Dr. Seema Yasmin is a Physician and the Director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative.

Dr. Seema Yasmin trained as a medical doctor at the University of Cambridge and as a journalist at the University of Toronto. Seema Yasmin also studied Biochemistry in Queen Mary University of London.^[13]

Seema Yasmin is also a public speaker who takes audiences behind the scenes of public health and engages them with stories about epidemic investigations.

Seema Yasmin previously worked as a disease detective in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to that, she was a science correspondent at The Dallas Morning News, medical analyst for CNN, and professor of public health at the University of Texas at Dallas.^[13]

Seema Yasmin writing has earned awards and residencies from the Mid Atlantic Arts Council, Hedgebrook, the Millay Colony for the Arts and others. Her first book, The Impatient Dr. Lange (Johns Hopkins University Press, July 2018) is the biography of an AIDS doctor killed on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Her second book, Muslim Women Are Everything: Stereotype-Shattering Stories of Courage, Inspiration, and Adventure, was released in April 2020.^[13] In this book, Yasmin recounts the achievements of Muslim women across the world and their battles against racial and gender prejudice to become elite leaders in their chosen specialties. "The women in my book show what can be achieved. It was really hard to choose the selection: I wanted Muslim women from across the world, from Africa to Brazil, to tell their stories," she said. Yasmin chose Muslim artist Fahmida Azim to illustrate the book. It was important to her, she said, after showcasing all the amazing achievements of these women, that it should be a Muslim woman who illustrated them. One of the Muslim women depicted in the book is the weightlifter Amna Al Haddad from the United Arab Emirates.^[25]

Yasmin’s unique expertise in medicine, epidemics and journalism has been called upon by The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the Aspen Institute, Skoll Foundation and others.^[13]

Yasmin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news in 2017 with a team from The Dallas Morning News and recipient of an Emmy for her reporting on neglected diseases. She received two grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In 2017, Yasmin was a John S. Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University investigating the spread of health misinformation and disinformation during epidemics.^[13]

As of March 2020, Yasmin has about 31,000 followers on her DoctorYasmin Twitter. There she comments in current events and shares her opinions. She also has about 3,000 followers on her drseemayasmin Instagram account.^[2][14]

Seema and her mother, Yasmin Halima, moved to the U.S. from Britain to pursue educational and career opportunities.

They recently co-founded the Yasmin Leadership Academy, an organization that provides career coaching and scholarships to young women.^[16]

Seema Yasmin's last name is her mother's first name.

When she was 17, being a feminist, she decided she didn’t want her dad’s name attached with her anymore.

At the same time, her mother, who had been divorced for about 12 years, was finally changing her name with the help of the lawyer.

She didn’t want to go back to her maiden name, so her family members suggested to her that under Islamic law, one option is to take your mother’s name as your last name.

Yasmin Halima took her grandmother’s name as her last name instead, and in the same way her daughter changed her name to Seema Yasmin.^[16]