Hometown: West Harrison, New York
Major(s): Community Health, Arabic Language & Cultural Studies, and Biology
Siwaar Abouhala is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Tufts University majoring in community health, Arabic, and biology, with an interest in maternal health disparities and Arab American health research. She is the Founder and Senior Advisor of MARCH: Maternal Advocacy and Research for Community Health, an over 100-member group that is the first maternal health undergraduate-run organization at Tufts University and largest in the nation that aims to increase awareness and education among college-aged students about maternal disparities and initiatives. She is a founding member and Research Assistant in the Research & Grants Committee of the MOTHER Lab: Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research, Chair of the Maternal & Child Health (MCH) Journal Club at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Policy Intern at the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice (CBMHRJ). She is also the founder and Project Coordinator of the Arab Maternal Health in Ohio Study, a 3-year long project based at The Computational Epidemiology Lab in the College of Public Health, Ohio State University (OSU), which will fill major gaps as the first qualitative maternal health project among Arab birthing people in America. Siwaar is currently completing her senior honors thesis in community health based on her research at the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital (BCH), where she has been investigating the role of neonatal genetic testing and rare disease prognosis on parental psychosocial outcomes post-Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) discharge. Siwaar’s work in civic engagement stems from her determination to center and advocate for survivors of forced displacement, namely immigrants and refugees from the Arab diaspora. This strong commitment is evidenced by her record of civic service, including her work as a Peer Mentor at the Refugee Youth Summer Academy (RYSA) and Refugee Resettlement intern in the Intensive Case Management (ICM) department of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in New York, to Organizing Fellow at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition in Boston, and most recently as a Research Assistant at the Trauma and Community Resilience Center (TCRC) at BCH.
Siwaar Abouhala, A23
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