Buna Bhandari, PhD, MPH, BN, recently joined Dwyer School of Health Sciences Indiana University South Bend as a faculty of Public Health. She earned her PhD in Public Health and Community Medicine from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the College of Nursing, Florida State University, USA. Dr. Bhandari is also a Visiting Scientist and Lown Scholar Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She has extensive experience in teaching public health, epidemiology and health promotion courses to undergraduate and graduate students across multiple disciplines medicine, public health, and nursing, and mentored student research. She has received multiple competitive awards, including the Harvard University Lown Scholar Fellowship and project grant (2022), the Australia Awards PhD Scholarship (2017), the UNSW Research Student Award (2020), and a postdoctoral professional development grant from Florida State University (2025).
Dr. Bhandari’s research focuses on health promotion strategies for the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, with an emphasis on mHealth and digital health approaches in high-risk populations. She is actively engaged in global health collaborations and serves as a co-investigator on the NIH-funded 50K4Life study promoting physical activity among school employees in El Paso, Texas. She also contributes to the field as a peer reviewer and editor for scientific journals and is an active member of the International Society of Hypertension, American Heart Association, and American Public Health Association. Beyond her professional activities, she enjoys yoga, meditation, hiking, and travel, with a particular interest in exploring nature and diverse cultures.