Mehreen Shahid is a development practitioner with over 10 years of experience in health, education, gender equality, social protection and public-private partnerships, among other sectors. She is the founder of the Safe Delivery Safe Mother (SDSM) organization, that provides essential and life-saving maternal and reproductive healthcare services in the rural, remote and low-resource communities of Pakistan.
She has implemented successful public-private partnership delivery models that strengthen public health systems, designed training curriculums, developed strategy and monitoring and evaluation frameworks, launched digital data reporting tools, conducted advocacy campaigns and built capacity of community health workers and skilled birth attendants. She also advises governments and clients in Pakistan and abroad on health systems, public education, and private sector engagement to enhance social impact.
Previously, she has worked at the Clinton Foundation, the World Bank, and McKinsey & Company in Pakistan, the U.S., the UK, and the Middle East. She has in-depth experience with strategy development, program implementation and impact assessments across the private, social and public sectors. Academically, she has a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford, and is the recipient of the prestigious Annemarie Schimmel Scholarship, which is awarded to one Pakistani woman annually. She holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting and Finance (major) and Social Sciences (minor) from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
She is an alumna of the Global Health Corps Fellowship and was the first Pakistani to ever be selected in 2015. She was the first and only Pakistani woman selected among 30 women globally for the Forbes Ignite Fellowship in 2021 to solve critical public health challenges. She has spoken at prominent national and global platforms on women’s rights, social justice, gender equity, and maternal health at the University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins University, the WHO’s Implementation Best Practice (IBP) network, Women Leaders in Global Health conferences, the PUSH campaign, and the Girl Summit; and is also a TEDx speaker.