead. I designed newborn eye screening programs and guidelines with ministries of health in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.

Emerging Vision Scientists Day

Selected for AEVR's Emerging Vision Scientists Day, supported by Research to Prevent Blindness. I met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill about NIH funding for vision research.

bottom of page