Prashasti Bhatnagar
Biography
Prashasti Bhatnagar, Esq., M.P.H. (she/her) is a public health attorney, a Ph.D. student and Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow at UCLA, and a Board Director for the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund. Her work is focused on exploring and implementing community-led interventions rooted in health justice, carceral & border abolition, and liberation. Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Prashasti received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center; M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as a Sommer Scholar, with a Certificate in Health Disparities and Health Inequalities; and B.S. in Sociology, summa cum laude from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia.
Degrees
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2022
- M.P.H., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2022
- B.S., Sociology, summa cum laude, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
Fields of Study
Race, Ethnicity, & Immigration; Health Justice; Sociology of Law; Abolition; Movement Lawyering; Medical-Legal Partnerships; Carceral Studies; Environmental Justice; Structural Public Health Interventions
Publications
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, Rabiyah Abdus-Salaam, Sonia Canzater, Victoria Efetevbia, Raven Freeborn, Vicki Girard, Aza Nedhari, Deborah Perry, Erin Snowden, and Keisha Watson. 2024. “Housing Justice Is Reproductive Justice: A Review of Housing Justice as a Structural Determinant of Black Women and Birthing People’s Reproductive Health in Washington, DC.” Mamatoto Village.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, and Sonia Canzater. 2022. “Investing in Community Care Is an Important Goal and Need for Eliminating Hepatitis C In the United States: An Abolitionist Perspective.” Health Promotion Practices 24(3):411–14. doi: 10.1177/15248399221129536
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti, Mary Mbaba, Whitney Hewlett Noël, Opiaah Jeffers, and Deborah F. Perry. 2022. “‘Racism Bleeds Throughout this Entire Healthcare System’: Elevating Black Women’s Birth Stories in Washington, DC through a Racial Equity Lens.” Georgetown University Center for Child & Human Development.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2022. “Racism Drives the Maternal Health Crisis in Washington, DC: Elevating Systems and Policy Level Root Causes.” Georgetown University Center for Child & Human Development.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2022. “Deportable until Essential: How the Neoliberal U.S. Immigration System Furthers Racial Capitalism and Operates as a Negative Social Determinant of Health.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 36(3):1017–40.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2022. “Borders Are the Real Crisis: A Public Health Perspective on the Need for Dismantling Imagined Borders.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 36(2):847–58.
- Girard, Vicki, Deborah Perry, Yael Cannon, Lisa Kessler, Prashasti Bhatnagar, and Jessica Roth. 2022. “The Academic Medical-Legal Partnership: Training the Next Generation of Health & Legal Professionals to Work Together to Advance Health Justice.” National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.
- Canzater, Sonia, and Prashasti Bhatnagar. 2021. “Innovative Payment Models: An Analysis of the Promise and Practice of Novel Hepatitis C Medication Procurement Strategies in the U.S.” O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law.
- Goldman, Sarah, Anna Aspenson, Prashasti Bhatnagar, and Robert Martin. 2021. “Essential, and in Crisis: A Comprehensive Review of the Public Health Threats Facing Farmworkers in the US.” Center for a Livable Future.
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2021. “Public Health As Pretext: The Evisceration of Asylum Law and Protections During A Pandemic.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 35(1):317–23.
- Girard, Vicki, Yael Cannon, Prashasti Bhatnagar, and Susan Coleman. 2020. “How Medical-Legal Partnerships Help Address the Social Determinants of Mental Health.” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 35(1):123–25. doi: 10.1016/j.apnu.2020.10.014
- Bhatnagar, Prashasti. 2019. “Children in Cages: A Legal and Public Health Crisis.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 34(1):181–85.
Awards & Grants
- Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, UCLA, 2023
- Bettina E. Pruckmayr Memorial Award for Human Rights, Georgetown University Law Center, 2022
- Dean’s Certificate, Georgetown University Law Center, 2022
- Exceptional Pro Bono Pledge Recognition, Georgetown University Law Center (highest honor), 2022
- Delta Omega Public Health Honorary Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2022
- Sommer Scholarship, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (full ride and living stipend), 2020-2021
- John E. Tomas Endowed Scholarship, Georgetown University Law Center, 2019-2020, 2021-2022
- James E. Blower Memorial Scholarship, Georgetown University Law Center, 2019-2020, 2021-2022
- Merit Scholarship, Georgetown University Law Center, 2018-2019
- Mestenhauser Student Award for Excellence in Campus Internationalization, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- Talle Family Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (full ride), 2017-2018
- Scholarly Excellence in Equity & Diversity (SEED) Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- President’s SEED Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- President’s Student Leadership & Service Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017 and 2018
- Sociology Outstanding Honors Thesis Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- Sociology Undergraduate Capstone Research Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2018
- Barbara Newsome Award and Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017
- Academic All-Star Award, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2014-2018
- Global Excellence Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2014-2018
