Siwaar Abouhala

Siwaar Abouhala, from White Plains, New York, and Sweida, Syria, is pursuing an MD at Stanford School of Medicine. She graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with triple majors in community health (with highest thesis honors), Arabic, and biology. At Tufts, she founded MARCH: Maternal Advocacy and Research for Community Health, the largest undergraduate-run maternal health organization in the United States. She went on to kick-start the Arab Maternal Health in Ohio Study, the first qualitative maternal health project among Arab American mothers, and Project INSPIRE: Improving New Somerville Parent and Infant Resiliency and Engagement, an academic-community research partnership. Siwaar has also led novel biomedical and public health projects at The Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research (MOTHER) Lab, the Arab American Health Network Alliance, Boston Children’s Hospital, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition. Siwaar strives to become a physician-advocate with a focus on community-engaged research methods.