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People

Principal Investigator

Meet Dr. Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc

Altaf Saadi, MD MSc, is a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She is also the Associate Director of the MGH Asylum Clinic, an interdisciplinary clinic that provides forensic medical and psychological evaluations to survivors of persecution seeking asylum and other forms of humanitarian relief in the United States. Her federally funded research focuses on eliminating neurologic and neuropsychiatric health disparities with a focus on addressing the needs of displaced populations including immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, both within the community and in immigration detention. Her research considers trauma at multiple levels, including physical-based injury like TBI, psychological injury, neighborhood-level trauma and institutional violence.

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Dr. Saadi has partnered with numerous human rights, legal and civil rights organizations, having served as a medical expert for the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Immigrant Justice Center, Human Rights First, Disability Rights California, and others. Her commitment to racial and social justice has also involved leveraging her expertise as a physician to demand an end to police violence, including speaking against the junk diagnosis of excited delirium, the use of carotid neck restraints by law enforcement, the medical harms of police attack dogs, and the harms of hospital police. Her academic and personal writing work has been published in The Lancet, JAMA, JAMA Neurology, JAMA Network Open, Neurology, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, STAT News, Ms. Magazine, Undark Magazine, among others.

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She was named a 2020 "STAT Wunderkind," 2021 National Minority Quality Forum "40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health,” and received the 2023 Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, a national award for health justice leadership. Dr. Saadi completed her undergraduate studies at Yale College, and medical degree at Harvard Medical School, where she graduated cum laude and received the Dean’s Community Service Award. She completed her neurology residency at the Harvard Mass General Brigham Residency program, where she also served as Chief Resident, and a post-doctoral health services research fellowship with the National Clinician Scholars Program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she received a master's degree in Health Policy and Management.

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Our Team

Interns and Residents

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Lab Member

Aditi Ramesh Iyer

Duke University

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Lab Member

Kavya Kannan

University of Texas at Dallas

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Lab Member

Tasneem Karim

Louisville School of Medicine

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Lab Member

Harshitha Valluri

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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Lab Member

Maab Karrar

Harvard College

Alumni

  • Aafreen Aazmi, Harvard University

  • Ameerah Parvez, University College London

  • Amel Nurhussein, MGH Youth Neurology Education and Research Program

  • Andree Franco-Vasquez, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

  • Anjali Chandra MD, MPH, BWH Psychiatry 

  • Anu Khanna, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

  • Bhumi Patel, Clinical Research Coordinator

  • Christie Tzelios, Harvard Medical School

  • Christopher D. Galvin MD, MGH Neurology

  • Dania Hallak, MGH Youth Neurology Education and Research Program

  • Deena Haque, Brown University Graduate

  • Emily Santos, MGH Youth Neurology Education and Research Program

  • Esther Jagwer, MGH Youth Neurology Education and Research Program

  • Grace Kim, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

  • Janiel Lewis, MGH Youth Neurology Education and Research Program

  • Jasmin Williams, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Harvard Catalyst Visiting Research Internship Program

  • Julia Asfour, Tufts University Graduate

  • Krystal Kuan, Boston University MPH program

  • Lynn Daboul, MD, MS, MGH Neurology

  • Malvika Govil, NYU Neurology

  • Meha Prabhu, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

  • Nohamin Ayele, MD, Northwestern Neurology

  • Nusrath Jahan, Tufts University School of Medicine

  • Rodrigo Nadal, Clinical Research Coordinator

  • Sarah Snyder, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

  • Sarika Bharil, Georgetown University School of Medicine

  • Sebastian Cota, Boston College, Mongan Institute COVID Corps Biomedical Research Internship Program

  • ​Sofia Sherman, Boston University, Mongan Institute Biomedical Research Internship Program

  • Sophia Taleghani, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

  • Stephanie Soriano-Cruz, Clinical Research Coordinator

  • Steven Topalli, Springfield College Graduate

  • Uriel Molina Sanchez, BA, University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Winni Yang, Clinical Research Coordinator

We are dedicated to researching and improving health justice for all. If you would like to support our ongoing efforts, we welcome your donation.

You may do so through here or through contacting Dr. Saadi herself: assadi@mgh.harvard.edu

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