Mihir Kakara was born and grew up in India, and after completing medical school there, immigrated to the US to pursue a neurology residency in Detroit, Michigan, where he was a Chief Resident. His formative years in India, along with his experiences during residency in Detroit, while working in a safety-net hospital serving a highly vulnerable population undoubtedly has played an important role in how he views issues relating to health care access for multiple marginalized populations. As a neurologist, he regularly see people navigating disability without adequate support systems, often leading to poor socioeconomic and health outcomes. This led him to start pursuing a Masters in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania in association with the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, following 2 years of fellowship training in Multiple Sclerosis, with a goal of becoming a clinician-researcher in the field of disability health research.