Kalpana Poudel-Tandukar
Professor
Contact details
Location
Skinner Hall
651 N Pleasant St
Amherst, MA 01003
United States
About
Kalpana Poudel-Tandukar, PhD, MPH, MPHC, CGM, is a professor at the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing at UMass Amherst. She has a broad background in international health, epidemiology, social science, and general medicine, with expertise in community-based participatory research, intervention design, and longitudinal data analysis. With more than 15 years of experience, her research focuses on global mental health, HIV, and nutrition. She is interested in applied and translational research developing and testing culturally tailored, community-driven, strength-based interventions that reduce mental health disparities among refugees, immigrants, and HIV-infected populations using mixed methods.
Dr. Poudel-Tandukar is the principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health-funded project (R34MH118396) evaluating the effect of a preventive mental health intervention to reduce stress and mental health problems among immigrants using a randomized controlled design. She has received grants to implement Social and Emotional Well-being (SEW) interventions for Bhutanese community members from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and for Ukrainian and Afghan community members from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. She also received funding from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to implement healthy aging interventions among older adult immigrants in the state.
She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on global health issues in high-impact journals, including The Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, and American Journal of Public Health. To date, she has published over 60 articles and delivered 60 presentations at national and international academic conferences. Dr. Poudel-Tandukar serves as a subject matter expert and standing reviewer board member for PCORI and mentors and reviews abstracts for the American Public Health Association (APHA), the American Society of Nutrition, and the International AIDS Society. She has also reviewed manuscripts for approximately 30 peer-reviewed journals.
At UMass Amherst, she is a member of the Faculty Senate Research Council, Research Council Internal Funding Review Panel, and Faculty Senate Status of Diversity Council.