Jess Ghannam, PhD
Dr. Jess Ghannam is in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute for Global Health Sciences in the School of Medicine at UCSF. His research areas include evaluating the long-term health consequences of war on displaced communities and the psychological and psychiatric effects of armed conflict on children. Dr. Ghannam has developed community health clinics in the Middle East that focus on developing community-based treatment programs for families in crisis.
He is also a consultant with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Reprieve and other international NGO's that work with torture survivors. Locally he works to promote and enhance the health and wellness of refugee, displaced, and immigrant populations from the Middle East,North Africa and South Asia and has established a community-based Mental Health Treatment Programs to support these communities. He has worked as a consultant for the WHO and other international NGOs working with refugees and displaced communities.
At UCSF Dr. Ghannam develops culturally respectful training programs for staff, students and faculty working with patients from the Middle East. He has served on the Chancellor's Council of Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion and is the former faculty co-chair of the UCP, University and Community Partnerships Committee. He works with medical students and residents across disciplines to promote and enhance their clinical and research skills. Dr. Ghannam specializes in working with chronic illness, including chronic pain and cancer. He also works and does research in the area of Global Health and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dr. Ghannam is also a Qualified Medical Examiner (QME) for the State of California.
Dr. Ghannam is currently the interim Chair of the UCSF Faculty Association (https://ucsffa.org/) and the Director of the UCSF Scholars at Risk Program (https://globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu/education/global-scholars/).
Dr. Ghannam is currently the Advocacy Director for the UCSF Health and Human Rights Initiative, where he also serves as senior mental health advisor on the HHRI Leadership Team (https://humanrights.ucsf.edu/)
He is past president of the Arab Cultural and Community Center, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in San Francisco, and the Arab Film and Media Center. Dr. Ghannam is also a co-founder of the Institute for the Understanding of Anti-Palestinian Racism (https://antipalestinianracism.org/)
UCSF Links
https://globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu/education/global-scholars/
