Arti Varanasi, PhD, MPH, CPH

Clarksburg, MD
Dr. Arti Patel Varanasi is President and CEO of the social enterprise, Advancing Synergy, LLC and co-founder of the non-profit organization, Health Tech Alley. She has more than 25 years combined experience in cancer research, advocacy, capacity building, public health and project management ,and maintains close ties to the medical, public health and research community. Advancing Synergy served as the technology partner on a grant awarded to Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, MD from Susan G. Komen for the Cure® to provide virtual, personalized support to women undergoing breast cancer treatment through an innovative technology.

Arti is passionate about developing innovations that build stronger communities and enable all individuals to lead healthier and longer lives. Her focus has been on leveraging technology to address chronic disease and advance health equity. With the Health Tech Alley team, Arti works to fulfill its mission of improving health outcomes and equity and uplifting individuals and communities by enabling health technology solutions, workforce development, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Arti is a proud graduate of Leadership Howard County and an active member of the health, entrepreneurial, and technology communities in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area. She currently serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Noncommunicable (NCD) Disease Roundtable, Chair of NCD Interest Group for the CORE Group, Co-Chair of the American Cancer Society National Navigation Roundtable Workforce Development Working Group, Chair of Maryland Innovation Center (MIC) Women in Technology-Central Maryland group, Co-Chair of the MIC Health Tech Innovators group, and Steering Committee Member of the Virginia-based Women in Technology group. From 2012-2016, Arti served on the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) appointed by then-Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Arti enjoys her role as an educator. She is a lecturer in the Master’s in Biotechnology Program at The Johns Hopkins University and recently co-developed a continuing education course in Health Information Technology Fundamentals for Howard Community College. As an advocate for improving the training of postdoctoral fellows, she was one of the founders of the National Postdoctoral Association in 2003. Arti was a fellow in the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program from 2001-2005 where her research interests focused on nutrition, immunity and cancer prevention. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MPH from the Johns Hopkins University. Her doctoral research focused on understanding the genetic and epigenetic alterations that contribute to the development of lung tumors.

Arti is also a graduate of the National Science Foundation funded ACTiVATE® program for women technology entrepreneurs. This award-winning program launched her journey into entrepreneurship and planted the seeds for Advancing Synergy and Health Tech Alley.