It wasn’t uncommon to see Dr. Arti Patel Varanasi roaming the library stacks and hallways of Ohio University at 4 years old, not as a student, but as the daughter of a 25-year-old immigrant seeking a degree in economics and business administration. Later, a younger sister joined Dr. Varanasi as their mother took evening classes toward a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Their parallel paths in education culminated when Dr. Varanasi completed her undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the same year, her mother completed her master’s degree in counseling from North Carolina Central University. Her father came to the United States in 1957, 10 years before her mother, to complete his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla and his graduate degree in electrical engineering from Kansas State University in Manhattan. Dr. Varanasi saw firsthand how education was integral to her parents’ success.

Life in the Lab 

Driven by her innate curiosity, Dr. Varanasi attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to earn a Ph.D. in pathology. When Dr. Varanasi began to put her research together in her final dissertation, she realized something was missing in her foundation as a scientist. The missing piece was public health. As a newly minted Ph.D., Dr. Varanasi went on to earn her master’s as a part of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program.

 

Today, Dr. Varanasi is the president and CEO of Advancing Synergy, a company focused on leveraging existing solutions to empower individuals and impact communities.

Dr. Varanasi and her collaborators developed and tested a virtual patient navigation solution among underserved, low-income breast cancer patients to advance health equity by giving them access to needed supportive services and information at the right time and place.

“I loved my time as a scientist and researcher, but I saw that we can spend years researching treatments and discovering effective treatments, but they aren’t getting to the people who need them most because they aren’t aware of their options,” Dr. Varanasi says.

She co-founded the nonprofit organization Health Tech Alley with a similar objective in 2020.

Seeding the Future:  Educator and Mentor

“There is so much to master,” Dr. Varanasi says. “I don’t want them to just memorize facts. I take what I have experienced as a scientist, researcher, and practitioner and teach them how to learn, how to navigate the material, how to critically review published articles and projects, and most importantly, to ask questions.

"Even among all her responsibilities as an entrepreneur, Dr. Varanasi is playing a major role in developing the next generation of medical researchers and doctors. As an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and Howard Community College, her philosophy is to provide a strong foundation for students.

She also provides mentorship, talking with students about their ambitions and how to achieve them. She shows them their potential, so they can follow their curiosity and dream big. Beyond guiding them toward medical school or research careers, she encourages them to pursue leadership roles and participate in policymaking.

Dr. Varanasi has certainly grasped every opportunity she’s earned and used it to make a difference in the lives of countless students and patients. The proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together,” also inspires her. Beginning with her 9-year-old son, her pursuit of paying it forward by bringing others along with her will create a lasting impact in health care and beyond.