Karuna Seshasai

Karuna Seshasai is a healthcare expert and a trained lawyer with more than 15 years of experience in high-level government service, public policy and regulatory affairs, complex legal matters, crisis navigation and strategic planning. Ms. Seshasai is a Managing Director in the Healthcare & Life Sciences practice within the Strategic Communications segment and is based in Washington D.C.

In her role at FTI Consulting, Ms. Seshasai advises companies across the healthcare and life sciences ecosystems, including healthcare systems and hospitals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, health technology and data, insurance, managed care, public health, research and compliance services, among other providers and payors, on risk mitigation, strategic public affairs and communications strategies to preserve and advance their business interests and corporate reputation in dynamic regulatory environments. She specializes in developing and implementing government and public affairs solutions where innovative and novel approaches are required and aptly guides clients through government actions that risk making difficult situations even more complex.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Ms. Seshasai served as Deputy General Counsel and Executive Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In these capacities, she was extensively involved in the promulgation of regulations across a range of subject matter areas, compliance and enforcement actions, and policy decisions impacting a wide scope of health policies, including infectious disease, disaster preparedness and response, negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry, behavioral health and harm reduction, data management and security, drug rescheduling, drug pricing, reproductive health and artificial intelligence. She also served as Senior Policy Advisor on the White House COVID-19 Response Team, providing strategic policy leadership during the pandemic response. Previously, she was Deputy General Counsel for the Mayor of Washington, D.C., where she gained practical experience on executive administration, investigation, audits, policy and decision-making at the local and state level.

Ms. Seshasai received her B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.