Lara El Zahabi-Bekdash

Lara El Zahabi-Bekdash, MD, MHSc is currently pursuing a PhD at the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto, focused on the success determinants of community engagement in biotechnology research in developing countries. 

She holds a BSc in Chemsitry and an M.D. degree from the American University of Beirut. During medical school years, Lara was highly involved in the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA). She was active in the fields of public health, human rights and peace, and medical students' research and professional exchanges, and was involved in the development and implementation of many projects in Lebanon and internationally in collaboration with the WHO. She also functioned as a temporary WHO adviser on Adolescent Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. She served as the National Exchange Officer in the Lebanese Medical Students' International Committee (LeMSIC- part of IFMSA), and was elected for two consecutive years as the President of LeMSIC (2005-2007), and as the Vice President of the IFMSA (2006-2007), being thus the first female president of LeMSIC, the first president to serve for two years, and the first Lebanese and Arab to be elected to the Executive board of IFMSA.

Lara has also completed a post-doctorate research fellowship and has a broad experience in clinical research and clinical trials, mainly in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Gastrointestinal Oncology.

At the regional committee meeting of the WHO-EMR in September 2006, Lara was granted a scholarship by Fogarty International, National Institutes of Health, to pursue a Master's in Health Sciences in Bioethics at the Joint Center for Bioethics, University of Toronto. Her dedication to bioethics was manifested in applying to a PhD at the McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health, under the supervision of Dr. Jim Lavery and Dr. Peter Singer, to study community engagement as an ethical requirement and an ethical process in global health research with the ultimate goal of community development. This PhD is being undertaken in the context of the Ethical, Social, and Cultural Program (ESC) of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (GCGH).