Nikhil Rao (he/they) is a Health Policy PhD student at the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He is a health services researcher whose research agenda centers the intersection of behavioral health care and structural racism. They are particularly passionate about investigating how area-level measures of racialized economic segregation are associated with mental health and substance use treatment access and quality. His other research interests include harm reduction services, inpatient psychiatric care, and the behavioral health impacts of incarceration on individuals and communities.
Nikhil received his Bachelor’s of Science in Public Health (BSPH) in Health Policy & Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and worked at the Urban Institute before Harvard. Their training is supported by an National Research Service Award (T32) from the National Institutes of Health Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.