Siona Sharma

After working in global health strategy in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Geneva, Siona Sharma is pursuing her J.D. with a focus on global health law and human rights. During law school, she has worked with lawyers at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre in Malawi and KELIN (Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV/AIDS) to advance the rights of women living with HIV, key populations, and prisoners with tuberculosis. She also serves as a legal consultant for the One Health High Level Expert Panel with the World Health Organization, and researches the impact of COVID-19 on the right to health at the O’Neill Institute for Public and Global Health.

Previously, Siona helped lead the rollout of a pan-African health response during COVID-19 while at McKinsey & Company’s global health practice in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, supporting health systems and vaccine distribution across 55 countries. She later served as a manager in the Office of the Executive Director at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, where she designed a national debt-swap for health initiative and advised senior leadership.

Siona earned a B.S. in Science, Technology, and International Affairs from Georgetown University, focusing on global health, which she completed while working at the World Bank. She is the former founder of Starts with Soap and a board member of Aid Pioneers. She hopes to see global health priorities defined by the needs of low- and middle-income countries and guided by local organizations that represent their own communities. After law school, Siona aims to advance that vision through strategy, policy, and law.