Fathima Wakeel, PhD, MPH

Dr. Fathima Wakeel is an associate professor with over 20 years of academic and research training in the maternal and child health field. Her research agenda is to produce knowledge that will help reduce racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in adverse maternal and child health outcomes. Though previous work largely focused on identifying the differential prenatal risks (e.g. maternal stress) underlying these disparities, her research concerns the differential development of protective factors - i.e. maternal resilience- over the life course. 

Dr. Wakeel is one of the first researchers to conceptualize and operationalize the construct of maternal resilience and examine its relationships with stress and adverse obstetric outcomes. She has conducted quantitative, mixed-methods, and community-based participatory research to explore the measurement of maternal resilience, specifically among different racial/ethnic groups of women, and how it develops over the life course. She has also applied a strength-based approach to examine other emerging health priorities, including the pandemic, the transition into adulthood among individuals with autism, out-of-state abortion training for OB/GYN residents following the Dobbs decision, and the needs and experiences relating to the vital conditions among Black residents residing in the Allentown community. Dr. Wakeel has over ten years of experience teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, curriculum and program development, and interdisciplinary community coalition development. 

Dr. Wakeel received her PhD in Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles and her Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health at the University of South Florida. Her postdoctoral training includes the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality Health Services Research and Healthcare Quality Improvement Program Fellowship and the Health Disparities Research Scholars Program Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Education

• PhD in Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
• MPH in Maternal and Child Health at the University of South Florida
• BA in Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences (emphasis on Chemistry) at the University of South Florida

Areas of Research and Publications

Maternal and Child Health, Women’s Mental Health

The goal of Dr. Wakeel’s research is to help reduce racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in adverse maternal and child health outcomes. Though previous work has largely focused on identifying the differential prenatal risks (e.g. maternal stress) underlying these disparities, her research concerns the differential development of protective factors—i.e., maternal resilience--over the life course among women from different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

View Fathima Wakeel on Google Scholar >

Awards and Honors

• Faculty Advising and Mentoring Award, April 2017
• Teacher of the Year Award, April 2016
• Faculty Global Engagement and Internationalization Award, November 2024
• Class of 1961 Professorship Award, June 2024

Courses