Omar Ghabra is currently pursuing a residency in psychiatry. He is also an award-winning writer, editor, and photographer. His in-depth, on-the-ground reporting and commentary from across the globe on a broad range of political, social, and health-related topics, have been published in a number of national and international publications, including The Nation, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, The Charleston-Gazette Mail, The Huffington Post, and Scientific American.

His reporting has been cited by a number of peer-reviewed journal articles in environmental science, public health, and political science and was most recently featured in Wildlands: The Making of America’s Fury, by the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos. His 2013 report for Al Jazeera America publicized an unconstitutional “Bible in the Schools” program, which had sanctioned evangelical religious instruction in a public school system in southern West Virginia. This ultimately resulted in legal action by The Freedom from Religion Foundation that ended an almost century-long violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, which had previously gone unscrutinized.

He also has an extensive record of advocacy and leadership experience in service of marginalized populations across the globe. He was recognized with four President’s Volunteer Service Awards during the Obama Administration for his work in support of healthcare delivery to refugees, the creation of a program that offered EMT training courses free of charge amid a shortage of first responders during West Virginia’s opioid epidemic, and advocacy for universal healthcare during the push for healthcare reform in the lead up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. He served as the medical student president for the Syrian American Medical Society until 2021.