Prativa Baral

Dr. Prativa Baral is an epidemiologist and a faculty associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She operates at the intersection of global health policy and advocacy, while investigating risks of health emergencies, early warning and surveillance systems, and health systems resilience, particularly during crises. She is also the co-founder of Let Science Connect, a science communications training consultancy targeting researchers and experts. 

Over the past few years, she has collaborated with and consulted for OpenAI, the United Nations, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the United Nations, the Global Pandemic Monitoring Board, the Canadian COVID Task Force and more, contributing to the pandemic research and policy response to COVID-19 at both domestic and international levels. She also regularly appeared on Canadian media during the pandemic, providing Canadians with practical and expert advice regarding COVID-19.  

Dr. Baral is a sought-after speaker and expert panelist, frequently contributing to major domestic and global meetings, including at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos. Most recently, she led the secretariat of the expert panel convened by the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences to define Canada’s role in global health. Previously, she played a key role in drafting the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s framework for action on global health research. 

Prativa holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a master’s in public health in epidemiology from Columbia University and a bachelor’s of science from McGill University. She is a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Doctoral Foreign Student Award recipient. Fluent in French, English and Nepali, Prativa is a former nationally ranked chess player.