KJ

Kaumudi Joshipura

Ahmedabad University, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Universidad de Puerto Rico Escuela de Medicina, Bombay University

ORCID iD 0000-0003-1964-7579
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About

Dr. Joshipura is the Founding Dean and Susmita and Subroto Bagchi Professor of Public Health at Bagchi School of Public Health, Ahmedabad University. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). Prior to this, she served as the NIH Endowed Chair & Director of the Center for Clinical Research and Health Promotion at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. She is Director of Sahyog Center for Promoting Health. She has a Master’s in Biostatistics and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from Harvard University (completed in two years). She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health.

Her research (H-index 66) has focused on evaluating lifestyle and other modifiable risk factors for cardio-metabolic conditions, and on evaluating the inter-relationships of microbial, dietary and inflammatory mediators. She was among the first to show that periodontitis and/or tooth loss were risk factors for coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and peripheral artery disease. This work expanded to the evaluation of several systemic outcomes including type 2 diabetes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, glaucoma and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Joshipura served as Principal Investigator of several NIH funded projects, including a mentoring grant, and a cohort study (SOALS: San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study) to evaluate the bi-directional association between progression of periodontal disease, inflammation and glucose abnormalities. Several additional cardiometabolic outcomes, biospecimens including plaque and saliva samples, and assessments such as taste test were added to the cohort to expand the scope and enable ancillary projects.

She was also PI of a randomized controlled trial (PEARLS: Pregnancy and EARly Lifestyle improvement Study) to evaluate the effect of diet and physical activity interventions during pregnancy and early life, on cardiometabolic outcomes in overweight/obese mothers and their offspring. She is a Steering Committee member of the LIFE-Moms consortium that has enrolled over 1,000 overweight/obese pregnant women and a member of the TOPCHILD consortium. Recent projects include the following. (1) Preparedness to Reduce Exposures and diseases Post-hurricanes & Augment REsilience (PREPARE): This study evaluates risk and resiliency factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD) at individual, organization, and community levels to inform interventions and policies to improve resilience, and preparedness to reduce the impact of disasters on chronic disease. (2) Oral Microbiome, Nitric oxide Metabolism, and Oral and Cardiometabolic Health: This study aims to identify oral microbial profiles associated with nitric oxide metabolism, to evaluate their associations with cardiometabolic health, and to identify factors such as mouthwash use that can be modified to improve microbial profiles and nitric oxide metabolism. She led two COVID-19 projects. (1) Puerto Rico Epidemiological Evaluation and Prevention of COVID-19 and Influenza (PREPCOVI). (2) Oral Microbiome, Nitric oxide Metabolism, and Oral and Cardiometabolic Health (MONOCOV).

She has been serving on several editorial boards and reviews manuscripts and grants for national and international journals and organizations. She is the Chief Editor of Frontiers in Oral Health, leading over 1000 editors. She has taught methodological and substantive courses and Co-directed the Oral Epidemiology Program at HSPH. She has served as an advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the American Association of Periodontology (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and the American Dental Association. She mentors several students and faculty. She was the University or Puerto Rico site liaison for the Fogarty Global Health Training consortium based at HSPH, and also served on the Steering Committee for the MPH in Epidemiology at HSPH.

Dr. Joshipura is driven to promote health through finding, evaluating and promoting preventive measures that are cost-saving, free or low-cost, and can be adopted widely and globally. To this end, she founded a global public movement "www.vmovement.org” (short for We Move) to help individuals and organizations incorporate physical activity throughout the day in creative resource-free ways. VMove, launched at a TEDx talk, aims to reduce risk of several chronic disease by changing the norms and increasing the visibility of physical activity in different settings, to enable people to overcome barriers to exercise and engage in physical activity more frequently in a fun manner.

Research Interest & Expertise: Epidemiology, Global Health, Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension, Cardiovascular disease, Nutrition, Inflammation, Oral Health, Implementation Research, Maternal & child health, Nitric oxide, Hurricane preparedness, Water Quality, Climate change.

Employment

  • Ahmedabad University Founding Dean and Susmita and Subroto Bagchi Professor of Public Health
    2023 - Present
  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Adjunct Professor
    2006 - Present
  • Universidad de Puerto Rico Escuela de Medicina NIH Endowed Chair, Professor and Director
    2005 - 2023
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Adjunct Professor
    2005 - 2010
  • University of Puerto Rico Professor and Director
    2005 - 2007
  • Harvard School of Public Health Adjunct Assoc Prof
    2003 - 2006
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Associate Professor
    2002 - 2005
  • Harvard School of Public Health Assistant Professor
    1996 - 2002
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Assistant Professor
    1996 - 2002
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Instructor
    1995 - 1996
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Postdoctoral Dentist Scientist Fellow
    1993 - 1995
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Clinical Instructor
    1992 - 1993
  • Northeastern University Instructor
    1991 - 1993

Education

  • Harvard School of Public Health Sc.D.
    1993 - 1995
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine Certificate in Dental Public Health
    ? - 1995
  • Harvard School of Public Health M.S. Biostatistics
    ? - 1989
  • Bombay University Bachelor of Dental Surgery (DDS equivalent)
    ? - 1982

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (181)