Recipient of the 2025-2026 Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship: Kalpana Chaudhary
It is with great pleasure that we announce Kalpana Chaudhary as the recipient of the 2025-2026 Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship in Respiratory Research. Kalpana’s commitment to public health research has been shaped by nearly two decades of experience addressing health inequities affecting women and children in Nepal. Her journey began in 2007 with undergraduate training in public health in Kathmandu, where she developed foundational skills in epidemiology, program evaluation, and health systems research. Early independent research on adolescent reproductive health revealed the powerful influence of social norms and gender inequities on access to care, setting the stage for a career focused on translating evidence into equitable, community-responsive interventions. Following graduation, Ms. Chaudhary held leadership roles within national health system, strengthening initiatives at JSI Research and Training Institute, including the scale-up of chlorhexidine cord care across six rural districts of Nepal. This work strengthened her expertise in implementation, coordination, and maternal–newborn health policy.
Ms. Chaudhary next enrolled in a Master of Science in Public Health (Epidemiology) at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences. Her Master’s thesis, a randomized controlled trial evaluating a social media–based health education intervention to improve postnatal care knowledge among pregnant women, addressed a critical gap in maternal health, where postnatal care utilization remains below 40% despite high antenatal care coverage. By delivering culturally tailored educational videos via Facebook Messenger, her intervention led to significant improvements in postnatal care knowledge and was published as a first-author paper in PLOS ONE. Concurrently, her internship with One Heart Worldwide deepened her engagement with implementation science, contributing qualitative research that informed the expansion of nurse mentorship programs to strengthen maternal and neonatal care in underserved regions of Nepal.
Building on this foundation, Ms. Chaudhary joined the Institute of Implementation Science and Health as a Research Associate, where she has played a central role in multiple large-scale studies evaluating real-world interventions across the maternal and child health continuum. Her work spans longitudinal birth cohorts, mobile health and telemonitoring interventions for gestational diabetes, and advanced quantitative and qualitative analyses addressing cardiometabolic outcomes, workplace violence among healthcare workers, and implementation barriers in primary care. She has published as both first and co-author in leading journals, including Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorder, PLOS Global Public Health, and BMJ Public Health. Alongside her research, she remained actively engaged in teaching, mentorship, and graduate supervision at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences.
Ms. Chaudhary’s joined McGill University as a PhD Candidate in September 2026. Her doctoral research project focuses on sleep-disordered breathing during pregnancy and its long-term consequences for maternal cardiovascular health, mental health, and offspring cardiometabolic outcomes, leveraging the longitudinal 3D Cohort Study in Quebec. Following her doctoral training, Ms. Chaudhary plans to return to Nepal to pursue a research-led academic career, with the long-term goal of establishing a Center of Excellence in Respiratory Epidemiology. This centre will bridge research and implementation, strengthen local research capacity, and advance equitable, evidence-based solutions for respiratory health among women and children in Nepal and other high-burden settings.
About the Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship
The Montreal Chest Institute Foundation and the MUHC Respiratory Division are proud to support the Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship. Over the course of her career, Dr. Becklake had a major interest in respiratory health in lower-income countries, including in childhood asthma and occupational lung disease. She conducted research in this area for many years. She also trained and hosted students in respiratory research from lower-income countries, who then became leaders in research and care in those countries. Beginning with the inaugural award for 2020-21, the Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship will be awarded to at least one trainee in respiratory research every year as they conduct research under the supervision of scientists at the Montreal Chest Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Recipients are chosen from low- and middle-income countries as well as from Canadian Indigenous communities. This fellowship will help us train the next generation of respiratory researchers and specialists in areas of the world where the need is greatest.