Dr. Nida Ali graduated from Medical School in 2011 and interned in General Medicine, Gastroenterology, Pulmonology, Gynae + Obstetrics, and Anesthesia. Shortly after, she found her passion for Public Health and joined the Ministry of Population Welfare, where she headed the Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit in Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi. As a young professional, she had a chance to understand the dynamics of sexual health in her country and realized how much of female health is lost simply due to lack of health literacy. Under her leadership, her team continuously strived for educating women in their catchment area by organizing communication events and going door to counsel married couples and fill their unmet need for contraception. Heading the unit for 2.5 years, she learned management, administration, finance, communications, operations and reporting skills.

Dr. Ali has worked with the World Health Organization’s Polio Eradication Program. She has been in the field for 5 years at various administrative levels and travelled extensively in her home country of Pakistan. Using her extensive knowledge of program management, disease surveillance, immunization, monitoring and evaluation, and data analysis, Dr. Ali is heading Islamabad Division for technical support on Polio Eradication. With a team of four doctors and twenty-five field assistants, she is striving hard every day to close the gaps in health systems that slow down the pace for interruption of virus transmission.

As a Hubert Humphrey Fellow, Dr. Nida Ali strove to learn more about global health, disease surveillance, epidemiology, and control and elimination of infections. As a passionate public health professional, she aspires to devote her time to humanitarian services by continuing her work in health systems evaluation and support for closure of gaps and impediments. She sees herself promoting equity in healthcare in terms of larger investments and policies and bringing healthcare to every human’s doorstep.

Read her NYC Daily Post profile.