Dr. Sanyukta Mathur is a social and behavioral scientist and senior associate at the Population Council. Over the past 17 years her research has examined the individual, social, and structural determinants of health and health behaviors, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. She is currently the Co-PI on two studies assessing the acceptability of a new multi-purpose prevention technology to help women avoid HIV and unintended pregnancies in Zimbabwe and South Africa. She also leads a portfolio of work on evidence synthesis for HIV prevention programming for adolescent girls and young women and led the DREAMS implementation research portfolio. She serves as the senior gender and youth technical advisor for Breakthrough-RESEARCH, a global initiative focused on generating evidence and promoting its use to strengthen social and behavior change programming for improved health and development outcomes. Prior to joining the Population Council, Dr. Mathur was an Assistant Professor the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and led research on fertility intentions and HIV prevention. Prior to that she was a Public Health Specialist at International Center for Research on Women, where she led several research studies on youth participation, youth livelihoods, reproductive health, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and integrated programming. Sanyukta holds a BSc. In Psychology and a gender studies certificate from University of Maryland at College Park, Master of Health Science from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctorate in Public Health from Columbia University.
