Sanford's Interim Dean Shares Background, Policy Motivations
Just out of medical school in India in the late 1990s, Manoj Mohanan met an elderly patient during his residency that had a transformative effect on him.
“I was in a small rural village called Kokban on the west coast of India, and I would bring this woman samples from the pharmaceutical representatives for her asthma. The medical doctor I was working with asked her for money to buy those same drugs. The woman pulled out a bag of coins, dropped them on the table, and proceeded to count out the coins. Sitting there helpless and watching her count was just more than I could take.”
It was a turning point in Mohanan’s career path.
“That was the moment I said, I can't do this; I can't be part of this health system. If I stayed, I would just eventually become part of the system, and I needed to do something about it from the outside,” Mohanan said.
He believed there might be a way he could improve health at a bigger scale, by following a different path. Soon, he was on a plane to the United States to earn his graduate degrees from Harvard University. Over the past 25 years since he left medicine, Mohanan has dedicated his scholarship to interdisciplinary research that examines critical questions related to health and healthcare using economic theory and research methods.
Mohanan with the senior leadership team of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke.
Now, as the interim dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy, Mohanan is excited about supporting colleagues on their respective paths – the students, faculty, staff and alumni of Duke’s highly interdisciplinary school.
Mohanan, most recently Sanford’s senior associate dean for faculty and research, has been appointed interim dean, effective July 1, 2024. He will serve a two-year term.
More about Manoj Mohanan:
https://sanford.duke.edu/story/meet-m...