MEET OUR CO-FOUNDERS

SAFA SALEM

Safa Salem is a Palestinian third-year MD Candidate and Class President at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. She graduated from Harvard in 2020 with a degree in History and Science, and a minor in Global Health and Health Policy. Currently, Safa serves as a Schweitzer Fellow and is involved in a multitude of research projects which she has presented at numerous national conferences. Last June, she was invited by the White House to share her work on the intersection between poverty and health. As a physician, she hopes to continue to introduce and bolster efforts to advance healthcare as a fundamental right for all.

SARA AL-ZUBI

Sara Al-Zubi is a fourth-year MD/MPP student at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School. Sara grew up in Ohio but is originally Jordanian. She attended Miami University where she was a Truman Scholar. She also spent time studying Arab Studies at the Sorbonnes in Paris. As the VP of Operations for SONA Global, a global orthopedics health organization, Sara was awarded the Martin Prince Award for Student Innovation in 2022 at Harvard Medical School. She is also the former U.S. Ambassador for Humanitarian Affairs to the United Nations. Sara is passionate about global health work in the Middle East and North Africa.

MEET THE REST OF OUR TEAM

HUSSAM ALKHALAILEH

Hussam Alkhalaileh is a Palestinian-American M4 at the Ohio State University. He graduated from Ohio State with an honors Bachelor’s of Science in molecular genetics and a minor in Arabic. After graduating, he went straight to medical school to pursue a career in emergency medicine and internal medicine while developing a passion for serving Middle Eastern peoples. He helped run the Noor clinic in Columbus for Middle Eastern and Muslim populations during his first year, and co-founded the Ohio State College of Medicine’s Chapter of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Outside of service and academics, He is passionate about exercising and living a healthy lifestyle. He's also begun teaching himself to play piano in his spare time!

LAYLA AL-ZUBI

Layla Al-Zubi is a Jordanian-American medical student at Harvard Medical School. In 2020, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Writing Seminars with departmental honors and a minor in Islamic Studies from Johns Hopkins University. After, she received a National Fellowship to do ovarian cancer research at the National Center for Advancing Translational Science at the National Institutes of Health. Currently, she, alongside her amazing team, is running a nonprofit Muslim Women’s Health Organization which is dedicated to improving Muslim Womens Health in the United States. As an Arab and Muslim, she is interested in investigating the health disparities our communities are facing in the United States, specifically Arab Women’s Health.

MINA DAWOD

Mina Dawod is an Egyptian-American MS3 at The Ohio State University College of Medicine looking to match in either Interventional Radiology or General Surgery. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton Florida with a major in Neuroscience and Behavior and a minor in psychology. His love for research spawned when he began investigating OCD by working with chemical tracers to map out brain regions associated with reversal learning in rats. Evolving over time, his research interests currently include mental health research and advocacy, primarily for the Middle Eastern and North African community. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with friends and exercising, primarily training in martial arts such as Muay Thai and wrestling.

OMAR FATHY

Meet Omar Fathy, an MD-PhD student at the University of Connecticut with an honors BA from Vanderbilt University. Originally from Alexandria, Egypt, Omar has a passion for bridging health gaps through basic research. His research is focused on understanding and improving the neurodegenerative changes that occur in the central nervous system, with a particular interest in dementia and macular degeneration. During medical school, Omar volunteered at community health clinics, striving to increase access to healthcare for underserved populations. Beyond academia, Omar is an outdoor enthusiast, self-proclaimed culinary artist, and a devoted fan of Liverpool FC, with a love for nature and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

AHMED HUSSEIN

Ahmed Hussein is an Iraqi-American MS3 at the Ohio State College of Medicine. Throughout his studies, he's developed a keen interest in lifestyle modifications, nutrition, and screening prevention. He firmly believes that these factors play a crucial role in improving overall health and preventing chronic diseases. As someone of Arab descent, he is particularly interested in investigating these factors within the Arab community and seeing how cultural background and access to healthcare influence chronic disease outcomes. Additionally, he is currently investigating the effects on the intra-tumor microbiome on prognosis and survival in oncology patients. In his free time, he loves learning about animals, exploring cities on a bike, and being in nature.

BAYAN SHALASH

Bayan Shalash is a 4th year medical student at The Ohio State University, applying for General Surgery residency. Her interest in surgery stems from a desire to definitively intervene on a problem while caring for the patient as a whole. In terms of research, she has a strong interest in investigating surgical complications and the means by which they can be reduced, as well as validating the predictive measures used to stratify a patient's need for surgery. As the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and a Muslim woman, she feels an obligation and passion to study surgical health disparities among the Arab community. Long term, her goal is to improve surgery on a global scale, through education and collaboration with physicians in the Middle East.

EMAN ELTOGBY

Eman Eltobgy is an Egyptian/Moroccan American Master’s student at Case Western Reserve University studying Medical Physiology and Biophysics. She has earned triple Bachelor’s degrees from the Ohio State University and completed a notable submission at St. Anne’s College, Oxford University, assessing the effects of transmigration health and legal rights of refugees. Her extensive background in legal and epidemiological research, including her current work through UC Berkeley, has reinforced her desire to explore the ways in which sociopolitical determinants of health have an impact on early detection practices and predictive measures, particularly concerning inflammatory bowel diseases among Arabs in the United States.

CONTACT US

If you're interested in hearing more about the way we work, want to join our team, or have any other questions you'd like us to consider, please get in touch!