Experts

Aysha Akhtar, M.D., M.P.H.

Aysha Akhtar, M.D., M.P.H., is director of the Washington Center for Clinical Research (WCCR), a subsidiary of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) that conducts independent clinical research focusing on the role of diet on health promotion and disease prevention and management.

Dr. Akhtar is double board certified in neurology and preventive medicine. As director of the WCCR, she designs clinical trials related to neurological and chronic diseases and how they may be improved by dietary intervention. She also serves as medical and research adviser to PCRM’s research department to promote alternatives to the use of animals in medical research, especially in spinal cord injury and other neurological research. 

Dr. Akhtar’s work has been published in the Archives of Family Medicine, and her letters on health care and medical ethics have been published in newspapers and medical journals internationally. She has given numerous presentations on the use of animals in experiments at institutions such as Yale and Brandeis universities, and she serves as a media spokeswoman for issues concerning animal experimentation and on disease prevention. Dr. Akhtar has appeared on national radio and TV shows and is a contributing writer and co-editor of PCRM’s Nutrition Guide for Clinicians.

Before beginning her preventive medicine residency at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Dr. Akhtar completed a neurology residency at the UNC Medical School and a general medicine internship at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. She previously served on the UNC Institutional Review Board for the protection of human research participants.

Dr. Akhtar received her Master of Public Health degree from the UNC School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, where she focused on neurology, preventive medicine, and medical ethics. Dr. Akhtar attended medical school at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk and studied molecular biology at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from George Mason University in Virginia.

Dr. Akhtar is a member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanity, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Medical Association. She has volunteered her services with the Pakistan Women’s Health Clinic and Folate Advocacy Program, Park Place Indigent Care Clinic, and the Washington Free Clinic. Born in London, Dr. Akhtar speaks French and is familiar with the Urdu language.

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