This story from Rania Awaad was told live on stage in April 2024 at Stanford University as part of Testing Ground Live! Social Science on Stage, a storytelling show produced by Stanford Impact Labs (SIL) in collaboration with The Story Collider.

Rania Awaad, M.D. is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab as well Stanford University's Affiliate Chaplain.

Dr. Awaad has established multiple Muslim mental health clinics as well as customtailored clinical and educational training programs for clinicians, religious, and community leaders to address the mental health needs of Muslim communities. She also serves as the President of Maristan, a holistic mental health nonprofit serving Muslim communities.

As a SIL Design Fellow, she partnered with community and religious organizations to design and implement religious and culturally congruent and accessible suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention programs.

Guided by a mission of partnering with communities to put social science to work for society, SIL invests to learn what works in designing, testing, and scaling solutions; trains scholars and practitioners to harness data and evidence for impact; and promotes a culture of public impact in higher education.