On July 1, Zainab Samad, MBBS, MHS, associate professor of Medicine at Duke, will become the first chairwoman of the Department of Medicine at Aga Khan University in Pakistan, her alma mater. This is quite an accomplishment for anyone, but in particular for a woman from a highly conservative Pashtun family in northern Pakistan. There, young girls traditionally were not allowed to attend school in accordance with the practice of purdah, the global religious idea that women should be physically segregated from men.
Samad’s parents, however, both physicians, were determined that she would be educated and sent her to school in Karachi, Pakistan. Samad attended St. Joseph’s Convent School and College, and then medical school at Aga Khan University, an independent global research university with its primary campus in Pakistan. In 2000, Samad graduated from the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program with honors and amongst the top students of her class.
Now, eighteen years later, Samad will begin work as the first woman— as well as the youngest and first alumnus—to ever be chair of the Department of Medicine at Aga Khan.
Although her career came full circle back to Pakistan, it’s the part in the middle—when Samad was training at Duke University as a resident, fellow, and then, working as a cardiologist and professor—that she credits to being a key time of personal growth.
“I grew up here,” said Samad, who came to Duke when she was 24 years old and has spent 16 years here. “I’ve spent my entire independent life here.”
More at the source: Duke School of Medicine / Lindsay Key / May 30, 2018
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