Faculty and Staff
Dr. Hanan F. Abdul Rahim, MSc, PhD
Associate Professor of Public Health (Epidemiology), Dean
Hanan.arahim@qu.edu.qa +974 44033023 +974 44034801 I06 Building. Room A4.10 Dean of the College of Health Sciences
Dr. Karam Turk-Adawi, PhD
Department Head, Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)
kadawi@qu.edu.qa +974 44037508 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 42
Profile website
Dr. Karam Adawi is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Public Health/College of Health Sciences. She joined Qatar University in 2016. She earned her PhD from Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA. She has two Master's degrees in Public Health and in Social Science. Dr. Turk-Adawi had a post-doctoral fellowship at York University/Canada Dr. Karam has over 20 years of teaching and research experience in academic institutions and international organizations, such as York and Brandeis universities, the World Health Organization, the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (ICCPR), and other professional associations that address heart diseases such as the American, and Canadian associations for cardiovascular disease prevention and rehabilitation (AACVPR, and CACPR). Dr. Karam holds different roles at Qatar University besides teaching. She serves on several committees and was the Coordinator of the Master in Public Health Program (2020-2022). Dr. Karam’s research centers on global health, health policy, health services non-communicable diseases and their risk factors, cardiac rehabilitation and clinical registries. She has published over 40 papers in top-tier journals, such as the Lancet, Nature, and Circulation. She also authored clinical practice guidelines. She has a well-established reputation in cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiology regionally and globally. She led the first-ever Global Cardiac Rehabilitation Survey and has been influential in the development of the International Cardiac Rehabilitation Registry through Qatar University fund. Dr. Adawi is also leading the development of Qatar National Cardiac Rehabilitation Registry (pilot testing stage). She secured several grants to conduct her research as the lead PI. She has successfully supervised 9 master students and 2 PhD students as the main supervisor.
Prof. Manar Elsheikh Abdelrahman Elhassan, PhD
Professor of Public Health (Biostatistics)
melhassan@qu.edu.qa +974 44037506 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 43
Profile website
Dr. Manar E. Abdel-Rahman Elhassan Elhassan was awarded a PhD in Biostatistics from Boston University (USA), an MSc in Statistics from University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), and a BSc in Statistics and Computer Science from University of Khartoum (Sudan). She is a Professor at the Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Qatar University (QU). She previously served as the Head of Department of Public Health and the coordinator of the Master of Public Health program. She is currently a member of several committees at the level of the department, QU Health, and QU. She is also a member of the Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) at Weill Cornell Medicine, Qatar. She previously worked on cancer survival at the Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK). She also worked on cancer survival of Atomic bomb survivors at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima (Japan). Dr. Manar was previously employed at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, University of Khartoum, holding positions of Head of Statistics Department, Deputy Dean, and Dean of the Faculty. Over the past two decades, Dr. Manar has worked on household surveys, mainly Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and served as a household survey expert for many countries as well as the regional consultant for UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Region. Dr. Manar supervised a number of Masters and PhD students. Her research interests include wide statistical and epidemiological applications of health, clinical data, and complex survey data using advanced statistical methods and modeling techniques. She contributed extensively to research on maternal and child health, cancer survival, oral health, antibiotic use, mycetoma disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Maria Isabel Ferreira de Sousa, PhD
Professor of Public Health (Epidemiology)
iferreira@qu.edu.qa +974 44036059 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 36
Profile website
Prof. Ferreira joined Qatar University/College of Health Sciences in Aug 2021. She is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Public Health, where she teaches (advanced) epidemiology and research methods courses in the Master of Public Health and PhD Graduate Programs and since Aug 2022 the coordinator for the Clinical & population health track of the PhD in Health Sciences Program. She obtained a MSc in Exercise and Health from the University of Lisbon, Portugal (1998), and a PhD in Epidemiology (lifestyle, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases) from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2004). Prof. Ferreira has over 20 years of experience in epidemiology teaching and research, both in public health and clinical related settings, in top universities in the Netherlands (Erasmus University and Maastricht University Medical Centres) and Australia (University of Queensland and University of Wollongong). To date she has published >100 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, 14 book chapters and 1 textbook, and supervised or co-supervised 9 PhD + 9 MSc students to conclusion. She has held several competitive research grants and served in international grant evaluation and conference panels. She is also an experienced Editor and a Clarivate/Web-of-Science top peer reviewer. She is passionate about the study of the early (perinatal, childhood) determinants of metabolic and cardiovascular health. Her main expertise/interests are in advanced epidemiological methods to analyse longitudinal/life-course cohort data, conduct mediation analyses, and complex meta-analyses in the area of lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. More recently, she has focused on teaching/research of responsible research practices and integrity and in the debunking of the growing amount of published flawed and misleading research and the spread of health-related misinformation. “Empowerment through authentic communication” is her motto.
