Omar El-shahawy MD, MPH, PhD

Omar El-Shahawy is an Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Medicine, Department of Population, Section on Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drug Use. He also holds an affiliated faculty position at the Department of Global Health, NYU School of Global Public Health. Dr. El-Shahawy obtained his medical degree at the University of Ain Shams in Cairo, Egypt, in 2002 and his Master of Public Health in international health development from the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2007. He was awarded the prestigious Hubert Humphrey fellowship from the Department of State and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in 2010.

During his fellowship, he had a particular focus on gender issues in adolescent and marginalized groups. He later obtained his PhD in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences from the Department of Health Behavior and Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015. During his postdoctoral fellowship at NYU School of Medicine, Dr. El Shahawy focused on alternative tobacco product use among vulnerable populations including people with substance use disorder. His current research interests include novel tobacco products, smoking cessation among vulnerable populations, and patient-physician decision-making.