Ranna I. Parekh MD, MPH

Dr. Ranna Parekh, MD, MPH has over twelve years of experience leading diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She is currently the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the American College of Cardiology. She is the former American Psychiatric Association’s Deputy Medical Director, Director of the Division of Diversity and Health Equity, and Director of the American Psychiatric Association/ American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s (APA/APAF) 8 fellowship programs and 5 medical student grants including the SAMHSA funded Minority Fellowship Program. She is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. Prior to APA, she practiced at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School and was the inaugural Director of the MGH Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Diversity. 

She is co-author of the e-book Overcoming Prejudice in the Workplace (Harvard Health Publishers, 2012). She is co-editor of Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity (Springer Publishers, 2013), Cultural Sensitivity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (MGH Academy Press, 2016), and Stigma and Prejudice: Touchstones in Understanding Diversity (Springer 2016). 

Dr. Parekh has led training and lectured locally, nationally, and internationally on topics including diversity, cultural psychiatry, mediation, collaborative negotiations, child and adolescent psychiatry, addictions, and psychopharmacology. She has lived, studied, and worked in Japan, France, Poland, New Zealand, and Australia. Dr. Parekh is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health (MPH), the adult psychiatry and child fellowship residency training programs at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and also holds degrees from Wayne State University (MD, BSc in Biology, BA in Chemistry and co-major in Black Studies). Dr. Parekh consultant in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Morehouse School of Medicine.