Our Team

Sheila Desai, DrPH, MPH

CECA Research Director

Sheila is a public health scientist who has dedicated over 15 years of her career to advancing sexual and reproductive health equity through research, partnerships, and advocacy. As CECA’s Research Director, she provides strategic leadership to shape, expand, and implement CECA’s research portfolio. Sheila’s research has focused on expanding abortion provision and access, advancing immigrants’ sexual and reproductive health, with particular attention to Asian American communities, and supporting adolescent sexual health in the US. Her work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, featured in national op-eds, and included in amicus briefs filed in recent US Supreme Court cases.

Prior to joining CECA, Sheila led and contributed to research at the Guttmacher Institute, the Research Foundation of CUNY, and Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health. She earned her DrPH in Epidemiology from the CUNY School of Public Health and her MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has received awards for her research scholarship from the Society of Family Planning and the National Abortion Federation and, in 2019, she participated in the Rockwood Leadership Institute’s Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Fellowship.