Dr. Maallah graduated from the Medical College, Baghdad University in 2013 with a Bachelor Degree in Medicine and Surgery and completed her foundation training at the Medical City in Iraq. Tackling health inequalities has captured her attention since she was a medical student when she volunteered for the National Cancer Research Centre at her home country.

In 2016, she joined the Master of Public Health at City University of London and graduated with Distinction in 2017. She received a distinction for the Dissertation module as well, published the results in a peer-reviewed journal and presented them at an International Public Health Conference.

Mina joined the NHS shortly after receiving the full GMC registration in 2019 and worked in the medical and surgical departments as well as on phase II-III clinical trials at the London Northwest NHS Trust and phase I clinical trial at Oxford University, mainly focusing on Infectious disease. During that period, she developed a deeper understanding of the system, enhanced her skills in communication, leadership and time management and received consistently similar feedback from different supervisors that she has an eye for detail and is very thorough when performing her tasks.

As Mina has a keen interest in public health research, she seized every opportunity to work on public health projects besides her clinical duties. She focused on tackling health inequalities in different areas, including maternity and child health, early detection of cancer and improving access to health services. She has been cited as a co-author in publications in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and the Lancet, published twice as the first author in peer-reviewed journals, presented at international and regional conferences and attended several public health events. Following a successful application and completion of an NIHR ARC Improvement Leader Fellowship program, she became an NIHR ARC Fellow in 2024, while the fellowship project is still ongoing.

In the NIHR ARC Improvement Leader Fellowship project, Dr. Mallaah has been working with Marsha Alter and Shivali Lakhani; Senior Community Pharmacists in Northwest London, under the supervision and guidance of Prof. Mitch Blair (Professors of Paediatrics and Child Public Health at Imperial College London) and in collaboration with the Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU) at the Department of Primary Care & Public Health, Imperial College London, to investigate the barriers and drivers of setting a service in which the community pharmacy team can support in managing minor illnesses in children in NWL. Within this project, the team aims to collect data addressing the parents’ acceptability of this scheme and the needs of the Community Pharmacists to deliver this service through detailed surveys and interviews.

Dr Maallah’s ambition is to complete a PhD in Public Health to seek an academic career path with an interest in tackling health inequalities in underserved communities. Mina has always been fascinated by the impact that public health interventions can produce at a population level and their ability to reach disadvantaged communities globally. She is passionate about working on initiatives that can prevent certain health outcomes for a targeted population by investigating the reasons behind specific human behaviours.