Dr. Mujahed Shraim, PhD
Associate Professor of Public Health (Epidemiology)
mshraim@qu.edu.qa +974 44037503 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 31
Profile website
Dr. Mujahed Shraim is an Associate Professor of Public Health (Epidemiology). He joined Qatar University in 2017. He holds a PhD in Epidemiology from Keele University, UK. He has completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Epidemiology and Health Services research from University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA.
Dr. Shraim has published in international peer review journals on various topics, including non-specific physical symptoms among children and parents, factors associated with geographic variation in length of work disability in workers with occupational low back pain in the USA and associated factors, and other topics in mental health and clinical epidemiology.
Dr. Shraim has successfully supervised eight Master of Public Health theses as main supervisor and one PhD thesis as co-supervisor. He has taught several courses at undergraduate and graduate levels, including epidemiology, public health, research methods, biostatistics, classification of diseases, and first aid. Dr. Shraim is a member of the National Cancer Screening Program in Qatar and is a member of the Primary Health Care Corporation Scientific Research Subcommittee.
Dr. Lily O’Hara, MPH, PhD
Associate professor of Public Health (Health Promotion)
lohara@qu.edu.qa +974 44036018 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 27
Profile website
Dr Lily O’Hara is Associate Professor of Public Health at Qatar University. She is a public health and health promotion educator and practitioner with experience in Australia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Lily has worked on community, workplace, prison, aged care, and school-based health promotion programs addressing a broad range of health and wellbeing issues. Her research focuses on analyzing oppressive public health and clinical approaches to body weight and their inequitable impact on marginalised people, particularly those with larger bodies. Her research also involves developing and evaluating ethical, evidence-based, salutogenic health promotion initiatives for body liberation using the social justice-based Health at Every Size® approach. The other main area of Lily’s research focuses on building critical health promotion competency in the community, workforce, and institutions through the development and application of the Red Lotus Critical Health Promotion Model. She is the co-author of the book Promoting Health: The Primary Health Care Approach (Elsevier, 2021) and has over 130 papers and conference presentations. She is passionate about creating a more equitable world that provides the fertile environment in which people and communities can thrive and flourish.
Dr. Mohammed Fasihul Alam, PhD
Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Economics)
malam@qu.edu.qa +974 44034784 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 12
Profile website
Dr. Mohammed Fasihul Alam is a Graduate Faculty (Associate Professor) of Public Health at the Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Qatar University. His core academic activities involve teaching graduate and post-graduate courses, supervising MSc/MPH/PhD projects, curriculum and program development, academic program review, and planning, designing and conducting research in the broad spectrum of Public Health (Health Economics and Health Policy), and providing professional and community services.
Dr. Alam is an experienced researcher who has supervised more than 12 MSc/MPH/PhD thesis students at Qatar University and Swansea University (UK). He has a strong track record of publishing scientific research findings in peer-reviewed high impact journals and has more than 50 publications in his credit. Dr. Alam has a good record of accomplishment of securing competitive research grants from major national and international funding agencies (e.g. NIHR HTA, NIHR Public Health Program, MRC, Community Pharmacy Wales, British Council, Qatar University) as a PI/Co-PI. His research grants generated a total of approx. £5.5million. Dr. Alam’s research interests cover: Health Policy Evaluation/Research, Evidence generation for PH programs/interventions, Economic evaluation alongside clinical trials, Decision analytical model based cost-effectiveness analysis, Economics of primary care infections, public health programs, IBD, COPD and Oncology, Application of artificial intelligence in healthcare research. Dr. Alam is looking forward supervising post-graduate thesis project(s) on a suitable topic falls in these areas.
Externally, Dr. Alam is a member of the National Screening Advisory Sub-Committee of Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Qatar, and currently leading a feasibility study on Lung Cancer screening program in Qatar. During 2010-2015, Dr. Alam served as an independent health economist on new medicines & technologies appraisal process for All Wales Medicine Strategy Group (AWMSG) in the UK. Currently, he is an Associate Editor of the BMC Health Services Research journal, also act as a reviewer for the HMC Internal Grants, ISPOR Conference, NIHR HTA and Public Health Program, European Journal of Public Health, Value in Health, PLOS ONE, BMC Public Health, BMC Health Services Research, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory. Dr. Alam is a Fellow of the UK Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). He is a founding member of the Surrey Global Health Research Network (SGHRN), based at University of Surrey (UK). SGNRN was established in 2019 to collaborate research on global health issues which has international academic members from Peru, Kenya, South Africa, Qatar and UK.
