Tarif Bakdash

Dr Tarif Bakdash was born in 1965 in Damascus, Syria, graduated from University of Damascus medical school in 1988, and then emigrated to the US. Over the next fourteen years, he held half a dozen positions with institutions as diverse as the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and the Harvard Medical School. In 2002, Dr Bakdash returned to Syria at the invitation of President Bashar al-Assad to teach at the University of Damascus. In addition to his teaching, Dr Bakdash opened a private pediatric neurology clinic. Over the next eight years, he served in Damascus with the World Health Organization of the United Nations. He was named the Services Director and later the National Plan Director for the Syrian Organization for the Disabled (AAMAL) and later was given a government appointment as the first Secretary General for the Disabled in Syria. In 2010, Dr Bakdash left Syria and returned to the US. He now collaborates with the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) on health issues facing Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. He recently visited the al-Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan to treat Syrian refugees. In 2015, Dr Bakdash received the Standing Ovation Award from the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for his humanity in treating children. For more: