Events
NDMC Talk Series: Invited Talk by Dr. Manjunath Shankar, Center for Social and Economic Progress
April 8, 2026
NDMC hosted an online invited talk by Dr. Manjunath Shankar on the topic “Modeling for decision makers during Public Health Emergencies at CDC”.
Dr. Manjunath Shankar is a Senior Policy Advisor at CSEP's Health and Human Development team, with over two decades of public health experience across India, South and South-East Asia, Africa, and the United States. His expertise spans health systems strengthening, health economics, primary healthcare, innovative financing, and equity-focused policymaking. He holds a PhD in International Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MHA from TISS, and an MBBS, and has authored widely on health systems and economic evaluation.
Most recently, he led strategic initiatives for the SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Finance Facility, designing and evaluating innovative financing models for health system strengthening and pay-for-performance approaches in tuberculosis care. Prior to this, he worked as a health economist and modeller at the US CDC, contributing to major emergency responses including the West African Ebola outbreak and influenza preparedness efforts.
Abstract
During public health emergencies, CDC, a US federal agency, activates the Incident Command. The Modeling Unit under the command provides key insights to decision makers. The talk is based on the experience of modeling a task force during the activations of H7N9 and West Africa Ebola outbreaks. It covers the models for strategic stockpiling, case estimation, and regional spread. Lessons learned from the experience and key takeaways will be presented.