London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Educational background

• Georgetown University, BSc International Health, Minor: Arabic (2015)
•  LSHTM MSc Public Health, Health Services Research (2016)
• University of Illinois at Chicago PhD Student, Community Health Sciences (2019-2024)

What I enjoyed most about studying at LSHTM

My best memories of LSHTM are those I spent with my classmates. LSHTM provides you with a unique opportunity to network with peers from across the globe. I remain in contact with many of them to this day, and they have continued to support me on both a personal and professional level. I also benefited from the way several courses at LSHTM are designed to help you develop practical and transferable skills (i.e. Reviewing the Literature, Proposal Development, Basic Statistics). I felt confident in my ability to conduct a systematic review, write a research proposal, analyse statistical data in STATA, and I applied these skills immediately in my first job post-graduation.

Since graduating I have been...

After graduation I worked at Boston Children’s Hospital conducting research on a variety of topics including childhood cancer survivorship and the sexual and mental health of global LGBT populations. I went on to pursue my PhD in Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). I worked on various research teams that address issues of both global and public health concern using community-based participatory research methods. My dissertation focused on the mental health needs of sexual minority women migrants living in the US. Upon graduating I accepted a position within Northwestern University's Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences. I am the Executive Director for a new Mental Health, Earlier Center within the university managing their implementation science projects focusing on community-engaged approaches to addressing pediatric mental health.