Shima is an aspiring pediatrician-scientist and health equity advocate, who is passionate about developing interventions that leverage existing community resources to reduce the burden of childhood obesity and cardiometabolic disease. She earned her combined MD/PhD degrees through the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB), where she received a full tuition scholarship and salary support. Shima’s PhD dissertation evaluated the effectiveness of a carbohydrate vs. fat restricted diet to improve hepatic fat, body composition, and insulin resistance in children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and explored racial and ethnic differences in this cohort.
Outside of science and medicine, Shima has been actively involved with non-profit organizations addressing social determinants of health impacting vulnerable populations. She has served on the leadership team of Equal Access Birmingham (EAB), a medical student run clinic offering free medical and mental health services for uninsured patients in Birmingham, AL. More recently, Shima was selected as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, where she designed a culturally concordant healthy living program for EAB patients with diabetes and heart disease. For this work, she was awarded the UAB Student Excellence in Service Award.
Shima graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College, where she majored in Neuroscience and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. While at Dartmouth, Shima served as a student leader for the Tucker Foundation, the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health & Social Equity, and the Al-Nur Muslim Society. In addition, she received the Dickey Center Scholarship and Named Award for distinguished community service work in Bangladesh, the Dartmouth-Fogarty International Fellowship to conduct research in Tanzania, the James O. Freedman Presidential Scholarship, and multiple grants to complete her undergraduate thesis, which explored healthcare decision making factors of residents living in an urban slum in Bangladesh.
In her free time, Shima enjoys rock climbing, hip hop and salsa dancing, international travel, exploring the outdoors with her husband, cuddling her cat, and serving the Muslim community.
