Rajeshwari Subramanian, MPH ’26, wants to democratize health communication
Rajeshwari Subramanian, an MPH student in Health and Social Behavior, says that coming to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has given her “the ambition to dare to dream.”
In her very first week at the School, Subramanian met Brinleigh Murphy-Reuter, Ed.M ’25, in a health communication class. Murphy-Reuter was helping build a health communication AI nonprofit that captured Subramanian’s interest.
“During the break in the middle of class, I just went up to her and I introduced myself, and I said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, I want to be a part of it,’” Subramanian recalls.
Subramanian and Murphy-Reuter are working together to build Science to People, an organization that uses AI to facilitate the sharing of accurate, engaging, and culturally relevant science. Subramanian was inspired to pursue this work because her father has quadriplegia and she observed how her mother, his primary caregiver, needed to seek out information beyond what physicians could provide in a brief meeting.
Subramanian acknowledges that social media and other technologies have empowered people to share information about health, but she has reservations about it because it can be used to spread misinformation. “I have seen firsthand how incorrect information does impact the kind of decisions you make when you trust the messenger,” she says.
Amanda Yarnell, senior director of the Center for Health Communication, has inspired Subramanian’s work, encouraging her to think about how health information can be democratized by empowering social media content creators and influencers with evidence-based information.
In her spare time, Subramanian is often at her easel, painting. Art, she says, has given her the ability to “trust the process,” a lesson she is bringing with her on her entrepreneurial journey.
Subramanian’s studies are supported through a full scholarship from Harvard Chan School. This financial aid made it possible for Subramanian to say yes to Harvard and pursue her degree.
“When I received the news that I will be getting funding to go to Harvard, I was in another city, and I called my family,” she says. “They were screaming through the phone. It was an incredible moment for all three of us, and it will always replay in my head.”
