Salma Abdalla

Salma Abdalla is a Core Faculty Member of the Human Capital Initiative at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and an Assistant Professor in Global Health and Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. She was the Director of the Rockefeller-Boston University 3-D Commission on Determinants of health, Data science and Decision making. She also served as a secretariat member for the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research focuses on understanding how microsocial forces shape the health of the population. In particular, she studies how data on the social, economic and commercial determinants can be used to inform decision-making on health and health equity in different contexts. She also studies the effects of trauma on global population mental health. She has published over 50 scientific journal articles, co-authored eight reports and policy briefs and co-authored nine book chapters.

Dr. Abdalla was also engaged in advocacy efforts to incorporate the voices of young people in setting the global public health agenda for a number of years. She was elected the Secretary General of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations for the term 2013-2014. She was also named an emerging voice in global health in 2018 and a Moremi fellow for young women leadership in Africa in 2012.