Faculty Spotlight: Ashwini Tiwari, PhD

Outstanding Faculty Award for School of Public Health

Home is where you make it. That statement has rung true for Ashwini Tiwari, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at Augusta University.

Born to Guyanese parents, Tiwari lived in India, Canada and Guyana before the family moved north to Georgia 23 years ago. Her travels didn’t stop there, though. She moved between Canada and Georgia for her undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as for her postdoctoral fellowship.

But, when it was time to figure out where to settle professionally, Tiwari said the decision to move to Augusta in the fall of 2019 was an easy one.

“Being closer to my family was definitely one of my reasons for moving, but I also loved the small town feel of the big city,” she said. “From a professional standpoint, I was excited to join a growing public health institute with fantastic faculty and staff.”

She has enjoyed the flexibility at AU to pursue her program of research in a collaborative environment with top-tier faculty. Tiwari said she has grown as both a researcher and an individual because of the relationships she has been able to build with faculty and, what she calls, some of the best graduate and medical students.

“It means the world to know that the School of Public Health recognized my work at this stage in my career, particularly in consideration of the number of stellar faculty who could have received this award,” Tiwari said. “I was humbled, honored and grateful. It acts as reminder that the trajectory I first set out for myself was the right one and has given me a motivational boost to be the best version of myself.”

Tiwari also serves as the director of the B-STRONG Lab, which was born from her desire to create a well-rounded research program founded in student involvement and based on collaborations with community organizations and faculty.

“I was personally trained under strong faculty members who placed their trust in me at an early stage in my education, which pushed my boundaries and improved my research capacity. I promised myself to do my best in emulating the mentorship I received and provide opportunities to students in a lab that focused on improving biobehavioral outcomes among populations affected by family violence.”

Ashwini Tiwari, PhD

The lab, which is devoted to improving the health and resilience of families affected by family violence, has several active projects, which have received internal and external funding to study childhood trauma and intervention efforts among families.

“I was personally trained under strong faculty members who placed their trust in me at an early stage in my education, which pushed my boundaries and improved my research capacity,” she said. “I promised myself to do my best in emulating the mentorship I received and provide opportunities to students in a lab that focused on improving biobehavioral outcomes among populations affected by family violence.”

After five years at AU, Tiwari has learned what it takes to be successful, both in the classroom and in the lab.

“My goals are to contribute to the growth and success of SPH not only through research but by strengthening the training and experiences that our students leave with, preparing them for next steps in their career, whether in higher-level education or the job market,” she said. “I think the best way to approach this is by working as a team and learning and implementing up-to-date best practices in academia well-suited to AU.”