Breaking Silos: How Amita Gupta is Harnessing Global Collaboration for Public Health Innovation
When the world came to a standstill in 2020, Dr. Amita Gupta knew that science alone wouldn’t be enough. As a leading infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), she had spent over 16 years working at the intersection of medicine and public health. But solving the world’s most pressing health challenges—pandemics, tuberculosis, and health inequities—demanded more than medical breakthroughs—it required collaboration at an unprecedented scale.
That same year, she co-founded the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute (GKII) at JHU—not just as another global health initiative, but as a powerful bridge between the U.S. and India. The Institute was designed to foster partnerships across government, academia, civil society, and the private sector, bringing together the best minds and resources from both nations to advance globally relevant solutions. The Institute leverages expertise in India and the US across a range of disciplines including public health, medicine, engineering, humanities, business, and international policy to undertake groundbreaking research and training to address a range of global challenges including the improvement of health outcomes for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
“Our mission is about bridging knowledge and empowering people,” said Amita, who serves as Director of Infectious Diseases at JHU and Faculty Co-chair of GKII. “The greatest breakthroughs don’t happen in isolation. They happen when we bring the right people together—across borders, institutions, and sectors—to solve problems no one entity can fix alone.”
At its core, GKII embodies Amita’s lifelong belief: health challenges don’t stop at borders, and neither should the solutions. By building bridges instead of working in silos, the Institute is proving that global health collaboration isn’t just possible—it’s essential.
A Childhood Shaped by Two Worlds
Amita’s connection to India runs deep, shaped by her childhood experiences and a strong sense of family heritage. Born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from Uttar Pradesh, India, she grew up moving between two very different worlds. Her close relationships with extended family gave her a profound emotional tie to India, and early visits exposed her to the glaring health disparities that would later shape her career.
She witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of preventable diseases—her cousin’s battle with polio and her sister’s near-death from dysentery left an indelible mark.
Initially pursuing an engineering degree, she soon pivoted to infectious diseases, drawn by her passion for research and making a tangible difference in people’s lives. This led her to JHU, where she joined a team studying HIV transmission from mothers to children in India.
Family Philanthropy as a Catalyst
For Amita, philanthropy wasn’t just a practice—it was part of her family’s DNA. While her career focused on medicine and public health, it was her parents, Raj and Kamla Gupta, who laid the foundation for a legacy of giving that spanned two countries.
Raj’s journey is one of resilience and opportunity. Like many Indian students in the 1960s, he arrived in the U.S. with just $8 in his pocket, driven by education, hard work, and integrity. Decades later, he became one of the first Indian-American CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, leading Rohm and Haas to a landmark $15 billion sale to Dow Chemical in 2009, a deal now studied at Harvard Business School.
With success came a deep sense of responsibility. In 2009, Raj and Kamla Gupta founded the Ujala Foundation, committed to health and education in both India and the U.S. “Giving back is something I learned from living and working in the U.S.,” Raj reflected. “I felt deeply indebted to both my country of birth and my adopted home.”
Through Ujala, the Guptas supported initiatives such as training Indian laboratorians at JHU and student exchange programs to deepen global health expertise. Their strategic, impact-driven approach influenced Amita’s vision for GKII.
A Vision Backed by Philanthropy
Amita inherited her parents’ strategic approach to philanthropy, but it wasn’t until 2019—after over a decade of working in India’s infectious disease research—that she saw how far-reaching their impact could be.
As she laid the groundwork for GKII, Amita and her parents saw an opportunity to merge their philanthropic vision with her public health expertise.
Raj’s corporate network played a key role. He introduced Amita to Steve Klinsky, founder of New Mountain Capital. Despite never having visited India, Klinsky had strong business ties to the country and a deep commitment to global health solutions. In 2020, after a virtual meeting where Amita pitched the vision for GKII, Klinsky and his wife, Maureen Sherry, committed to matching the Gupta family’s initial investment. Together, the Gupta and Klinsky-Sherry families pledged $10 million, to officially launch GKII at JHU.
Today, Raj serves as Chair of the GKII alongside Alex Triantis, Dean of Hopkins Business School, ensuring that his family’s philanthropic legacy continues to drive high-impact, systemic change in India and beyond.
GKII and JHU delegation at DY Patil Medical University in Pune, fostering collaboration in global health and medical education
“The Indian diaspora has only recently accumulated wealth, and now we have the opportunity to give back in a way that is strategic and high-impact. With Johns Hopkins’ deep expertise in medicine, public health, education, and research, this is the right time to strengthen collaborations with India—not just for India’s progress, but for solutions that can benefit the world.”
