Sonalini Mirchandani – our esteemed advisory committee member

Sonalini Mirchandini launched the Balwadi SOP for Mumbai Smiles. We would like to take this opportunity to share with our readers about our esteemed Advisory Committee member.

Sonalini Mirchandani is a leading communication professional in India, who started her career as a civil servant in the Indian Foreign Service. Moving on to work in the private sector, she was Vice President Operations Research Group (presently AC Nielsen ORG-MARG) before joining Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in 1995 as Resident Advisor on the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project (IFPS) in Uttar Pradesh. As Country Director JHU (2004-07), Sonalini led the design and implementation of a state-wide HIV/AIDS communication program funded by USAID in Maharashtra, and provided technical assistance to the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO). She has handled an array of communication consultancy assignments in research, strategy design and training for the private sector as also for leading bilateral and multilateral organizations including the World Bank, Danida, UNICEF, DFID, among others.

Today she heads The Communication Hub providing strategic communications consultancy to the public and private sectors as also donor agencies. She also scripts for documentaries and audio visuals, and is a visiting faculty at leading communication institutes in India. Sonalini’s work has included major health communication initiatives and campaigns that have won international recognition. The film initiatives under the Workplace Intervention Program won the Bronze Telly at the 2007 Telly Awards in New York. Sonalini is also a member of the Technical Resource Group for NACO, and the Steering Committee of the global Stigma Action Network, and is a member of UNICEF’s International Polio Communication Review Team.