Dr. Ahsan Sethi, MPH, MMEd, PhD
Associate professor of Public Health (Health Professions Education)
asethi@qu.edu.qa +974 44036455 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 20
Profile website
Dr. Ahsan Sethi, PhD in Medical Education is working as an Assistant Professor & Program Coordinator for Certificate/Masters’ in Health Professions Education under QU Health Research & Graduate Studies, Qatar University. Dr. Sethi obtained his Bachelor of Dental Surgery (2007) and Master of Public Health (2011) from Pakistan. He completed his Master of Medical Education (2013) and PhD in Medical Education (2016) from the University of Dundee, United Kingdom. He has also been awarded a Fellowship of Faculty of Dental Trainers (FDTFEd - 2020), Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA - 2013) and Membership of the Academy of Medical Educators (MAcadMEd - 2014) in recognition of his commitment towards professionalism in teaching and learning in higher education. He recently completed a Two Years Fellowship in Health Professions Education Leadership (2020-22) from FAIMER Institute, Philadelphia, USA.
Dr. Sethi is currently involved in teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate Health Professions Education and Public Health courses. He has also contributed to the curricular design and development of these programs. Previously, he led the undergraduate curriculum reforms, faculty development and teaching/supervision of postgraduate students in Medical Education at the Khyber Medical University, Pakistan. He was also a member of medical education committee at Pakistan Medical & Dental Council developing national regulations on undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education. Dr. Sethi also remained a visiting faculty to several institutions including University of Dundee, University of Lahore, University of Health Sciences and RIPHAH International University. He maintains an active research profile, focusing on curriculum, assessment, faculty development and professional identity. Dr Sethi has supervised over 30 MSc students and has over 40 publications in various national and international journals. He is also an associate editor of Frontiers in Medicine (Health Professions Education) and Education in Medicine Journals. His presence strengthened the research supervision capacity to initiate Masters’ and PhD programmes in Medical Education in Pakistan and he aspires to achieve the same in Qatar.
Dr. Marguerite Claire Sendall
Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Promotion)
PhD msendall@qu.edu.qa +974 4403-6058 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 30
Profile website
Associate Professor Marguerite (Margo) Sendall (PhD) has more than 20 years of experience in health promotion encompassing health promotion practice in schools, teaching postgraduate health promotion theory and practice, supervising health promotion research students and conducting applied research in settings-based health promotion. Dr Sendall’s expertise is the nexus of health behaviour change and health promotion in complex and diverse social settings. Dr Sendall’s research is focused in four specific settings for health promotion - workplace, education, community and health settings. Dr Sendall’s methodological expertise is qualitative enquiry contributing and co-supervising mixed methods projects common in public health. AssPro Sendall has earnt $62,000 internal competitive and $1,542,468 external competitive (Cat 2) grant income plus $50,000 commercial grant income. This is a total of more than a million dollars ($AUD1,654,468). Dr Sendall has 88 publications including 8 books (textbook chapters, international handbooks and edited textbook) and 52 peer reviewed journal articles in D1 and Q1 Scimago journals. Most journal articles report findings from research projects and student research published in SJR Q1 or Q2 ranked journals. Of SJR Q1 ranked journals, most are ranked in the top 10% or 20% of journals. AssPro Sendall has supervised 18 Masters and 16 Doctoral students. Eight international doctoral students received scholarships to the value of $AUD700,000 and three were nominated for the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award (top 5% of students). Dr Sendall is Principal Supervisor for 8 and Associate Supervisor for 8 students. In particular, Dr Sendall has experience in supervising international students (Fiji, Vietnam, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia) with local collaborations who undertake field work in their home country. AssPro Sendall has tutored, lectured, guest lectured, coordinated and graded across the full spectrum of courses from large (>175) undergraduate core courses offered as multi-disciplinary electives to specialist methodology courses to small boutique courses in undergraduate and post graduate degrees to core and capstone courses in Masters by Coursework. Dr Sendall has coordinated 53 courses with a total enrolment of over 2,370 students and revenue worth more than 4.96 million dollars. Currently, Dr Sendall coordinates Design of Program Evaluation Systems and Disease-Specific Health Promotion and Education in the Bachelor of Health Science and Qualitative Research in the Master of Public Health programs.
Dr. Ghadir Fakhri Al-Jayyousi , PhD
Assistant Professor of Health Education and Promotion
Internship Coordinator g.aljayyousi@qu.edu.qa +974 44036556 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 38
Profile website
Dr. Ghadir Al-Jayyousi is an Assistant Professor of Health Education and Promotion in the Department of Public Health at Qatar University. She obtained a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Jordan, MSc in Community Health Promotion from the University of Arkansas, USA, and a Ph.D. in Health Education from Kansas State University, USA. In 2014, Dr. Al-Jayyousi joined Qatar University and has been heavily invested in teaching, the development, and delivery of the Experiential Learning curriculum, and health education and promotion courses in the Department of Public Health.
