An award-winning global health advocate and keynote speaker, Dr. Vineeta Gupta is a maternal andchild health physician, human rights lawyer, and trailblazer for women’s leadership, health equity, and human rights. Vineeta was elected to the National Council of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a pioneering organization established to defend civil liberties and human rights during a critical period when India’s democracy was under grave threat. PUCL members and supporters constituted former Supreme Court judges, award-winning journalists, future prime ministers, union defense ministers, many parliamentarians, and noted leaders who fought against colonial rule in India. She served for two decades as an active leader, organizing communities to promote democracy and the rule of law, bringing public interest litigations, and conducting investigative reporting on human rights abuses, all at great risk to her life.
With health and gender equity at the core of her work, Vineeta has led strategic communications, program strategies, fundraising, stakeholder engagement, and media advocacy. Currently, she serves as an Executive Director of an organization focused on public health law and oversees strategic planning, organizational growth and sustainability, partnerships, and programming. In the past, Vineeta was the Secretariat Director of the ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership, where she headed the Secretariat team and facilitated a 15-member governing body spanning five continents.Vineeta held leadership positions at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, Global Women’s Health at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, University Research Co., the Global Fund for Children, the Campaign on Microbicides, and the Global AIDS Alliance.
Vineeta has successfully organized the diaspora to influence policy outcomes, demonstrating her ability to mobilize and engage communities on critical issues. Her groundbreaking work to promote and protect human rights is well documented by numerous global organizations, including Amnesty International, the UK, Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, the National Human Rights Commission of India, and the US State Department. She was awarded the “Rotary Service to Humanity Award” in recognition of her work at grave risk to her life and liberty.
First featured in the media at age seven, Vineeta has successfully leveraged media throughout her life to highlight crimes against women, seek justice for human rights violations, and build support for advocacy goals. As a leading global expert, Vineeta has given speeches and presentations and conducted workshops at conferences and in over 70 universities across the U.S. and Europe. She has spoken on various issues such as health policies, equity, access to affordable medicines, women’s rights and leadership, south-north power dynamics, localization, and empowered partnerships. She is widely covered in print and online media, including NPR, the Washington Post, The Economic Times, the Lancet, Ms. Magazine, New Humanitarian, US News and World Report, FOX News, and CNN. Fluent in four languages, Vineeta obtained a medical degree and a law degree in India and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from Notre Dame University.
