I am a pharmacist and global health researcher whose expertise lies at the intersection of access to medicines, drug utilization research and health systems research. My work focuses on humanitarian settings, including conflict-affected areas and forcibly displaced populations.
I hold a degree in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Damascus University, Syria), an MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care (University of Oxford, UK), and a PhD in Drug Utilization Research (University of Bayreuth, Germany), where my doctoral work examined access to and use of medicines among Syrian asylum seekers and refugees in Germany and populations covered by government health insurance in Syria.
From 2011 to 2013, I participated in a specialist pharmacist training program in quality control within the pharmaceutical industry at the Syrian Ministry of Health, while also working in community pharmacies in Northern Syria. Between 2014 and 2016, I worked with the German Red Cross, supporting access to healthcare services for newly arrived asylum seekers in the Cologne region. In 2016, I joined the University of Bayreuth as a research fellow, where I contributed to the planning and implementation of the research project “Effects of the influx of asylum seekers on the health system in Bavaria” funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Health and Care.
In 2022, I joined ITM as a postdoctoral researcher and initiated a research project on access to medicines for non-communicable diseases at the primary care level in conflict-affected areas in Northern Syria, funded by the King Baudouin Foundation (Fund Maurange). Since October 2024, I have held a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). I have served as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator on several national, and multi-country research projects.
My research has been acknowledged internationally, earning distinctions such as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Doctoral Scholarship, the University of Oxford Evidence-Based Health Care Dissertation Prize, and the City of Bayreuth Prize for my doctoral research. I am also a Commissioner at the Lancet Commission on Accelerating Access to Essential Medicines.