Sanjana Mehta talks about her research in child psychology, her varied career and her current work advising on cybersecurity policy.
Creating opportunities for the Gates Cambridge community to network and share knowledge and practices was such a privilege.
Sanjana Mehta
Sanjana Mehta [2001] thrives on learning and she has not been afraid to pivot during her career, embracing new ideas, knowledge and challenges. Her academic training is in psychology and she has built a career in the not-for-profit sector. Her current role as Associate Vice President of Advocacy at ISACA is at the heart of policymaking in cybersecurity and AI.
Early years
Sanjana’s childhood prepared her for adapting to change.. Her father was an Infantry officer in the Indian Army and was posted to different locations regularly. She says she wouldn’t change anything about her childhood as it was a great learning experience, exposing her to different cultures and societies and to parts of India that were not even referenced on the map.
Sanjana says she always knew she wanted to study overseas. She also knew she wanted to do a PhD, although she didn’t know in what subject. Her parents gave her a lot of autonomy to make decisions from an early age and supported and encouraged her throughout.
Sanjana did her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Mount Carmel College and Bangalore University, respectively. During her MSc in Psychology, she gained exposure to different clinical settings through the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. Following her graduate degree, she joined a non-profit in Belgium that helped integrate children with autism and ADHD into mainstream schools.
While she was in Belgium, her mother saw an advertisement for a new scholarship programme at the University of Cambridge: Gates Cambridge. She suggested Sanjana apply. Sanjana feels very lucky to have been accepted as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and to have had Dr David Whitebread as her MPhil and PhD supervisor. She says. “Cambridge would have been amazing in any event, but David’s intellectual stimulation, guidance and mentoring made my experience in Cambridge many times more meaningful and I will always remain grateful.”
Sanjana’s PhD involved a cross-sectional, cross-cultural study of cognitive development in middle childhood. Alongside it she had the opportunity to contribute to other research projects as a research associate.
Sanjana, who was a member of Fitzwilliam College, describes her first year as “experimental” as she navigated lots of different spaces, from her department and college to Gates Cambridge.
Sanjana passed her viva in 2005 and graduated in January 2006 and then moved back to India. She says she felt a little disorientated after leaving the Cambridge ‘bubble’, but gained hugely in confidence and skills from her time at the university.
Early career
During her time in India, she decided to branch out from her PhD area and worked in skills- and capacity-building roles, including at the Global Fund. The Fund provides grants to developing countries for research into HIV, TB and malaria. Sanjana’s remit covered five southern Indian states. Part of her job involved building capacity for professionals who could provide medical, psychological and social support to affected individuals and their families. There was also a lot of lobbying and working with a network of organisations to ensure disempowered communities’ voices were represented in policy discussions at the state and central government levels.
Back to Cambridge
During that time she met her husband, Gaurav, and got married. Gaurav was seeking to do an MBA overseas and was accepted by Cambridge Judge Business School. She says being a spouse instead of a student was “a very different experience”. She adds: “I was seeing things second hand that I had once been part of.”
Once she got a job at Cambridge Assessment (now called Cambridge University Press and Assessment), that became her new space where she built strong friendships. The organisation and its mission of developing educational opportunities and leadership married well with her time as a student at Cambridge.
Over her time at Cambridge Assessment, Sanjana became fully embedded as a resident of Cambridge, living in a nearby village and developing a strong circle of friends. While doing her Executive MBA at Cranfield University in 2019, she transitioned to working within the cybersecurity sector.
Cybersecurity
She now works as Associate Vice President for Advocacy at ISACA, the world’s leading non-profit membership organisation for professionals working in cybersecurity, AI, audit and assurance roles. It has nearly 200,000 members across the world.
Sanjana’s work involves building relationships with government stakeholders in a bid to shape legislative, regulatory and policy discussions. At the heart of discussions are how to keep pace with technology advances and how governments can regulate in ways that allow innovation while ensuring that new technology is used ethically and securely.
ISACA’s members work across jurisdictions and compliance requirements need to work to enable cross border collaboration. Sanjana says she feels privileged to be working on such a vital issue which will have implications for all our futures.
Gates Cambridge
She says the Gates Cambridge community has played an important part in her social and professional life. As well as being a Scholar, she was the last co-chair of the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association [GCAA] with Halliki Voolma and played a key role in advocating for the Scholars’ Alumni Advisory Committee. “Creating opportunities for the Gates Cambridge community to network and share knowledge and practices was such a privilege,” she states, recalling the chaos and fun of organising the 20th anniversary event.
She is very happy to have played her part in Gates Cambridge’s history and to have contributed to the new Advisory Committee. She says: “We developed a proposal for what was needed to deliver for the next chapter of Gates Cambridge. I am so pleased to see that in place.”
