Program Manager
212-992-5584
avani.bhatnagar@nyu.edu
Avani Ansari is a Program Manager for New York City Treats Tobacco. Avani works to support medical and behavioral health organizations in implementing evidence-based tobacco use treatment policies and procedures.
In her role, she manages and strengthens relationships with executive-level leadership across varied stakeholder groups, including the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the NYS Office of Mental Health, the NYC Housing Authority, healthcare organizations, and hospital systems. She leverages these relationships to develop tobacco use treatment policy templates that suit the unique needs of each type of healthcare agency. She is developing a template policy to support behavioral healthcare agencies across NYS and has developed NYCTT’s first school-based healthcare agency policy template to address tobacco use (including vape use) among the school-age population in NYC.
Avani has led, and now supervises, NYCTT’s earned media efforts. She is developing robust evaluation methods and Standard of Practice manuals for the team’s practice facilitators. She is closely involved with NYCTT’s presence at PrideFest every June, and she also manages and mentors staff.
Avani currently sits on several committees: Center for Social Capital (SoCa) Linking Group, Behavioral Health Tobacco Working Group, Asian and Immigrant Communities Against Smoking (AICAS) Partnership, Health Systems for a Tobacco-Free New York Steering Committee, and NYU Global School for Public Health’s Employee Engagement Committee.
Previously, she worked with the Public Health Detailing Program and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, developing campaigns for varied public health concerns such as latent tuberculosis infection, maternal morbidity and mortality, youth tobacco use, and COVID-19 during the agency’s emergency response period.
Avani holds an MPH in Sociomedical Sciences with a certificate in Health Promotion Research and Practice from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and a BA in Human Health from Emory University.