Brief Bio

I am a PhD-trained Microbiologist who learned that her passion lies in the community rather than at the bench. I build and run programs that center community voices and needs as part of my roles in Clinical and Translational Sciences and at the Penn Medicine BioBank. I’m passionate about mentoring the next generation of scientists and public health experts, and co-direct the Public Health Certificate Program for Penn Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) students. I consult for the Development Research Initiative on research projects based in Bangladesh, where I’m originally from. I believe in empowering people with knowledge so that they can make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing, so I develop and run workshops through Liminal Creations and Solving For Science to teach scientists how to engage with the public about their work.   

Prior to my current roles, I supported Philadelphia and Penn’s response to COVID-19. I designed and implemented a county-wide COVID-19 contact tracing program, training and supervising a team of over 100 contact tracers in Spring 2020. I subsequently trained a team of vaccine ambassadors to increase awareness and knowledge about COVID-19 in West and Southwest Philadelphia.