Angie Galal

Angie Galal demonstrated various models of commitment to social change throughout her academic and professional careers since 2007.  On a personal level, Ms. Galal is keen on raising awareness on topics that concern social and political justice, particularly on issues of race, ethnicity, and gender. She moved to the United States in 2015 to pursue graduate studies and has been working with the Arab immigrant community since then. Her research with the local Arab American community ignited her passion to co-establish a community-based organization that will better serve and meet the community’s needs and wellbeing.

Academically, Ms. Galal is interested in critically examining health communication, precisely the health disparities among the Arab immigrant populations residing in the United States. Her research topics precisely focus on bringing out the voices of the Arab Americans and Arab diaspora, an invisible marginalized group, and exploring their barriers to healthcare and ability to navigate that system effectively. Such research aims to tackle the roles and effects of policymaking, organization, and other forms of structures on health communication’s effectiveness, or lack thereof.  Other topics investigated the communicative interface of non-profit organizations and the state in Egypt in the context of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting. In particular, her work examined the effectiveness of community-based organizations vis-à-vis the prevention of FGM/C amidst the repeated changes in policy and how this relationship had been improving or hindering the process of bringing about behavioral and social change at the grassroots level.

Former professional experience includes teaching at Texas A&M and UTSA as a graduate instructor. Additionally, she worked as the Social Media Officer at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and the Communications Coordinator for the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement.  Before that, she worked for five years as a journalist and editor for a local Kuwaiti newspaper, during which she was also a stringer for the British news agency Thomson Reuters.

Galal is an Egyptian who was born and raised in Kuwait. She is currently finishing her doctoral degree in health communication at Texas A&M University. She received her undergraduate degree from the American University in Cairo and her Master’s of Arts in Communication from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).