Geeta Rao Gupta

Geeta Rao Gupta
Born	Mumbai, India
Alma mater	Bangalore University, University of Delhi
Occupation	Senior Fellow, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Geeta Rao Gupta (born 1956 in Mumbai, India) is a leader on gender, women’s issues, and HIV/AIDS. She is frequently consulted on issues related to AIDS prevention and women’s vulnerability to HIV and is an advocate for women’s economic and social empowerment to fight disease, poverty and hunger. Rao Gupta is former president of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). She began working with ICRW in 1988 as a consultant, researcher, and officer, and headed the private, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. from 1997 through April 2010. She stepped down to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a senior fellow. Currently she serves as Deputy Executive Director for UNICEF and the Vice Chair of the Board for the GAVI Alliance. She was appointed to this position by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 18 April 2011.

Rao Gupta grew up in Mumbai and Delhi, India, and received her education from the University of Delhi and Bangalore University (India). While working toward her advanced degrees in social psychology, she worked as a counselor at a drop-in center in New Delhi and lectured in the psychology departments of several universities. At the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Rao Gupta worked with a team to develop the first women’s studies curriculum for graduate students in India.

In the mid-1980s, Rao Gupta moved to the United States and began working at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in 1988. She has held a number of positions with ICRW, including consultant, researcher and vice-president. In the 1990s, Rao Gupta headed a ground-breaking, 15-country research program that identified the social and economic roots of women’s vulnerability to HIV infection. Rao Gupta became president of ICRW in 1996.

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