Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal is the Director of Administration and Operations for the Center for Race, Inequality and Equity Studies (CRISES) in the Division of Social Science.
Prior to joining Harvard, Meenakshi served as Assistant Program Director and Associate Professor of Practice at MPH@Simmons. In this role, she worked closely with faculty, students and administration to foster an environment of equity, justice and liberation. Recruited to create a travel course, Meenakshi developed the course “Racism, Oppression and Health” to teach students about the rich racial justice history of Boston and how structural racism created significant barriers for the residents of Boston who were also people of color. As an organizer and activist, Meenakshi has collaborated across community and national partners, organized a Day of Action against Banned Books, cultivated partnerships with community organizations and has been an important voice in the racial justice space in public health. As an immigrant, Meenakshi is dedicated to justice for migrants across identities and countries of origin. Meenakshi has also co-founded FFREE (Framingham Families for Racial Equity in Education), an organization dedicated to racial justice in the public school system. Currently, Meenakshi serves on boards for the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center and the Neighborhood Birth Center. Both organizations have provided Meenakshi with liberatory mentorship and facilitation skills that are adaptable to large and small environments with attention to collaboration, collective leadership and authentic community engagement. Meenakshi has an MPH from University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is currently PhD candidate at Simmons University.