Center for Global Health faculty Dr. Sasha Fahme awarded WCM’s Fund for the Future Grant

Last month, Dr. Sasha Fahme, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Co-Director of the Weill Cornell Women in Global Health Research Initiative’s Female Global Scholars Program, was awarded the Weill Department of Medicine’s Fund for the Future award. This award supports junior faculty during the early years of their careers at Weill Cornell Medicine. It provides an initial year of funding and a total funding up to $300,000 to pursue a wide range of breakthrough research.

Dr. Fahme’s research focuses on the syndemic effects of armed conflict and forced displacement on women’s sexual and reproductive health. She has conducted several years of clinical service and research on the health and human rights of Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon, where she developed a peer-led sexual and reproductive health intervention for adolescent refugee girls. She has also performed research consultancies for the United Nations Development Programme and World Health Organization on gender, health and migration in the Middle East and North Africa. This award will provide pilot funds to examine the determinants, prevalence, and longitudinal sequelae of sexually transmitted infections among a community-based cohort of vulnerable Syrian refugee women living in Beirut, Lebanon. “Dr. Fahme has demonstrated her unwavering commitment to working to improve the health of Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon during her tireless work over the past few years,” said Dr. Jennifer Downs, one of Dr. Fahme’s mentors. “She is highly deserving of this award and I look forward to her continued growth as a physician-scientist.” Dr. Fahme’s long-term goal is to become an independent physician-scientist working to address the impact of humanitarian crises and forced migration on women’s health in resource-limited settings.