Serving the Arab-American Community
When Najoie Zahr graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she and three classmates from the university’s School of Public Health were offered a dream job working together to set up a new public health department in Dearborn, Michigan, the city where Zahr grew up.
There was just one catch: The budget was non-existent. “I don’t know what made me say yes, but it was an opportunity that I couldn’t deny,” she says.
“The more I learned about public health, the more I saw that it’s embedded in everything we do.”
For the next two years, Zahr and her colleagues worked to right many public health wrongs in Dearborn—the largest city with a majority Arab population in the U.S. The small team investigated heavy industrial polluters, successfully suing to revoke occupancy for those who didn’t pay fines and other mitigation measures. They won a $100,000 grant for a community needs assessment, painting a picture of the disparate health conditions faced by many Arab Americans.
They launched a Narcan vending machine in the city, dispensing 8,000 units of the opioid overdose-reversal drug in a single year, and the department secured a $1 million federal grant for infant and maternal health.
Zahr plans on customizing her MPH concentration at the Bloomberg School to improve her quantitative skills and gain some international health experience, and hopes to continue to serve Arab Americans and other vulnerable populations. “I want my legacy to be alleviating the pain that historically marginalized people and those on the fringes of society have faced,” she says.
