Ms. Sutapa Biswas is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Cancer Foundation of India (CFI), Kolkata.

She received post-graduate diploma in Mass Communication from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and was a documentary filmmaker with St. Xavier’s College (EMRC, UGC) for over 8 years. She has researched, scripted & directed over 60 films independently on a range of topics including 3 films on cancer which won National Awards from UGC-CEC. She has also been a guest lecturer of Communication studies in Calcutta University and St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata for over 15 years. She joined CFI in 2002 and since then she has provided guidance and leadership to CFI. Her current interests include health communication as a component of cancer prevention & control with special emphasis on tobacco-related cancers, breast and cervical cancer.

She has been the Principal Investigator of Howrah Smoke-free project supported by Bloomberg Initiative, USA (2010-12); Development of Health Communication Strategy for Optimizing Cervical Cancer Screening among Rural Women supported by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (2006-09) and Breast health education among young women supported by American Cancer Society, USA (2007-08).

She has also been a Coordinator of many projects at CFI on Anti-tobacco Policy advocacy, Cancer Communication, Cervical cancer screening, HPV vaccination and Breast Health Education. She has successfully coordinated the recently concluded Network project on breast cancer (2013-17) funded by DBT, Govt. of India, in 4 North Eastern states (Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura) on logistics of community level breast cancer awareness, creating clinics for BSE lessons and CBE and developing Breast Clinics at local cancer treatment centres.

She is a recipient of Thomson Foundation Fellowship (TV production), at Cardiff, U.K, 1999; International Partner’s Fellowship from American Cancer Society, USA, 2006; Fellowship on Cancer Registration by International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO), Lyon, France, 2006; Global Leadership training fellowship from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, 2011 and UICC-APCASOT fellowship, at Cancer Council Queensland, Australia, 2013.

Her film on Tobacco-related Cancer (The Art of Living) was adjudged best film at UICC World Cancer Congress, Geneva 2008. She has several publications in peer reviewed journals and was instrumental in translating “A Practical Manual on Visual Screening for Cervical Neoplasia” by R.Sankaranarayanan and R.S.Wesley (IARC Publication No. 41) into Bengali in 2006.