Islamophobia and Psychiatry Recognition, Prevention, and Treatment

H. Steven Moffic MD 

Pro Bono Private Community Psychiatrist 

Since academic retirement, he has been a prolific writer and speaker, currently including a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” since October 2021, and a weekly video on “Psychiatry and Society” since September 2020, both for Psychiatric Times. He has been the lead editor on a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer. Other prior books include The Ethical Way: Challenges & Solutions for Managed Behavioral Healthcare (Jossey-Bass, 1997) and Combating Physician Burnout (APA, 2020). He is viewed as an expert in cultural psychiatry, social psychiatry, religion and psychiatry, psychiatric ethics, and collegial relationships. He has been an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia, as well as successfully addressing sensitive and controversial psychiatric issues. For these contributions, Dr. Moffic was awarded the Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award at the 2024 APA. 

 

John R. Peteet MD 

Associate Professor of Psychiatry 

Harvard Medical School 

After receiving his M.D. degree at Columbia University, he completed a medical internship at UNC in Chapel Hill, a residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and a fellowship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in Boston. For over 40 years he has been a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. A Distinguished Life fellow of the APA, he has received several teaching awards and published numerous papers in the areas of psychosocial oncology, addiction, and the clinical interface between spirituality/religion and psychiatry. He has authored or co-edited 13 books, including Doing the Right Thing and Depression and The Soul. He is the recipient of the APA’s Oskar Pfister Award and is past chair of the APA’s Caucus on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry. 

 

Ahmed Hankir MD 

Honorary Visiting Professor 

Cardiff University School of Medicine 

Professor Ahmed Hankir MBChB MRCPsych is Honorary Visiting Professor at the School of Medicine, Cardiff University (UK), Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University (Canada) and Consultant General Adult Psychiatrist (Canada and UK). Professor Hankir’s research interests include global and Muslim mental health and pioneering and evaluating innovative interventions that reject mental health related stigma. Professor Hankir is the recipient of the 2022 WHO Director General Award for Global Health. 

 

Rania Awaad MD 

Clinical Professor 

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences 

Stanford University School of Medicine 

Dr. Rania Awaad M.D., is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab as well as Stanford University’s Affiliate Chaplain and Affiliate Professor of Islamic Studies. In the community, she serves as the President and Co-Founder of Maristan, a holistic mental health nonprofit serving Muslim communities, and the Director of The Rahman Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Muslim women and girls. In addition, she is faculty of Islamic Psychology at Cambridge Muslim College and The Islamic Seminary of America. Prior to studying medicine, she pursued classical Islamic studies in Damascus, Syria, and holds certifications (ijaza) in the Qur’an, Islamic Law, and other branches of the Islamic Sciences.