Rita Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, occupied Palestinian territory and the founder of the Institute in 1978. As a researcher/practitioner Rita collaborated closely with the 1980’s Palestinian social action movement, which led to the development of the Palestinian primary health care model and the establishment of the first women’s health program. In the 1990s, she also participated in building the Palestinian community based disability rehabilitation network. Rita has chronicled the effects of Israeli military occupation on the physical and mental health of Palestinians. Since 2000, she has been focusing on the impact of chronic war-like conditions and exposure to political violence on the health and well-being of Palestinians, with an emphasis on psychosocial health and its relation to physical health. Rita has published extensively on women's health and mental health in wars and conflicts from a multidisciplinary public health perspective. She was awarded an honorary PhD from the LSE in 2011 for having made an "outstanding contribution to the increased understanding or appreciation of ' the causes of things.. '" She was also awarded the title of International Fellow of the Society for Research on Adolescence in 2018 for her ‘internationally and culturally sensitive approach to the understanding of adolescence worldwide’, and awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree (honoris causa) from King’s College London, for her work which ‘has set a standard for the provision of health care in war and post-war contexts in the Middle East and globally,’ October 16, 2019. She is one of three coordinators and a Steering Group member of the Lancet Palestinian Health Alliance. Currently, she is also serving as a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Syria, and the Lancet Commission on Human Rights and Health.
