Buna Bhandari, PhD, MPH, BN, is an Assistant Professor of Public Health with the Health Promotion concentration in the Dwyer School of Health Sciences at Indiana University South Bend. She earned her PhD in Public Health and Community Medicine from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Florida State University College of Nursing. She is also a Visiting Scientist and Lown Scholar Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Previously, Dr. Bhandari served as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Nepal for more than five years. Dr. Bhandari has extensive experience teaching health promotion, public health, epidemiology to undergraduate and graduate students across public health, nursing and medicine, as well as mentoring student research. She has received several competitive awards and research grants, 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 and the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease. Her work emphasizes mHealth and digital health approaches for improving health outcomes among high-risk populations. She is a co-investigator on the NIH-funded 50K4Life study, which promotes physical activity among school employees in El Paso, Texas. She is also actively engaged in global health collaborations, including the Harvard University-funded TelTex4BP study in Nepal, which focuses on hypertension management.
Dr. Bhandari has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific publications and serves as a peer reviewer and editor for different scientific journals. She is an active member of professional organizations including the American Public Health Association, the American Heart Association and International Society of Hypertension. Outside of her academic and research activities, Dr. Bhandari enjoys yoga, meditation, hiking, and traveling, with a particular interest in exploring nature and diverse cultures.