Sonak Pastakia

Sonak D. Pastakia is a professor in the Purdue University College of Pharmacy's Center for Health Equity and Innovation. Pastakia is implementing community-centered care in Kenya and India with the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) and the Self Employed Women’s Association.

Pastakia has raised over $150 million in cash grants and product donations to support population health improvement efforts in Kenya and India. He has assumed a variety of roles including: serving as a consultant for Abbott to design chronic disease care in India; being a founding member and a member of the board of directors of the Tumaini Street Youth Center; serving as co-chair of the AMPATH Pharmacy department; and being a principal investigator or co-investigator on several National Institutes of Health and Medical Research Council Grants. Within these roles, he has focused on implementing a wide variety of programs including to help establish a community-based care program which now serves over 15,000 patients; a pharmacy distribution system which provides antiretroviral medications to over 165,000 people living with HIV at over 500 ministry of health clinics across western Kenya; a supply chain system for essential medications including cardiovascular disease medications at over 76 sites; and has helped design and build a school for vulnerable street youth.

Pastakia also works with urban and rural communities in Indiana to develop solutions focused on barriers related to the social determinants of health. Examples include strategies to address nutrition insecurity by collaborating with community health workers and studying the clinical outcomes of unconditional cash transfers.