Sanjana Mukherjee, Ph.D., MSc

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Sanjana Mukherjee is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Global Health
Science and Security at Georgetown University. At CGHSS, her research focuses on using
qualitative and quantitative analyses to study global governance of public health emergencies
with a focus on mitigating infectious disease threats that pose a significant risk to global health
security. In addition, Sanjana is also working on projects related to the pandemic treaty, access to
essential medical countermeasures, antimicrobial resistance, neglected tropical diseases, and
vaccine diplomacy.

Prior to joining Georgetown University, Sanjana served as an ORISE Public Health Policy and
Regulatory Research Fellow at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within the Office
of Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs, Office of the Commissioner. While at FDA, she
worked on national and international level public health priority issues for the USA, such as the
the opioid epidemic, impact of COVID-19 on controlled substances, and FDA’s regulatory decision-
making processes. She has also provided technical input on research related to assessing FDA’s
registration of HIV drugs for use in resource-constrained settings via the US President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and was involved in FDA’s global health initiatives
through its collaborations with WHO with the goal of creating new policies to promote FDA’s
global health mission.

In 2022, Sanjana participated in the DiplomacyRISE program, a short-term course on statecraft,
foreign policy, and diplomacy, organized by the Meridian Center for Diplomatic Engagement
and the National Science Policy Network (NSPN). In 2021, she was selected to serve as an
NSPN SciDEAL Science Diplomacy Fellow with a focus on Global Health Diplomacy. She
worked with SciDip GLOBAL (Spain) to develop and manage an international pilot
collaboration with the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases- University of California
Berkeley (USA) and Makerere University (Uganda). This collaboration created science
diplomacy and global health diplomacy education and training programs to bridge the gap
between scientists, diplomats, and policymakers at the regional, national, and international level.
She also has Congressional outreach and advocacy experience, having been selected to participate
in the American Society for Microbiology Capitol Hill Day 2020 to communicate the importance
of microbial sciences to legislators and policymakers in the USA.

Sanjana’s doctorate examined antimicrobial resistance in the foodborne pathogens Shiga toxin-
producing E. coli and Non-Typhoidal Salmonella by employing clinical microbiology,
epidemiology, and genomic methods. She holds a master’s degree in Microbiology from the
University of Delhi, India, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Michigan
State University, USA.