Alifa Abdul Karim (PhD, MPH, BScN) is a public health researcher, epidemiologist, and lecturer at the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CDUTCM) in collaboration with Keele University. Her work bridges mental health, gender equity, childhood behavioral epidemiology, and the use of smart data-driven solutions to strengthen health systems in underserved communities. She is dedicated to advancing evidence-based public health interventions that promote equity and improve outcomes for marginalized populations across global contexts.

Dr. Abdul Karim holds a PhD in Epidemiology from Ehime University in Japan, where her dissertation examined how parental socioeconomic status influences children’s psychological adjustment. She also earned a Master of Public Health in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Ghana and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University for Development Studies. Her academic excellence has been recognized through several prestigious awards, including the Ichihiro Kanehara Foundation Science Grant, the Miura Educational Association Research Support Grant, and the Japanese Government Honors Scholarship for outstanding international scholars.

Her professional work spans teaching, research, program development, and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA), she led gender-sensitive research initiatives, supervised research assistants, and integrated AI-driven tools to enhance literature reviews, data extraction, and systematic analysis. She is experienced in mixed methods approaches and proficient in SAS, R, NVivo, Rayyan, and other analytical tools that support high-quality public health research.

At Ehime University’s Graduate School of Medicine, she conducted research focused on behavioral and mental health epidemiology, taught medical English to medical and nursing students, and supported student academic development through tailored instructional programs. Her earlier work as a Project Coordinator at Life From 30 NGO in Ghana centered on strengthening community-based health education, improving cancer awareness programming, and designing gender-responsive health curricula.

In her current role at CDUTCM/Keele, Dr.  Abdul Karim teaches public health and research-focused courses, mentors students, and contributes to emerging research on mental health equity and AI-supported health systems. Her long-term career goal is to design culturally grounded, evidence-based interventions that improve mental health services and strengthen health equity policies in underserved populations. Dr. Abdul Karim completed her secondary education at Ghana Lebanon Islamic Secondary School in Accra. She is currently based in Wenjiang District, Chengdu, China, and enjoys cooking, reading, exploring new environments, and people-watching