Portfolio: Yale School of Medicine
PUPPETS & AUTISM: YALE RESEARCH SHOWS POTENTIAL FOR CONNECTION
The Yale Child Study Center joined forces last year with Cheryl Henson, daughter of celebrated puppeteer Jim Henson and president of the Jim Henson Foundation, to conduct the first study to confirm that young children with ASD respond well to puppets. Watch to learn about the therapeutic potential of puppets for children with autism.
VIRTUAL REALITY: HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE WITH CANCER FIND SUPPORT
Being a teenager is hard enough. But add a cancer diagnosis to those turbulent years and many kids, understandably, struggle with depression, anxiety, and other issues.
After creating virtual support groups, Yale’s Adolescent Young Adult Oncology program noticed increased resiliency in their patients.
‘Making the Invisible Visible’: Health Equity in the Pandemic
Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest lives possible. If that sounds like a no-brainer, it may be surprising to learn just how much disparity exists in health outcomes and access to treatment at a societal level.
Commissioned Works
JIRAN: The Arabic Community Action Summer (2023)
I was commissioned to film and produce a documentary promoting Jiran, an immersive Arabic language program through Middlebury College that pairs college students with underserved Arabic-speaking families in the New Britain, CT area. “Jiran” is the Arabic word for “neighbors” and reflects the program’s mission to build strong community ties between newly resettled refugees and immigrants and long-time residents of New Britain. The film follows the progam’s founders, students and community participants as they share their personal stories of coming to the United States and their experience with Jiran.
A BETTER WAY TO TREAT TRAUMA
Filmed for Find a Better Way, a UK-based NGO that opened a physiotherapy and psychotherapy clinic in Amman, Jordan for survivors of war injuries. This short film shares the stories of Syrian refugees and therapists working toward recovery.
COLLATERAL REPAIR PROJECT
Filmed and edited for Collateral Repair Project, a local NGO in Amman, Jordan, highlighting their emergency assistance programs and community center for urban refugees from Iraq, Syria, and Sudan.
BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
Filmed for UNICEF and the UK DFID to highlight services for children with mobility disabilities and learning differences around Jordan, ahead of the Global Disability Summit in London.
Visual Ethnographies
Motherhood Mediated Through Photography and Social Media
My MA thesis work - an essay and two media projects - examines the lived experiences of contemporary motherhood, taking Intensive Motherhood as the primary theoretical model through which motherhood is articulated, imagined, and contested. I sought to examine visual performances of Intensive Motherhood on social media, to understand how contemporary mothers share and consume snapshots and lifestyle images depicting the daily life of motherhood, to examine whether visual narratives of motherhood have changed due to social media, and to gain an understanding of how interacting with these images affects mothers’ sense of self and how they evaluate themselves as mothers. Through a short film and photography book, I both document my own transition into motherhood, and create a narrative of our family dynamic through a collaborative ethnographic short film.
Night Night (2024)
Synopsis: Yahya, a two year old boy, has one goal: to avoid bedtime for as long as possible. After a long day at school and a big dinner, he’s prepared to keep his parents awake and busy for hours. He splashes his mom while taking a bath, builds a block tower and knocks it down, cries for snacks, demands stuffed animals, tucks them into bed, and throws them onto the floor again. Eventually, his manic toddler energy gives way to sleep, and he drifts off to a lullaby.
But it’s not “night night” yet for Mama: there are still dishes to clean and work to catch up on. Funny and heartfelt, one family’s evening routine portrays the exhausting but fleeting experience of parenting young children, while highlighting the usually invisible work of mothers.
BECAUSE THE TREES KNOW ME (2017)
Newcomers to Germany talk about their experiences through the sentimental objects they carried with them. A sensory exploration of home and memory, stories about these objects tell how people stay connected to people and places after being uprooted from home. Produced with Mariana Duarte and Kanny Li as part of my graduate work in the MA Visual Anthropology program at the University of Münster.
About + Contact
I’m a photographer and videographer with 10+ years of experience in journalism and nonprofit communications. I currently work at Yale University as a video producer for the School of Medicine, where I conceptualize, film and edit original documentary-style video content.
Prior to joining Yale, I was based in Amman, Jordan, where I covered refugee communities and women's issues. My work has been commissioned and featured by UNICEF, UNOPS, the Associated Press, CNN International, WIRED, Mashable, Broadly/VICE, USAID, Gilead Sciences, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, Sesame Workshop, Der Spiegel, FIFA, NRC Handelsblad, and more.
I recently completed my MA studies in Visual Anthropology from the University of Münster in Germany. The program blends rigorous study of anthropological theory and practice, with filmmaking and audiovisual media as a social research tool. My graduate work has focused on transnational families and migration, visual representations of motherhood, digital ethnography and auto-ethnographic practices. I received my BFA in Photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2012.
I live in New Haven, CT with my husband, Layth, son Yahya, and a lazy cat named Sunshine. Outside of work, you’ll find me chasing after my toddler, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the millionth time, or knitting.