Indian American from New York among 2023-2024 White House Fellows

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The President’s Commission on White House Fellows   announced the appointment of the 2023-2024 class of 20 White House Fellows, September 20, 2023, among them an Indian American. Each Fellow is chosen for their exceptional achievements, and is placed in a department of government to acquire first hand experience.

Kamal Menghrajani, an Indian American physician from New York City, has been placed at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

A cancer physician who treats patients with leukemia, Menghrajani conducted cancer research focused on early diagnosis and prevention while on the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

She has spearheaded health equity efforts for vulnerable populations in global contexts, including Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Uganda, the White House press release said.

As an entrepreneur, Menghrajani has co-founded startups to address unmet needs in cancer treatment and deploy AI for rapid cancer diagnosis. She helped grow the non-profit Nourish International, which engages student leaders as social entrepreneurs in international development work.

She is also passionate about using journalism as a tool for health education, the White House noted.

Having completed her M.D. at University of North Carolina and her M.S. in Biostatistics at Columbia University, Menghrajani trained in medicine at the University of Michigan and as chief fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

On her LinkedIn site Menghrajani says her clinical expertise is in leukemia and her research interests are in clonal hematopoiesis (changes in the bone marrow that occur with aging), genomics, MPNs, and developing / assessing new therapeutics through investigator-initiated clinical trials and cutting-edge clinical research.

She was awarded an ASCO Young Investigator Award and an NIH K12 Career Development Award.

“I have prior expertise managing thousands of volunteers and community organizers, working on startups in the global health space, conducting epidemiology field research, and building global health collaborations. I have served oncology patients in international contexts, at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai and at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala,” she says.

Founded in 1964, the White House Fellows program offers “exceptional young leaders first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the Federal government.”

Fellows spend a year working with senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries, and other top-ranking Administration officials, “and leave the Administration equipped to serve as better leaders in their communities,” the press release says, adding, that Fellowships are awarded on a non-partisan basis.

Applicants have to go through a highly competitive selection process. These Fellows bring experience from across the country and from a broad cross-section of professions, including from the private sector, local government, academia, non-profits, medicine, and the armed forces, the announcement said.

Applications for the 2024-2025 Fellowship year will be accepted starting November 1, 2023. The application link and additional information is available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/fellows/apply/.