Indian American HIV researcher named White house fellow

15 white house fellows selected nationwide

July 31, 2009

Anish Mahajan, a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar who has developed programs for expanding HIV testing in low-income communities, was named a 2009-2010 White House Fellow June 25.

The year-long program, which begins Sept. 1, will place Mahajan and 14 other fellows with a specific sector of the new administration. The Poughkeepsie, New York native is likely to be placed in the Office of Health Reform or the Department of Health and Human Services, but told India-West he would be equally thrilled to work in Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel’s office or with Vice President Joe Biden.

The extremely competitive White House Fellows program - created in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson - named 108 regional finalists in March. Thirty national finalists were selected from that pool and were invited to Washington, D.C., for interviews with the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

Mahajan completed both his B.A. in public policy and his M.D. at Brown University. He also earned a Masters in International Health from Harvard and a Masters in Health Services from UCLA, where he also completed his residency in internal medicine.

Following his residency, Mahajan was accepted into the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. During the program, Mahajan designed a pilot program to provide free HIV testing to 10,000 Los Angeles residents and raised $300,000 to support the program. He also successfully countered resistance to new Centers for Disease Control guidelines for expanding HIV testing, and created a coalition of public and private organizations in Southern California to build community consensus on the need for HIV testing.

Mahajan is currently serving a two-year term on the Mid-City West Neighborhood council in Los Angeles.

Since 1964, more than 600 Americans have participated in the White House Fellows program, including CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. Applications are accepted each February for the following September. Fellows are chosen for their record of professional accomplishments early on in their careers.

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