Dr. Al-Jayyousi’s research interests focus on social determinants of health, interdisciplinary research, youth and women’s health, and public health practice. She was awarded research grants as the Lead/principal investigator (LPI & PI), including Qatar University Student Internal Research Grants, Seed Funding Support for Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration at Qatar University, and other internal and external grants as Co-PI. She participated in local and international conferences and won first place for a poster presented at “The 2nd International Congress on Behavioral Health at Qatar University”. Currently, she also collaborates on several research projects with other colleges within Qatar University, public health organizations in Qatar and internationally.
Dr. Diana Alsayed Hassan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Public Health
dalsayed@qu.edu.qa +974 44036016 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 39
Profile website
Dr. Diana Alsayed Hassan is an Assistant Professor in Public Health at the College of Health Sciences, Qatar University. She has a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences (2015) from Western Michigan University, MI, USA and a M.Sc. in Health Promotion Management from Marymount University, VA, USA (2004). Prior to Joining QU in 2018, she worked at Michigan State University as a health educator for over 11 years, planning and delivering community programs to diverse populations and age groups at multiple community sites such as schools, youth community agencies, faith-based organizations, and senior centers . She has extensive experience in conducting community needs assessments, planning and implementing community programs and interventions. Diana has also received multiple applied public health research grants including grants from the USDA, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and Allen Foundation. Diana’s research interests include Health Promotion and Education across the lifespan, with a specific interest in youth and adolescents.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Hamdani
Assistant professor of Public Health (Health Policy)
malhamdani@qu.edu.qa +974 44037507 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 4
Profile website
Dr. Mohammed Al-Hamdani joined the College of Health Sciences of Qatar University as an Assistant Professor of Public Health in August 2022. He completed his graduate studies in Nova Scotia, Canada and holds a Master of Health Administration from Dalhousie University and a PhD in I/O Psychology from Saint Mary’s University. During his graduate studies, he held multiple competitive scholarships including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Dr. Al-Hamdani has a unique blend of public health management, stakeholder consultation, and post-doctoral training experiences, including a Mitacs Elevate Post-Doctoral Fellowship during which he was honored as Canada’s awardee for the Outstanding Innovation Award- Post doctoral category. His research interests include consumer addiction, health policy, and health system analysis. He has published a number of peer-reviewed articles in these areas and received grants to support his work both as a lead researcher and a co-applicant.
Mrs. Rana Kurdi, MPH
Lecturer of Public Health (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), B.Sc. Advisor
Rana.kurdi@qu.edu.qa +974 44036558 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 34
Profile website
Ms Rana Kurdi holds a Bsc degree in Medical Laboratory Technology and a Master’s degree in Public Health (Concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics) From The American University of Beirut. She worked in laboratory ,clinical, and Public health research as well as in teaching Epidemiology and Biostatistics courses to undergraduate students in Lebanon, UAE and Qatar. She also worked as students’ advisor and program coordinator. Her publications are mainly focused on chronic diseases.
Mrs. Dima Arafah, MSc.
Lecturer on Study Leave (Population and Public Health)
Ms. Zahraa Beydoun
Lecturer of Public Health (Health Promotion and Community Health )
zbeydoun@qu.edu.qa +974 44036062 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 33
Profile website
Mrs. Zahraa Beydoun is a lecturer of public health at the department of public health at the college of health Sciences at Qatar University. She teaches courses in Public Health, health promotion, global health, and research methods. She holds a BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics and a Master of Public Health with a concentration of health promotion and community health from the American University of Beirut. She is currently a PhD candidate at Maastricht University in the Netherlands at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences in the department of Social Medicine. Her PhD research is focusing on measuring socioeconomic status among elderly living in rapidly changing contexts. Her areas of research interests are social inequalities in health and refugees’ health and rights. Her previous work with the American University of Beirut and the United Nations has focused on the social determinants of health of the Lebanese population and refugees in Lebanon.
Teaching Assistants
Ms. Fatima Al Zahraa Chokr
Teaching Assistant of Public Health (Epidemiology and Biostatistics)
fchokr@qu.edu.qa +974 4403 6057 +974 44034801 Building H06, Room 16
Profile website
Fatima Chokor is a Clinical Teaching Assistant of Public Health at the Department of Public Health at Qatar University. Fatima’s research projects mainly focused on nutritional epidemiology, dietary assessment, and the investigation of diet-disease relationships with emphasis on quantitative methods as she held the position as Statistical Data Analyst at American University of Beirut, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences. She has been also involved in leading the monitoring and evaluation activities for programs and projects funded by various funding agencies in an international non-governmental organization in Lebanon. Fatima earned her Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the American University of Beirut and her Bachelor degree in Nutrition from the Lebanese American University.
Administration
Mrs. Mishael K. Alhathal
Administrative Coordinator
