Jess Ghannam

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Jess Ghannam is an accomplished Palestinian-American doctor and professor who is active in numerous non-governmental organizations and in carrying out humanitarian work, particularly in the Gaza Strip. He is a clinical professor and the Chief of Medical Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, and also practices at the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Ghannam received his A.B. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1979, before going on to earn an M.A. in Psychology, an M.S. in Medical Sciences and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, he was a post-doctoral fellow in Psychology at Stanford University in California.

Since the early 1990's, Ghannam has worked extensively in the field of medical development in the occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He is a board member of the Gaza Community Health Clinic, and has established medical clinics in towns and cities across the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, Khan Younis, Jabalia and Deir el-Balah.

Ghannam is also the former president of the San Francisco chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and a member of the international executive committee of Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition. He is also the co-host of "Arab Talk with Jess and Jamal", a San Francisco Bay Area radio talk-show about Middle Eastern Affairs with fellow Palestinian-American commentator Jamal Dajani.