Diana Rayes

Diana Rayes, PhD MHS, is a global health expert and nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. She is currently a postdoctoral associate at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she focuses on the impact of conflict and displacement on mental health. She earned her PhD and MHS at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is a former Fulbright scholar. 

Bar chart titled “Millions Displaced In and Out of Syria,” displays Syrian displacement from 2011 to 2024, broken into three categories: refugees (light blue), asylum seekers (thin yellow band), and internally displaced persons (dark blue). Displacement surged after the Arab Spring protests reached Syria in March 2011, with annual totals exceeding 14 million by 2024. Internally displaced persons consistently represent the largest group throughout the period. Source: Think Global Health
Governance

Authoritarianism and the Genetics of Trauma

by Diana Rayes

A Syrian American global health scholar reflects on generations of trauma after decades of Assad dictatorship