Alisha Giri

My first life was in nonprofit development — I spent several years working with One Heart World-Wide on maternal and child health in rural Nepal, and then with the Human Rights Foundation. That work taught me so much about communities and the systems that shape people's lives, but it also made me realize how much I loved the research side of things — asking questions, digging into data, and trying to understand why things are the way they are.

So I went back to school. I got my Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology and an M.P.H. in Population and Quantitative Health Sciences from Case Western Reserve University. My doctoral research took me back to Nepal, where I spent time with communities trying to understand what "success" actually means for labor migrants and their families — not what economists assume, but what people themselves say matters. That work was funded by the National Science Foundation, and it cemented my commitment to research that centers the voices of the people it's about.

These days, I'm continuing that work in the academic space as a researcher at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. I'm learning a lot about the world of ethics — particularly around emerging genetic technologies, rare disease, and how we think about the social implications of genomic research. I get to talk to educators, parents, caregivers, and researchers, and I'm constantly struck by how much richer research becomes when you actually listen to the people living these experiences.

Outside of work, I live in the Bay Area. You'll usually find me running, playing soccer, gardening, or just generally spending time outside.