Move over Jessica Knoll, I'm the luckiest girl alive and am getting justice in style!
Hi, my name is Manisha Kaura (she/her). I'm a 34-year old, New York-based advocate and author dedicated to improving the world. Currently, I'm working on several creative projects: transforming linguistics IP into various products, writing a low choline cookbook for patients with malodorous rare diseases, and building a website/app for patients with malodorous rare diseases. After life disrupting adversity, my dreams and goals are on track to come true.
My career has spanned healthcare, biotechnology, fashion, and publishing. At age 19, I founded Dermetel (formerly Dangerous Rays), a healthcare nonprofit focused on skin cancer prevention, patient education, rare disease advocacy, and improving access to dermatologic care and genetic testing. During my decade as Executive Director, I authored children's books on skin cancer prevention, gave a private TEDx talk in French Polynesia, directed a documentary on indoor tanning, and established a free teledermatology clinic.
In 2016, I won three state beauty pageant titles in Utah, and then spent a year working in clinical trials in Australia. From 2017 to 2021, I founded and led the fashion brand Misha Kaura, producing collections showcased during New York Fashion Week, managing manufacturing teams across multiple cities, and hosting an internationally distributed fashion podcast. I later founded both nonprofit (2024 to 2025) and for-profit (2022 to 2024) biotechnology ventures focused on advancing patient-centered innovation.