Dr. Basheer Ahmad Awarded 2008 Humanitarian Award

Dr. Basheer Ahmed was recently honored with the 2008 Humanitarian Award from the Tarrant County Medical Society, an organization representing more than 3000 physicians in the local area.

The Humanitarian Award honors a physician for exceptional volunteer service above and beyond the scope of a medical practice. The award ceremony took place on January 25, at the Fort Worth Club. The ceremony was started with a invocation by Imam Moujahed Bakhach of Fort Worth.

In addition to his expertise as a psychiatrist, M. Basheer Ahmed, M.D., is a fundraiser, community mental health advocate, and social activist.

Over the past 15 years, he has served as Chairman of the Board and Executive Director for the Muslim Community Center for Human Services located in Fort Worth.

This organization offers a free medical clinic with a special emphasis on understanding the Muslim community, free counseling services, a free domestic violence hotline, health fairs, and other services to those in need.

A native of Hyderabad, India, Ahmed, immigrated to the United States in 1968. Prior to this, he obtained his medical degree from Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan, and completed postgraduate psychiatric studies at Glasgow University in Scotland.

He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry. He is also a distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

In addition to his educational and philanthropic accomplishments, Ahmed has held faculty positions at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, NY; Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; and was professor of Psychiatry at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. In 1985, Ahmed established a private practice in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ahmed is past president of the Islamic Medical Association of North America and past president of the Islamic Association of Tarrant County.

The meeting was attended by the executive committee of the Tarrant County Medical Society, past recipients of Humanitarian Award, the members of the Medical Society, the board members of MCC for Human Services, volunteer physicians of Al Shifa Clinic, and many supporters of MCC projects.

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