Anahita Dua, Associate Professor of Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Newton, Massachusetts.

She completed her vascular surgery fellowship at Stanford University Hospital, and her general surgery residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, she is the director of the Vascular Lab, and co-director of the Peripheral Artery Disease Center and Limb Evaluation and Amputation Program.

Last August, the 39-year-old Newton resident, a mother to two young children, took the plunge into politics, forming the Healthcare for Action PAC, “a federal political action committee that aims to elect Democratic health care workers to Congress,” as reported by the Commonwealth.

She told the magazine she started the PAC because of personal experiences she had with her patients and her 5-year-old daughter. “What I’m noticing is in each realm I’m not able to do what I want to do to protect these people, whether my patients or my daughter,” she said.

Sonia Singhvi, Global Head of Culture, Inclusion, & Diversity at the Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals. A strategic, patient-centric, biopharmaceutical executive with over 20 years of industry experience across multiple therapeutic and functional areas, Singhvi joined the company and rose through the ranks, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Singhvi says she’s “excited” to be accepted into the 2023 Presidential Leadership Scholars Program. “PLS serves as a catalyst for a diverse network of leaders to collaborate and create meaningful change in the United States and around the world as they learn from former US Presidents and their administrations.”

“I will leverage these insights to advance health equity, improve patient outcomes, and enhance diversity in clinical trials,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The eighth annual PLS class comprises accomplished leaders including service members, educators, physicians, public servants, and corporate professionals, the program announced Jan 12.

A partnership among the presidential centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson, the PLS program kicks off in Washington, DC, on Jan 24.

“Scholars were selected based on their leadership growth potential and their personal leadership projects aimed at improving civic engagement or social good by addressing a problem or need in their community, the country, or the world,” according to a PLS news release.

Over the course of several months, Scholars will travel to each participating presidential center to learn from former presidents, key former administration officials, business and civic leaders, and leading academics, it said.

They will study and put into practice varying leadership principles and exchange ideas to help maximize their impact in the communities they serve.

The latest class joins an active network of more than 400 Scholars who are applying lessons learned through the program to make a difference in the United States and around the world, the release said.

Scholars have consistently reported remarkable growth in skills, responsibilities, and opportunities for impact since the program began in 2015, it said.

For example, 94% of Scholars said their confidence in how they lead social change has improved as a result of PLS, and 98% of Scholars reported they are inspired to accomplish more since beginning the program.