Nour AkhrasDr. Nour Akhras is a board-certified pediatric infectious diseases physician who has been working at a free-standing Women and Children's Hospital in the suburbs of Chicago for the last decade. Dr. Akhras was trained in pediatrics at the University o Illinois Chicago Medical Center and completed her fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She holds a BA in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago and received her medical degree from Rush Medical College. Dr. Akhras was trained in traditional Islamic sciences in Damascus, Syria, and has her ijaza in tajwid through the late Shaykh Hasan al-Kurdi. She has contributed a chapter on Islamic bioethics to a book published by Yale University entitled What's the Point? Clinical Reflections on Care that Seems Futile. She has served on the board of IMAN (Inner City Muslim Action Network). This grassroots organization fosters transformational change in urban communities where she co-chaired IMAN's youth group, Pillars, for many years. She has also participated in multiple medical missions to support Syrian refugees in Hatay, Turkey, Thessaloniki, Greece, and displaced war victims in Ma'rib, Yemen. She has served on the boards of MedGlobal and the Syrian American Medical Society Midwest chapter. She has advocated for the rights of refugees by authoring op-eds in newspapers like USA Today and the Chicago Sun-Times. She has led speaking engagements, including presenting at Washington DC's National Press Club, discussing the effects of Syrian war violence on the lives of Syrian women. She loves to travel, read, and swim in her free time. She takes bike rides and walks with her family and supports her children, who play basketball games. One may also find her attending gatherings with her sister, cousins, and high school friends. Read More Read Less