GKII raises TB awareness at Subhedar Ramji Maloji Ambedkar School (Yervada), educating 7th and 8th-grade students and teachers on prevention and early detection
Early Years: Launching Amid a Global Crisis
GKII was born at a moment of unprecedented global disruption. As Amita prepared to present the Institute to JHU leadership in March 2020, the world was already grappling with COVID-19. “I was supposed to present the Institute to Provost Sunil Kumar on March 9, 2020, but of course, the entire world shut down,” she recalled.
While the pandemic reshaped daily life, it also underscored the urgency of GKII’s mission. The Institute was never just about research and policy—it was about mobilizing partnerships for immediate, real-world impact.
Faced with India’s devastating Delta wave, GKII rapidly raised $2.2 million in emergency response funds, uniting diaspora donors, Indian philanthropists, and corporate CSR initiatives to provide critical healthcare support. But the Institute’s response went beyond crisis relief. Recognizing the need to combat misinformation, GKII launched educational campaigns to promote vaccine awareness and public health literacy.
One of its most notable efforts was a vaccine education campaign developed in collaboration with Bollywood director Pradeep Sarkar. Featuring three short films, the campaign aimed to counter vaccine hesitancy at a time when misinformation was proving as dangerous as the virus itself.
This swift, multi-pronged response set the tone for GKII’s larger vision—leveraging collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and strategic philanthropy to tackle India’s most pressing public health challenges.
GKII conducts a TB awareness session for students and teachers at Subhedar Ramji Maloji Ambedkar School
TB-Free Schools: Reimagining Public Health Through Education
Tuberculosis remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases, with India carrying 27% of the global burden. Each year, 10.6 million people develop active TB, while 2 billion are latently infected, meaning they carry TB bacteria without symptoms. In India, 20% of children are infected with latent TB by age 18, yet schools have never been systematically used for screening or education.“There’s a massive missed opportunity for prevention,” Amita emphasized. “TB efforts in India have historically overlooked schools, despite children being a crucial population for early intervention and change agents.”
The TB-Free Schools Initiative aims to change that by bringing screening, prevention, and education into school settings. Building on Dr. Dorjee’s successful intervention in Dharamshala—where school-based screening reduced TB cases by 87%—GKII is now scaling this model across Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh in partnership with national and state governments, NGOs, and local communities. The $3 million program will generate critical data to inform TB prevention policies in India and globally.
“Our commitment goes beyond treatment,” Amita said. “We’re creating ecosystems of prevention, education, and hope.”
Overcoming Challenges and Building Bridges
While GKII’s work has been transformative, it hasn’t come without challenges. One of the biggest hurdles has been securing buy-in from stakeholders, particularly philanthropic partners. “Fundraising for this kind of work has been difficult,” Amita shared. “With so many groups already engaged in philanthropy in India, making the case for why these specific initiatives need support isn’t always easy.”
She has also been intentional in ensuring that collaboration is a true partnership—not a one-way model. “We don’t have all the answers,” she emphasized. “We’re here to learn from India’s vast talent pool and work together to create solutions.”
Despite these challenges, the Institute has raised over $13 million in funding, awarded numerous research and student travel grants, and built a strong foundation through its Advisory Board, Faculty Steering Committee, and core leadership team. In 2023, it refined its focus to three key pillars: Tuberculosis & Respiratory Infections, Artificial Intelligence & Digital Technologies, and Education & Training—areas where Johns Hopkins and India’s collaboration can drive lasting global impact.
Pathways for Progress
As India approaches its centenary in 2047, the country is rapidly emerging as a global economic powerhouse. But with this progress comes a critical challenge—ensuring long-term investments in health and biomedical research keep pace with its growth. “India has all the ingredients to lead in global health innovation, but large-scale health research is still underfunded,” Amita noted.
Philanthropy has a key role to play in bridging this gap—not just in funding interventions, but in supporting the kind of high-risk, high-reward research that leads to transformative breakthroughs. “In India, philanthropy is shifting toward untapped areas—those that require deeper commitment, like research,” she said. “While government investment is growing, we need more partners willing to back the kind of research that takes time but has the potential to change lives at scale.”
For Amita, the opportunity is clear. “India has an extraordinary ability to innovate at scale,” she reflected. “If we can harness that energy, invest in research, and build stronger collaborations, we won’t just be solving problems for India—we’ll be solving them for the world.”
With GKII as a catalyst, that future is already taking shape.
Inspired thinking presented by
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Read more
Read more
