Suruchi Sood

Following her calling: from Calcutta to Johns Hopkins

By Summer Howatt-Nab

Suruchi Sood's interest in promoting health communication was sparked during a domestic violence awareness project in her native India.

While she was involved in the project as part of her undergraduate research at Jadavpur University in Calcutta, it dawned on Sood, MA '94, that the battered women in the poverty-stricken villages were concerned with health and development issues.  

"Since it was a really poor area, these women were more concerned with sanitation and water supply. That made me sit up and think about development, and I realized that this is an area I can be more effective in," she says.

Sood followed up her epiphany with action, by promoting sustainable health communication in Asian countries. She followed her calling across continents to Johns Hopkins University, where she is the senior program evaluation officer of the Center for Communications Program.

Spearheading mass-media health campaigns, Sood uses outlets ranging from broadcast and print media to street theater and public workshops. In order for a campaign on family planning or reproductive health to be successful, Sood researches and evaluates the program and its effects.

"I answer the questions, 'What do we focus on?' and 'Did it work?'" she says.

For example, an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign focuses on encouraging repetitive, preventative actions. This is a difficult task, because some of the programs require drastically changing a population's embedded habits.

"We're trying to change people's lives for the better by changing behavior," she says. "A lot of them are behaviors we want to repeat: Use a condom all the time, not just once, for example." 

One reason Sood channels her health communication efforts into Asia is she is fluent in Hindi and conversant in Bengali and Urdu.

"I work primarily with Asia, because that's where I'm from and I speak a number of the languages," she says.

After earning her bachelor's degree in political science at Jadavpur University, Sood decided to find a school that would hone her communication and development skills. So she earned her masters in international affairs, communication and development studies at Ohio University.

"I wanted to promote communication and development across the board, and it felt like Ohio University was tailor-made for what I wanted, because the major had communication and development in the title," she says.

Sood also met her husband, Madhu Annapragada, at the University, where he was earning his doctoral degree in engineering. "We have fond memories of Ohio University," she says. The couple resides in Bear, Del., with their sons Sidharth, 3, and Aniket, born in August.

After maternity leave, Sood will return to her job at Johns Hopkins full time. With a doctorate in intercultural communication from the University of New Mexico under her belt, she's also looking toward a teaching career.

"Maybe in the next five or 10 years I'll pursue teaching, because I've always liked it. I'm interested in training field workers, especially for sensitivity when dealing with issues like HIV/AIDS," she says.

Sood's favorite part of her job remains fieldwork and interacting with people in focus groups.

"The most exciting thing is realizing, 'Wow, this works,'" she says, "and seeing the impact on the lives of real people."

Summer Howatt-Nab, BSJ ’04, is a student writer for Ohio University Communications and Marketing.