Dr. Seema Yasmin

Dr. Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, poet, author, and medical doctor. Yasmin served as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she investigated disease outbreaks and was principal investigator on a number of CDC studies. Yasmin trained in journalism at the University of Toronto and in medicine at the University of Cambridge.

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. Previously 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.

Her 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, Debunked! Pseudoscience, Medical Myths and Why They Persist, is forthcoming in November 2019. A major title about Muslim women is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2020.

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.

Current Roles at Stanford:

Clinical Assistant Professor, Stanford Medical School
Director, Research and Education Programs, Stanford Health Communication Initiative
Lecturer, School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences

Honors and Awards:

• Mayborn Award for Literary Non-Fiction, Mayborn School of Journalism, University of North Texas. (2015)
• Mayborn Award for Literary Non-Fiction, Mayborn School of Journalism, University of North Texas (2016)
• Westfield Trust Prize for Academic Excellence, Queen Mary University of London (2005)
• Unit Commendation, United States Public Health Service (2014)
• Public Health Award for Media Excellence in Print Media, Texas Public Health Association (2015)

• National Health Journalism Fellowship Award, Center for Health Journalism, University of Southern California (2015)
• John P. McGovern Award in Health Promotion, University of Texas at Austin (2016)
• Physician Excellence in Reporting, Texas Medical Association (2016)
• Finalist, Pulitzer Prize (2017)
• Reporting award, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (2015)
• Reporting award, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (2017)
• Emmy, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (2016)

Education & Certifications

• MD, University of Cambridge
• Journalism, University of Toronto
• Biochemistry, Queen Mary University of London