Pritika C. Kumar

About Pritika

Pritika is a former resident senior fellow for Integrated Harm Reduction Policy. In this role, she conducted original research and outreach efforts to advance integrated harm reduction public policy.

Before joining R Street, she worked as a regulatory scientist at Altria. Prior to that, she worked as a research scientist in an integrated health system, conducting research on using clinical decision support tools for harm reduction within primary health care and outpatient settings, especially for marginalized populations.

Pritika has experience in harm reduction policy and research in diverse settings including: the United Nations Population Fund, where she focused on program and policy work on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention; and the World Bank, where she scoped research on the role of media and entertainment education in development including HIV prevention and harm reduction. Pritika has conducted doctoral and post-doctoral work on the role of social capital, social networks and social norms in harm reduction (in the context of substance-use disorders including alcohol and tobacco), and the use of clinical decision support tools in harm reduction outreach within primary/outpatient settings.

Pritika has her doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a masters of public health from Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a master of arts in applied social and counseling psychology from Delhi University, India.

She lives in Minneapolis with her husband of 15 years, 9-year old daughter and Cavapoo puppy.