Rima Nakkash, DrPH, MPH

Rima Nakkash is Interim Chair and Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health. Nakkash is a leading international scholar in tobacco control research in prevention and policy evaluation. She has published on community based participatory research initiatives as well as process, and implementation research, particularly with youth and disadvantaged populations with a focus on mental health promotion. She is interested in civic  and citizen engagement in health policy making, translation of evidence-based public health to inform interventions and policy, and advocacy for health. Her most recent research interests include research on research ethics and exploring interactions and conflict of interest between corporations and public health.  She co-coordinates a global network on Governance on Ethics and Conflict and interest in Public Health (GECI-PH). She is a strong tobacco control advocate at national, regional, and international levels and believes in the power of partnerships and coalitions. In partnership with civil society and media, she had a major role in the passage of the most comprehensive tobacco control law while in Lebanon in 2011. In 2013, she was granted the international WHO World No Tobacco Day Award by Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO Director at that time.

Before coming to Mason, Nakkash was a tenured Associate Professor at the Health Promotion and Community Health Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the American University of Beirut. She was the coordinator of the AUB Tobacco Control research group, co-director the WHO FCTC waterpipe tobacco smoking knowledge hub, Associate Director of the Knowledge to Policy Center, and Director of the Public Health Education Office.

Research

Public health schools and programs collaborate to study young adults in humanitarian settings

Mason professor leads grant with University of Florida on a tobacco cessation implementation in Lebanon

Research Interests

• Implementation science
• Tobacco control 
• Advocacy 
• Mental health promotion 
• Community based participatory research 
• Commercial determinants of health 

Select Publications

• Nakkash R, Mugharbil S, Tleis M, Jaafar M, Asfar T, Maziak W. Implementing pictorial health warning labels on waterpipe tobacco products in Lebanon: A policy framework analysis of content, actors, context, and process. Nicotine Tob Res. 2024 May 7:ntae104. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntae104. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38712750.
• Farran D, Abla R, Nakkash R. Abu Rmeileh N,  Jawad M, Khader Y, Mostafa A, Salloum R, Chalak A, Factors associated with intentions to quit tobacco use in Lebanon: A cross-sectional survey,Preventive Medicine Reports (2024),Volume 37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102572
• Farran D., Salloum R. G., El Jardali F., Abla R., Abu Rmeileh N., Al Sheyab N. Nakkash R. (2024). From knowledge production to knowledge translation: Waterpipe tobacco control research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Tobacco Prevention & Cessation (2024), 10(January), 3. https://doi.org/10.18332/tpc/175953
• Jebai, R,Asfar T,  Nakkash R, Chehab S,  Schmidt M,Wu W, Bursac Z,Maziak W.(2023) Comparisons between young adult waterpipe smokers and nonsmokers’ reactions to pictorial health warning labels in Lebanon: a randomized crossover experimental study, Health Education Research, cyad027, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyad027
• Makhoul J, El Ashkar C, Mialon M, Levy A, Sabbagh D, Nakkash R. Benefits and risks: Views of humanitarian organizations in Lebanon on corporate assistance. PLOS Glob Public Health.(2023) Nov 10;3(11):e0002291. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002291
• 3Mostafa A, Jawad M, Abla R, Chalak A, Khader Y, Nakkash R, Salloum RG, Abu Rmeileh NME.  Health and economic impacts of introducing specific excise tax to waterpipe tobacco in Egypt: A simulation model of simple and mixed tax policy approaches. BMJ Global Health. (2023)

See CV for more.

Degrees

• Doctorate, Public Health Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U.K.
• MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
• BS, Bachelor of Arts, Macalester College