Yara Asi is an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics, and a visiting scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, where she is co-director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, a 2020-2021 Fulbright U.S. scholar to the West Bank, and a 2023 Palestine fellow for the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

She previously served as the U.S. fellow at Al Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. Her research focuses on global health, human rights, and development in fragile populations. Asi has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Nation, among other publications, and has been featured on Al Jazeera, The World, and other outlets. Her new book with Johns Hopkins University Press, How War Kills: The Overlooked Threats to Our Health, examines war as a public health crisis.

"Yara's sharp and sophisticated research on the public health consequences of war makes crucial connections between health and human rights, adding an important critique of militarized U.S. policy in the Middle East," said DAWN's Executive Director Sarah Leah Whitson. "We are fortunate to have her joining DAWN to advance our mission for democratic change in the region."