MBBS · MPH · Mental Health System Designer · Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dr. Syeda
Fatema Alam

Medical doctor and mental health system designer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I build the institutions, policies, and programmes that make mental health care possible — with a particular focus on women, displaced communities, and populations underserved by existing systems.

Humanitarian MHPSS Digital Mental Health Research Capacity Student Wellbeing Workplace Wellbeing

Mental health system designer,
clinician & researcher

I am a medical doctor, public health specialist, and mental health system designer with over six years of experience building evidence-based programmes in complex and crisis-affected settings. My work focuses not just on treating individuals, but on designing the institutional infrastructure — policies, protocols, training systems, and surveillance tools — that makes equitable mental health care possible at scale.

My training spans clinical psychiatry (FCPS training), public health (MPH, North South University), and specialised programmes in mental health in complex emergencies (Fordham University), dementia (Trinity College Dublin), and leadership in medicine (Harvard Medical School — in progress).

I currently lead the Margin Research Initiative, building research capacity among medical students in Bangladesh. From June 2026, I also serve as Research and Grants Specialist at Moner Bondhu, contributing to AI-powered mental health tools and grant strategy for digital mental health in South Asia.

Previously, as Director of Wellness at the Asian University for Women (AUW), I established and led a comprehensive student wellness ecosystem serving over 2,100 young women from 15+ countries — including large cohorts of Afghan and Rohingya students. I designed longitudinal wellbeing surveillance systems, student crisis response protocols, safeguarding frameworks, and a peer-support programme of 400+ trained Wellness Ambassadors that now serves as a model for the region.

My career has been shaped by a deep commitment to equity — removing the structural barriers of trauma, stigma, and inadequate support that prevent people from accessing care. I bring a systems-level approach grounded in cultural responsiveness and safeguarding.

Education
Leadership in Medicine
Harvard Medical School · 2026 (In Progress)
Mental Health in Complex Emergencies
Fordham University · December 2025
International Dementia Academy South Asia (IDASA-2)
Trinity College Dublin · May 2024
Master of Public Health (MPH)
North South University, Bangladesh · August 2022
MBBS
Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, Dhaka · 2019
Awards & Recognition
Early Career Psychiatrist Leadership Training — Barcelona 2025
Direct mentorship from Prof. Graham Thornicroft and Prof. Norman Sartorius, two of the most distinguished figures in global psychiatry.
Awarded by the InterAcademy Partnership in partnership with the World Health Summit, recognising outstanding young physicians worldwide.
Languages
English বাংলা فارسی دری اردو हिन्दी
Affiliations & Roles
Member
Bangladesh Psychiatric Association
BMDC Registered Physician
Bangladesh Medical & Dental Council
Associate Editor
Frontiers in Digital Health
GBD Collaborator
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) · Oct 2022 – Present

Current & recent projects

Director
May 2026 – Present
Margin Research Initiative
A capacity-building programme focused on equipping medical students in Bangladesh with the skills to conduct rigorous, equity-oriented research. The initiative addresses a critical gap — the shortage of researchers with both clinical training and methodological expertise working on marginalised populations in low-resource settings. Through mentorship, structured training, and collaborative projects, we aim to generate evidence that directly informs policy and practice for underserved communities in Bangladesh and the wider South Asian region.
Research & Grant Specialist
June 2026 – Present
Contributing research and grant development expertise to Bangladesh’s leading digital mental health platform. Work spans AI-powered mental health tool development, workplace wellbeing programme design, and identifying funding opportunities to scale evidence-based digital interventions across South Asia.
Research Assistant
Dec 2021 – Oct 2024
A three-year, multi-country study testing the effectiveness and acceptability of online supportive supervision for mental health practitioners in humanitarian settings, implemented across Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, Syria, and Turkey. Contributed to field coordination, data collection, contextual adaptation of tools, and publication of the study protocol in BMC Psychiatry (2023).
Policy Research
Under review
Climate Change & Youth Mental Health
A policy paper exploring how climate anxiety, eco-grief, and environmental disruption intersect with adolescent mental health — and what educational and clinical systems can do in response.

Technology for mental health access

Contributor
Digital Intervention
Accessibility & Inclusion
MindSigns — Mental Health Sign Language Bank
I contributed to MindSigns, a digital intervention designed to create a new sign language vocabulary bank for mental health concepts in Bangla, developed specifically for deaf communities in Bangladesh. The project addresses a critical gap: the near-total absence of standardised sign language terminology for mental health, which leaves deaf individuals without the language to describe or seek support for their inner experiences. MindSigns works collaboratively with deaf community members and mental health professionals to develop, test, and disseminate new signs — making mental health both speakable and accessible across modalities.

