Abeera Shahid

At the time of the QE Scholarship, Abeera was an undergraduate student in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program at McMaster University specializing in Global Health. She was also a recipient of a Loran Scholarship. With diverse interests in healthcare, technology, social justice, and the environment, she aims to work at the intersections of disciplines to solve challenging healthcare problems.

As an outbound Queen Elizabeth Scholar, Abeera was based at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney in Australia. She contributed to qualitative research on how the Population Health Information Management System (PHIMS) supported large-scale delivery of health promotion interventions. PHIMS monitors the delivery of the New South Wales health promotion initiative that aims to reduce childhood obesity by improving physical activity and nutrition practices in childcare and primary school environments. Through the experience, Abeera hoped to learn more about policy-level decision making and creating resilient health systems through the implementation of health promotion programs.