Reema Bhakta

Reema currently works as Senior Program Officer at the CDC Foundation, a non-profit that connects the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) with private-sector organizations and individuals to accelerate and expand important public health initiatives.

In her role, Reema manages $55 million in donations to meet critical needs and public health activities in response to the Ebola epidemic in the U.S. and West Africa. In this position, she engaged in collaborative work with complex multi-level partners to ensure maximum coordination of resources and effort in an emergency response. Getting to zero cases of Ebola is the goal, and utilizing public-private partnerships has been and will continue to be the way to get there.

Also in this role, she has provided strategic program management for a $25 million, 5-year grant to strengthen disease surveillance in Central Africa funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has focused on developing key partnerships, program design and evaluation, grant management and fiscal responsibility.

Reema previously worked in partnership and strategic initiatives at the Lilly School on Philanthropy at Indiana University as an Assistant Director of Research to support the University's evolving research needs.

Reema holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and a M.P.A. in Nonprofit Management from Georgia State University. She has an intermediate fluency in French. Reema graduated from United Way of Central Indiana’s 2011-2012 Generation Now, part of Leadership United, a comprehensive leadership and board development program.