Peer-reviewed work

ORCID: 0000-0002-3679-9913

Building institutions,
not just programmes

Mental health systems do not run on clinical instinct alone — they require policy infrastructure, institutional frameworks, and safeguarding architecture that protects people before anything goes wrong. At the Asian University for Women, I designed and built one of Bangladesh’s first comprehensive institutional mental health systems from the ground up: a layered ecosystem of prevention, peer support, clinical care, and formal policy that served over 2,100 students from 15+ countries. The policies below are documents I authored or led as part of that work.

Institutional Policy
Asian University for Women
Mental Health Policy, AUW
A comprehensive institutional mental health policy establishing the mandate, principles, and operational framework of the Mental Wellness Center at AUW. Covers service access, confidentiality, duty of care, referral pathways, and the rights of students from conflict-affected and displaced backgrounds. Designed to function across 15+ nationalities and a wide range of cultural and religious contexts.
Institutional Policy
Asian University for Women
Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy 2.0, AUW
A revised and strengthened policy framework for the prevention, reporting, and institutional response to sexual harassment at AUW. Version 2.0 incorporated survivor-centred principles, clearer reporting mechanisms, defined accountability structures, and specific protections for students from contexts where reporting carries elevated social risk. Developed in alignment with international standards and adapted to the institutional and cultural realities of the university.
Institutional Framework
Asian University for Women
Safeguarding Framework, AUW
An institutional safeguarding framework establishing clear duties, protocols, and response pathways to protect students — particularly those under 18 and those from vulnerable or conflict-affected backgrounds — from harm, abuse, and exploitation. The framework defined roles across faculty, staff, and wellness personnel, and created structured escalation procedures for safeguarding concerns, crisis situations, and mandatory reporting obligations.

Where I have worked

January 2025 – April 2026
Chittagong, Bangladesh
Director of Wellness — Asian University for Women
Led the mental health ecosystem for ~2,100 adolescent and young adult women from over 15 countries, including large cohorts of Afghan, Rohingya, and other conflict-affected students. Established and expanded the Mental Wellness Center as a comprehensive, multi-tiered system integrating prevention, community-based support, and clinical care. Developed institutional policies including a Student Crisis Response Protocol, Anti-Bullying Policy, and Safeguarding Framework.
March 2024 – December 2025
Chittagong, Bangladesh
Assistant Director of Wellness — Asian University for Women
December 2021 – October 2024
Rohingya Refugee Camps, Bangladesh
Supported implementation research on MHPSS interventions for humanitarian workers in Rohingya camp settings. Field coordination, data collection, contextual adaptation of tools, ethics-compliant procedures, and co-authorship of publications.
October 2022 – Present
IHME · Freelance
GBD Collaborator — Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Contributing to the Global Burden of Disease Study, one of the most comprehensive efforts worldwide to quantify health loss across diseases, injuries, and risk factors. This work directly informs national policies, funding priorities, and global health strategies — and is deeply aligned with my commitment to mental health systems strengthening in LMICs, where the burden is consistently under-measured and under-represented in decision-making spaces.
July 2021 – December 2024
Dhaka Medical College Hospital
Clinical Psychiatry Training
Trained across inpatient and outpatient psychiatry settings, managing diverse mental health conditions and conducting assessments, risk evaluations, and psychotherapy-informed care within multidisciplinary teams.
WHO mhGAP Trainer of Trainers
Trauma-informed pedagogy for faculty teaching displaced students
Adolescent peer-support training for 400+ Wellness Ambassadors
Suicide prevention skill-building workshops
Digital wellbeing & safe technology use for young women
Psychological First Aid — Master Trainer (HAEFA)
25th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry — Prague, October 2025
33rd European Psychiatric Association Congress — Madrid, April 2025
2nd Rethinking Mental Health Care Conference — Colombo, February 2025
42nd ICS World Congress — Bangkok, 2022

Let’s work together

I welcome enquiries related to research collaboration, speaking invitations, programme consultancy, grant co-applications, and media. I am open to conversations in English, Bangla, Farsi, Dari, Urdu, or Hindi.

Areas open to collaboration
MHPSS programme design and evaluation in humanitarian or low-resource settings
Research capacity-building for early-career researchers in South Asia
Digital mental health tool development and evaluation
GIS-based health service mapping projects
Training and workshop delivery — trauma-informed care, PFA, mhGAP
Policy advocacy and evidence translation for mental health in LMICs
Work featured in
The Daily Star Sanctuary of the Mind — AUW Mental Wellness Center →