Dr. Anita Chandra, Dr.P.H.

Anita Chandra is vice president and director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being and a senior policy researcher at RAND. The division that she leads covers a range of topics at the intersection of social and economic policy and the organization of the economy, the environment, and social and physical infrastructure. The division also manages RAND Centers on housing, climate and energy policy, drug policy, policing, civil justice, and coleads an initiative on economics and national security. As a researcher, Chandra leads studies on systems change, program and policy design and implementation, and measure development in the areas of health policy including positive health and health equity; civic well-being and community planning; disaster response and resilience; public health emergency preparedness; child health and development; and effects of military deployment on families.

Throughout her career, Chandra has engaged government and nongovernmental partners to employ cross-sector solutions to improve community well-being and to build more robust systems, implementation, and evaluation capacity. This involves work with federal and local government agencies on building systems for emergency preparedness and resilience both in the United States and globally as well as partnering with the private sector and government to modernize data systems and measure well-being and civic transformation. Chandra has conducted broad-scale health and environmental needs assessments to examine efficiency and effectiveness in the integration of health and human service systems. She earned a Dr.P.H. in population and family health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Sub-specialties:
Childhood Development;
Community Resilience;
Community-Based Health Care;
Complex Systems Analysis;
Disaster Recovery Operations;
Emergency Preparedness;
Health and Wellness Promotion;
Military Families;
Racial Equity;
Social Determinants of Health