Malini was born and raised in New Jersey. She attended college at Yale, where she initially studied biology before graduating with a degree in political science. Malini worked for short periods in local New Jersey and New York City government and at nonprofit organizations before moving abroad to London, where she initially worked for local government. She then pursued a Master’s degree in journalism at the University of Westminster and worked at the Financial Times newspaper and FT.com, where she covered companies, stock markets, the media business, technology and the pharmaceutical industry. She then went on to specialize in medical journalism, and as science editor managed a team of science reporters covering R&D for a publication focused on the pharmaceutical industry, owned by the UK publishing company Informa. While there, Malini won the company’s “Best Journalist of the Year” award.
Finally, Malini moved back to New Jersey, where she has continued to cover medical research for a number of publications, including Nature publications, Lancet publications, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the Pharmaceutical Journal and more. She is an expert in the area of cancer research and is planning to write a book about how the complex research enterprise can be improved.
Malini has explored a number of different policy areas in-depth, either as part of her job or through internships or volunteer activities, including healthcare policy, public health and the environment, immigration policy, criminal justice reform and voting and campaign finance reform. She digs deep into any subject area of interest. Malini is a member of her town’s Environmental Commission, given her concern for public health and issues related to climate change which are deeply affecting the Jersey Shore area.
Malini hopes to apply her deep understanding of policy along with the skills she has acquired over many years – conducting deep background research, identifying and interviewing numerous experts to get at the truth of complex subjects, and communicating such subjects to a wide audience in a clear, accessible manner – to the job of state legislator.
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