Alumni profile: OMA president Zainab Abdurrahman on leadership in medicine

Zainab Abdurrahman (MD ’07) is a paediatric allergist and clinical immunologist, an assistant clinical professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and an adjunct assistant clinical professor in paediatrics at McMaster University. In May 2025, she was installed as president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA).

Born in Nigeria, Abdurrahman immigrated to Sudbury, Ontario with her family at the age of 12. A self-proclaimed math nerd, she earned her BSc in physiology and math from McGill University and a master’s degree in statistics with a focus in biostatistics from the University of Waterloo before entering the MD Program at the University of Toronto.

After graduating from U of T, Abdurrahman completed her paediatrics residency and subspecialty training in clinical immunology and allergy at McMaster University. As a clinician, she co-launched the Q&A Allergy clinic in 2019, dedicated to the care of adults and children with allergic and immunology related medical conditions.

Abdurrahman is the first Black woman to hold the position of OMA president. In her role, she advocates for the province’s 50,000-plus physicians, residents and medical students, ensuring their voices are heard at policy tables. The OMA focuses on equity in health care, addressing disparities for rural communities and racialized groups, and fighting misinformation.

We chatted with Abdurrahman halfway through her one-year term as OMA president about her educational and career journey, as well as her hopes for the future.
 

Math and medicine seem like strange bedfellows — how do you reconcile those dual interests?

I always wanted to be a doctor — probably because of my dad, who was a paediatrician. I loved seeing him work with kids and thought, “I want to do that too.” At the same time, I really loved math. It came naturally to me, and I enjoyed how it was taught through games and problem-solving. When I discovered McGill’s combined physiology and math program, it felt like the perfect way to keep both passions alive. Later, I pursued a master’s in statistics because I wanted to be prepared for research in medicine. Math and medicine are deeply connected — blood flow, nerve potentials, even pharmacology involve math.

What are some highlights from your time as an MD student at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine?

I really loved my time in medical school. People worried I might feel lost, being in such a big class of 200 students, but I really got to know everyone. For the first two years, I was co-class president with someone I had met in my first few days at med school, Lee Schofield (MD ’07, PGME Family Medicine), and he’s still one of my closest friends. Many of my closest friends today are from med school, and those connections have shaped my career.

I also felt the faculty embraced students with nontraditional pathways to medicine and made them feel supported. For example, I shared an idea for creating a biostatistics module for the MD curriculum with one of my professors, Ian Johnson, and he hired me to build it out as a summer project. I later helped adapt it for public health agencies.

What attracted you to paediatric immunology?

I’ve always been interested in immunology — I actually had pretty severe allergies as a kid — but it wasn’t until med school that I realized allergy and immunology was its own specialty. Adelle Atkinson (PGME Paediatrics) taught us as MD students and she was great. I also felt a professional kinship with others I met through my elective immunology rotation. I liked that there was a mix of common conditions like asthma and more rare, complex cases. It’s also a field where you need to explain complicated science in simple terms — just like teaching math. Plus, there were opportunities for research without being confined to a lab. It felt like the perfect balance of variety, science and patient care.

How did you become involved in the Ontario Medical Association (OMA)?

I joined the OMA around 2014, when physicians were facing government-imposed cuts and clawbacks. I wanted to understand how advocacy worked and help drive change. Initially, I planned to take a small role in the allergy section but ended up chairing it. That led to governance reform work, streamlining the board, and eventually serving on the board for four years before becoming president.

What are the biggest takeaways from your time thus far as OMA president?

One of my main activities has been a membership tour of the province. Typically, we set aside 60 days and hit all the big cities, but on my tour we’ve spread it out and prioritized smaller communities — places like Wawa and Bruce Mines, and southern rural communities. Many of the physicians I spoke to told me no president had visited before. It reinforced the importance of bringing those voices into policy discussions.

It’s been interesting to see how diverse Ontario’s health care challenges are and how creative local solutions can be — and how can physicians in different regions can learn from one another. Housing, food security and health care are deeply connected, and addressing them requires collaboration beyond medicine.

I’ve also experienced firsthand the power of representation. I’ve had many people tell me it means a lot to see someone who looks like them in this role. For both physicians and patients, seeing diversity in leadership demonstrates that equity matters. It’s also a chance to push conversations about inclusion forward — within the OMA, among physicians, and in health-care delivery.

What do you hope to accomplish before your term expires, and in your future work?

Right now we’re working to strengthen ties with medical students and residents, improve transition-to-practice supports, and advance physician wellness initiatives — especially reducing administrative burdens through digital tools like AI scribes. As past-president, I’ll oversee elections and help modernize processes while transitioning back to clinical work. Longer term, I hope to keep shaping health care policy and innovation. Once you’ve seen the system from this perspective, it’s hard not to stay engaged in building its future.