Ahmad Firas Khalid

Ahmad Firas Khalid is a medical doctor and a PhD graduate from the Health Policy PhD at McMaster University, having been supervised by Dr. John Lavis. Previously, Firas worked as a health policy researcher at the Research Unit on Humanitarian Stakes and Practices (UREPH) at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Geneva, Switzerland. He also worked in the department of Child and Maternal Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Firas consulted on a number of health policy projects for the department of information, evidence, and research department in WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and for Health Canada in Ottawa. Firas has expertise in medicine, education, health policy, knowledge translation and health emergencies working with relief and intergovernmental organizations. Currently, Firas lectures at McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences.

Firas attended St. George’s University School of Medicine in 2005 where he graduated MD with Research Distinction. He also holds a Masters of Management (IMHL) from McGill University (2014), and both a Masters of Health Professions Education (2014) and a Graduate Certificate in Population Health Risk Assessment and Management (2012) from the University of Ottawa.

As an outgoing Queen Elizabeth Scholar in Strengthening Health Systems, Firas completed an internship at Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the United Kingdom, where his work focused on how health systems react to crisis situations in low- and middle-income countries.

As a Queen Elizabeth Scholar in Strengthening Health and Social Systems, Firas travelled to Beirut (Lebanon) to intern at one of the McMaster Health Forum partners - Knowledge to Policy Center at the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) - on research that examines Lebanon’s health-system response to the Syrian refugee crisis.