Isha Tendolkar is a grants and contracts officer at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS). In this role, she supports the full lifecycle of grants and contracts that advance CHCS’ work to strengthen the health care system to ensure better, more equitable outcomes for people served by Medicaid. Her work focuses on agreement administration, compliance, budgeting and financial tracking, and coordination with internal teams and external funders to ensure effective stewardship of funding.

Prior to joining CHCS, Isha served as a program manager for implementation policy advocacy at AVAC, where she led and supported global health advocacy initiatives centered on equity and human rights. She coordinated multi-country civil society coalitions across Eastern and Southern Africa, translating global HIV prevention priorities into locally grounded policy and advocacy action. Her work focused on partnership strategy and equitable collaboration, supporting community-led organizations through sub-grant management, capacity building, and governance transitions, while strengthening shared accountability and trust across partners. She also built and maintained operational and learning systems to track progress and communicate impact to funders and stakeholders, ensuring advocacy efforts were both strategic and responsive to community priorities.

Isha also worked as a program associate at the Social Science Research Council, supporting doctoral research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences that advanced knowledge about Indigenous cultures and societies, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Isha has a bachelor’s degree in public health from Rutgers University and earned an advanced certificate in health and human rights from the New York University School of Global Public Health.

In her free time, Isha enjoys exploring the enclaves NYC, trying new recipes and restaurants, and spending time with her friends, family, and two kitties.