Biographical Info

Dr. Shevatekar was born and raised in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. She joined the medical school with a desire to serve the people and improve the health of the people, following her father, a family practitioner for last 45 years. She graduated from the Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s Medical School (Maharashtra University of Health Sciences) with the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree (MBBS). She came to USA in the year 2007 and received her Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Kentucky (2010). Currently, she is pursuing doctoral degree in public health (DrPH) in the concentration Community Health, Education and Behavior at Georgia Southern University (expected graduation: Fall 2019). She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).

She has received multiple awards, notably, the best outgoing student (2005) for overall excellence in academics and extracurricular activities at the completion of medical school. During her doctoral education, she has consistently been recognized for excellence in academics by being featured on the Dean’s List. She has also been inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society (2015).

She joined the faculty in 2017. The role and scope of her work here include research and practice with the focus on population health/community health/public health. In this capacity, she helps the faculty members, residents and students in designing and conducting research studies per their research interests along with developing her own projects. She is also involved with the Rural Student Physician Program and the Innovation in Rural Global Medicine track at UICOMP in a research capacity. The focus of her work is on helping physicians take role as leader in research to improve the health of the population. She is passionate about bridging the gap between public health and medicine. Her research interests include health disparities, social determinants of health, health behaviors, adolescent health, and global health.

She and her husband, Shriram Lokare, live in Peoria along with their ever-smiling, kind, happy-go-lucky 2½-year-old daughter, Narayanee, and family dog, Milo. Together, they love to explore and visit places, and getting involved in various community activities within Peoria. Dr. Shevatekar’s other hobbies include painting, poetry, listening to music, reading, cooking and gardening.