Rupesh Gautam joined the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence in November 2020. He is currently working as a project coordinator for the COCOON Collaboration, which is a global research study to understand the challenges and concerns of parents who are pregnant or have recently given birth during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Rupesh has a background in public health and has worked in the areas of infant and young child nutrition, social marketing, refugee health, and non-communicable diseases in Nepal, Denmark and Australia. He has also been involved in teaching/tutoring as a sessional academic in the areas of primary health care, epidemiology, biostatistics, health systems and global health at different higher-educational institutions in those 3 countries. His research publications reflect the varied nature of work he has been involved in within the broad domain of public health and encompass the areas of non-communicable diseases, maternal and reproductive health, health system, and refugee health. His PhD at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) was focused on transnational migration and its influence on quality of life of older adults from Nepal. Through his research he also explored the intricate links between transnational migration and social determinants of health and their joint influence on older adults’ psychosocial health and wellbeing. He intends to use his academic knowledge and experience for the improvement of population health with emphasis on social determinants.