Biography
Dr. Asha Banu Soletti is Professor at the Centre for Health and Mental Health, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her academic work is situated at the intersection of Public Health and Mental Health, with a sustained focus on the social determinants of health, structural inequities, and community-based, social justice–oriented approaches to care. She teaches postgraduate courses in Public Health and Mental Health, integrating interdisciplinary scholarship, reflective inquiry, and field-based praxis. Dr. Soletti served as Dean of Student Affairs at TISS from 2018 to 2024 and as Chairperson of the Centre for Health and Mental Health from 2012 to 2018. As Dean, she strengthened institutional mechanisms to promote student equity, psychosocial well-being, and financial inclusion. Through multiple support mechanisms, she mobilized financial and institutional resources to assist students from vulnerable backgrounds; one notable initiative was the facilitation of meritorious scholarship support through the Cognizant Foundation, which expanded access to higher education for academically deserving students facing financial constraints. Her tenure was marked by sustained engagement with questions of access, diversity, and institutional accountability, fostering a campus culture grounded in dignity, inclusion, and equal opportunity. During her leadership at CHMH, she consolidated academic partnerships with The Banyan, Chennai, and formalized institutional collaboration with INHS Asvini for the M.Phil. programme in Psychiatric Social Work, strengthening clinical-academic linkages. She was awarded the Linnaeus-Palme Fellowship in 2012 and served as Visiting Faculty at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She has also been a Visiting Professor at the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University under the International Visiting Scholar Scheme, 2025. Her research foregrounds the social and structural determinants of health, particularly among marginalized and tribal communities. She has extensive experience in designing and co-constructing community-led, contextually grounded public health interventions in both rural and urban settings. She currently leads Pragati: Integrated Rural Health and Development Project, a longitudinal, community-engaged initiative working with Warli and Katkari tribal communities to address health and nutrition, Education and skills, livelihoods through integrated and participatory models. Her scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications on elder abuse, ageism, and inequities in later life, contributing to gerontology and social policy discourse. She has also been actively involved in disaster response and post-disaster psychosocial interventions through TISS-led initiatives. Dr. Soletti serves on multiple Institutional Review Boards and is engaged in research supervision, training, capacity building, and programme evaluation in public health and mental health systems. Dr. Soletti’s work reflects a sustained commitment to institution-building, interdisciplinary engagement, and the advancement of community-informed frameworks that bridge scholarship, policy, and practice in health and mental health. ORCiD id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-9827 Scopus id: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55205111300