This story from Rania Awaad was told live on stage in April 2024 at Stanford University as part of Testing Ground Live! Social Science on Stage, a storytelling show produced by Stanford Impact Labs (SIL) in collaboration with The Story Collider.
Rania Awaad, M.D. is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab as well Stanford University's Affiliate Chaplain.
Dr. Awaad has established multiple Muslim mental health clinics as well as custom-tailored clinical and educational training programs for clinicians, religious, and community leaders to address the mental health needs of Muslim communities. She also serves as the President of Maristan, a holistic mental health nonprofit serving Muslim communities.
As a SIL Design Fellow, she partnered with community and religious organizations to design and implement religious and culturally congruent and accessible suicide prevention, intervention, and post-vention programs.
Guided by a mission of partnering with communities to put social science to work for society, SIL invests to learn what works in designing, testing, and scaling solutions; trains scholars and practitioners to harness data and evidence for impact; and promotes a culture of public impact in higher education.