Rotary Club of Lake Houston Area President Kathy Lemman (right) welcomed guest speaker Aanchal Thadani (center) and Pasadena (TX) Rotarian Bill Barmore to its February 16, 2022 luncheon meeting. Ms. Thadani spoke about her upcoming studies at the London School of Economics regarding “the people who provide care verses the people who make (medical) policy”. She spoke to the issue as a 2018 Baylor University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Humanities and who is currently in her third year of medical school at Baylor College of Medicine.
The Rotary Club of Lake Houston Area members recently had a lively discussion with a guest speaker regarding the disconnect between “the people who provide care verses the people who make (medical) policy”. She spoke to the issue as a 2018 Baylor University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Humanities and who is currently in her third year of medical school at Baylor College of Medicine.
The guest speaker sparking this discussion was visiting Rotary Global Scholar Aanchal (Ahn-chal) Thadani.
Ms. Thadani, with the help of Rotary District 5890, will be pursuing a Master's in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics in Fall 2022 after she graduates from medical school. She will spend a year studying in London before returning to the United States to complete her medical residency.
Her studies in London, England are directed to learn more about the interaction of economic policy as it pertains to medical treatment. While in London she hopes to study with Dr. Lucy Kanya on a research project involving maternal mortality in Kenya.
Ms. Thadani hopes this work will help her support mothers who suffer high rates of morality in the United States when she completes her medical degree. She told the Rotarians she was surprised to discover some of the problems she witnessed in Nigeria among the poor were similar to problems she has seen in the U.S. Her project will be centered on maternal mortality in Nigeria (the country where she was born).
Ms. Thadani was multi-cultural while growing up and traveling the world with her parents. Her father was in the oil business and his work took her to many countries exposing her to other cultures and languages. It also exposed her to abject poverty in the world.
She grew up watching “the power of Rotary”, as she described it, in India, Nigeria and all the other places in the world where she has lived.
Her ethnic makeup also gave her a unique cultural perspective as she is half Indian and half Persian with her family mostly claiming Indian as their heritage. She speaks English, Hindi, Sindhi, French, and Spanish.
She wants to help make the free market formula better by helping people to avoid making bad health decisions by helping to fix the lack of quality health information. Her upcoming project will be centered on maternal mortality in Nigeria.
She was born in Nigeria, is an American citizen and, when not attending university or volunteering overseas, resides in Katy, Texas.
In 2014, Ms. Thadani volunteered in Paraguay with the Amigos de Las Americas and participated in a study abroad program in the Netherlands in 2017 while attending Baylor University.
Before attending medical school, she took a position in Washington D.C. researching health policy.
She has been sponsored for the Global Scholar program by the Rotary Club of Pasadena (TX) and was accompanied to the luncheon by Bill Barmore of Pasadena Rotary and mentored and helped on her way by LHA Rotarian Bill Davis.
Lake Houston Rotary President Kathy Lemman also welcomed visiting Rotarian Mario Rosado Fuentes from Mexico City. He was in the Houston area on business and decided to have his make-up meeting with us.
(Editor's Note: Minor story corrections made on July 3, 2022)