Rebecca Leff
Medical Student
Ben Gurion University
leffre@post.bgu.ac.il
Beer Sheva, Israel

Area of expertise: Emergency Medicine (MS4)

Rebecca Leff serves on the Physicians for Human Rights Student Advisory Board Advocacy Committee and is currently a fourth-year medical student at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. She graduated with a BA in Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, and Film and Media Studies with a certificate in interdisciplinary human rights from the University of California, Berkeley. Rebecca has worked in and around the human rights sector in both the Middle East and the United States for the past 7 years while completing her education, working with such organizations as Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, the Center for International Migration and Integration, the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Save a Child's Heart, and the Olive Tree Initiative. Her film High Without Stairs tells the story of a young Syrian refugee who finds his way to Israel for heart surgery.

Currently, she is completing a research year with the Yale Emergency Medicine Global Health Section mentored by Christine Ngaruiya, MD, MSc, DTM&H to focus on the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in humanitarian crises, refugee barriers to care, barriers to care for low English proficiency patients, and humanitarian intervention development for both children and adults, with a particular focus on East Africa. She is the current president and founder of the Ben Gurion University Physicians for Human Rights chapter.