Dr Rasha Bayoumi BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Rasha Bayoumi

Dubai Campus
Head of Research Dubai
Associate Professor of Psychology

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham Dubai
Dubai International Academic City
PO Box 341799
Dubai, UAE

Rasha Bayoumi is a health psychologist. She has been involved in research, clinical practice and teaching for the past two decades, in Canada, the UK, US, Sudan and Oman. She has worked for the World Health Organization on mental health and reproductive health. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research interests include reproductive health, infertility and pregnancy loss, gender-based violence, women’s health, quality of life, and eating disorders.

She has extensive experience working on multicultural and multidisciplinary projects. She joined the University of Birmingham Dubai in 2021, where she has been the Head of Research for the Dubai campus for over two years. Through this role she manages and develops the research portfolio, exemplifying her commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering an inclusive approach to research. 

In 2024, she was appointed as Co-Chair of the UAE Universities Climate Network (UCN), where she has strategic and operational responsibilities aimed at advancing the network's mission of fostering academic engagement. Through this role, she will be spearheading initiatives to advance climate action regionally and internationally, while promoting sustainability across the UAE’s academic sector.

Qualifications

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA, 2019
  • PhD in Health Psychology, Cardiff University, UK, 2018
  • MSc in Clinical Psychology, San Jose State University, USA, 2004
  • BSc in Psychology, McMaster University, Canada, 2000

Biography

Rasha Bayoumi joined the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham Dubai in 2021. She qualified with a BSc in Psychology from McMaster University in Canada in 2000 and went on to work for a few years before completing her MSc in Clinical Psychology at San Jose State University in the USA. During that time, she interned at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Palo Alto, California, where she worked with veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other anxiety disorders. She moved to Oman to continue her clinical work both in an inpatient psychiatric ward and outpatient clinic, where she also taught clinical courses to medical students.

She then began her role as mental health officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan followed by completion of her PhD in Health Psychology at Cardiff University on a WHO funded project. She was then accepted as a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Throughout her carrier she has taught in several areas of psychology and public health at undergraduate and graduate level as well as training and supervising Master’s students on research methods. She has also participated in various aspects of research including proposal and grant writing, study design, data collection and analysis and managing multinational research teams.

Teaching

School of Psychology

  • Lifespan Psychology A: Introduction to Developmental Psychology
  • Lifespan Psychology B: Social Psychology of the Person
  • Social and Cognitive Development 

Research

Rasha Bayoumi is involved in various projects and has diverse research interests. She has undertaken numerous studies examining ‘fertility knowledge’ and ‘fertility awareness’ in low and middle income countries (LIMC) and is currently designing a study on fertility knowledge in the UAE. She has expertise in conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses and extensive experience with multicultural research including the adaptation of tools and interventions for use in the Middle East and Africa. Through her work with the World Health Organization, she conducted research to develop and adapt several tools including a provider administered flipchart and screening tool for fertility awareness as well as a handbook for the identification and management of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, developed specifically for use in conflict situations. Beyond these specific research interests, Dr Bayoumi is more broadly interested in Gender-Based Violence, women’s health, quality of life, health promotion and prevention and is currently focused on research examining the behavioural antecedents of non-communicable diseases and the impact of COVID-19 on mental health.

Other activities

  • Technical advisor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA – UNFPA funded project on social and economic value of sexual and reproductive health (2019 – current)
  • Scientist Researcher and Consultant, World Health Organization, Geneve, Switzerland – Fertility care and awareness (2015-2018)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Bayoumi, RR, Koert, E, Boivin, J, McConnell, M, Wolde, B, Siddiqui, F, Elmusharaf, K & Viswanath, K 2024, 'Enhancing cultural sensitivity in the implementation of the Fertility Quality of Life Tool in Sudan: a science diplomacy perspective', Frontiers in public health, vol. 12, 1375643. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1375643

Rockowitz, S, Bayoumi, R, Parr, N, Awad, A, Altawil, M & Elmusharaf, K 2024, 'Fostering cultural resilience: assessing the success of a locally engaged and adapted mental health intervention in Gaza', Frontiers in public health, vol. 12, 1390211. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1390211

Dajani, R, Bayoumi, R, Flowe, H, Rockowitz, S, Stevens, L & Awad, A 2024, 'Neocolonialism and science diplomacy: lessons learned from the field and the way forward', Frontiers in public health, vol. 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1472421

Bayoumi, R & Boivin, J 2022, 'The impact of pharaonic female genital mutilation on sexuality: two cases from Sudan highlighting the need for widespread dissemination of sexual and reproductive health education in Africa', African Journal of Reproductive Health, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 110-114. https://doi.org/10.29063/ajrh2022/v26i1.12

Bayoumi, R, Koert, E, Poel, SVD & Boivin, J 2021, 'Determining the need for fertility care and the acceptability and feasibility of administering a fertility awareness tool from the user’s perspective in a sample of Sudanese infertility patients', Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, vol. 13, pp. 85-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2021.06.004

Bayoumi, RR, Koert, E, Boivin, J, Viswanath, K & McConnell, M 2021, 'Quality of life of Sudanese patients attending a fertility clinic: a mixed methods study', Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1006-1030. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2021.2007773

Bayoumi, R 2018, 'An evaluation of comprehensiveness, feasibility and acceptability of a fertility awareness educational tool', Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.06.003

Bayoumi, R 2018, 'Fertility awareness and quality of life: assessment and impact of fertility problems and infertility', Global Reproductive Health. https://doi.org/10.1097/grh.0000000000000021

Bayoumi, R 2017, 'Cultural Value Orientations and Alcohol Consumption in 74 Countries: A Societal-Level Analysis', Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01963

Preprint

Bayoumi, RR, Boivin, J, Fatemi, HM, Hurt, L, Serour, GI, Poel, SVD & Venetis, C 2021 'Looking beyond the obvious: a critical systematic review and meta-analyses of risk factors for fertility problems in a globalized world' medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.06.21256676

Review article

Bayoumi, RR, Hurt, L, Zhang, N, Law, YJ, Venetis, C, Fatem, HM, Serour, GI, van der Poel, S & Boivin, J 2024, 'A critical systematic review and meta-analyses of risk factors for fertility problems in a globalized world', Reproductive BioMedicine Online, vol. 48, no. 3, 103217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.04.008

ElKhalil, R, AlMekkawi, M, O'Connor, M, Masuadi, E, Sherif, M, Belfakir, M, Ahmed, LA, Al-Rifai, RH, Bayoumi, R & Elbarazi, I 2024, 'Measurement properties of the Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS): A systematic review', Asian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 101, 104214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104214

ElKhalil, R, AlMekkawi, M, O'Connor, M, Sherif, M, Masuadi, E, Ahmed, LA, Al-Rifai, RH, Belfakir, M, Bayoumi, R & Elbarazi, I 2024, 'Measurement properties of the Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS) validation studies: a systematic review protocol', BMJ open, vol. 14, no. 4, e081394. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081394

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