Seva Canada welcomes its newest member of the program team, Priya Reddy. Priya, who was born as the third daughter of a farmer’s family in a beautiful South Indian village, showed her motivation to learn from a young age, walking 5 km to and from the bus stop and travelling 25 km to and from the school each day. After completing high school, undergraduate studies and a Master of Health Administration, Priya began work at the Aravind Eye Care System (AECS).
During her time as a project/grant manager with AECS, she successfully conceptualized and managed several projects, including various multi-country research projects funded by USAID and worked toward the eradication of childhood blindness for more than 2-million children funded by Lavelle Fund for the Blind. Priya was also part of the team from Lions Aravind Institute of Communit
y Ophthalmology that provides consultancy for various eye hospitals across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia and Madagascar to enhance their eye care services through a process of training, capacity building and resource management. Ms. Reddy initiated and facilitated a partnership between AECS and the Government of Pondicherry to screen premature children to prevent and cure retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). With her knowledge in research methodology, she is also actively involved in research activities of AECS and has published several research papers in peer-reviewed journals. She has written many successful grant applications for various multicountry research projects through funders like USAID, XOVA, and BCPB.
Priya left Aravind for a prestigious Fulbright/Humphry Fellowship in Public Health in 2016-17. After her fellowship, she developed and acted as the lead field researcher and first author on the PROSPER randomized controlled trial, the first study to demonstrate that vision care could significantly improve workplace productivity. The trial, carried out among rural, female tea pickers in Assam was published in the Lancet Global Health and subsequently covered in the Economist, Financial Times and BBC World.
Her interest in public health and research led her to pursue a PhD from the University of Belfast, which will be completed this year. Her PhD research has focused on how to improve prescription glasses compliance and financial sustainability of children’s eye programs in India.
Using her interest in public health research, which started with her father in eye camps as a child, Priya will lead an international program of research-capacity building among eye care institutions, starting in India and Nepal, and conducting clinical studies of community ophthalmology innovations, designed to increase the equity and efficiency of eye care programs in multiple countries.
