About our Founder
Farzanna S. Haffizulla MD MACP FAMWA
@BusyMomMD
@IntheKitchenwithDrH
Dr. Farzanna Haffizulla is an Associate Professor and past Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Nova Southeastern University’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine (NSU KPCOM) after having served as the Assistant Dean for Community and Global Health and founding team member at NSU’s College of Allopathic Medicine (NSU MD). She is a board-certified, practicing Internal Medicine physician and founded/runs a hybrid-concierge Internal Medicine private practice in Davie, Florida. Dr. Haffizulla is passionate about promoting health, wellness, and disease prevention inclusively– locally, nationally, and globally – and has been invited as a thought leader to participate in related sessions at the National Institutes of Health and the Office of Women’s Health.
She leads efforts to promote health equity and eliminate health disparities in the burgeoning, underserved Caribbean Diaspora community through her work as NSU’s Principal Investigator and Founder of the Caribbean Diaspora Healthy Nutrition Outreach Project (CDHNOP). Research from this continuously funded, award-winning project was published in the Annals of Global Health and other peer-reviewed journals and received the faculty-led award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) supported health equity summit at Baylor College of Medicine. Several culturally humble community initiatives stemmed from this work, including her continuously funded “In the Kitchen with Dr. H” cooking show. The show is poised for TV broadcast this year (Season 3) with a mission to engage the community in ways to improve the health of primarily Caribbean dishes while preserving cultural elements. (www.NSUCaribbeanhealth.com) In line with health disparities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as Principal Investigator and senior author of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes: Social Determination of Health, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Given her background and expertise in health equity, she served as a consultant with Florida Blue, United Way of Broward, and Health Choice Network and serves as co-chair of the Lauderhill Health and Prosperity Partnership for various grant funded projects aimed at improving patient outcomes and health literacy in underserved and underrepresented communities. In addition, she serves as the lead inventor of a patented, innovative Android/iPhone app (M3 – Mentoring Minorities in Medicine) that will diversify the healthcare workforce. This app will bring mentorship and career guidance to students, especially those from minority communities, who wish to pursue a career in health care.
Dr. Haffizulla served as the 2014-15 national American Medical Women’s Association president and founder of their Fellowship Program and Preventive Medicine Task Force. As an AMWA leader, she worked to promote the Surgeon General’s National Prevention Strategy. She promoted initiatives to reduce disease burden in the US through work with the Office of Women’s Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. She received AMWA’s Presidential Recognition award and the prestigious “Bertha Van Hoosen” award, the namesake of AMWA’s founder. Dr. Haffizulla is the host,
anchor, and clinical editor for the nationwide health program Mission Critical Health. She served as the on-camera host of Elsevier’s PracticeUpdate oncology series, contributing to the production of more than 618 clinician-directed videos to facilitate the translation of the most updated scientific advances and research into improved patient outcomes nationally and globally. In line with her mission to promote preventive medicine, she hosts and is Executive Producer of a Caribbean/Latin American health cooking show, now in Season 3, In the Kitchen with Dr. H.
Dr. Haffizulla speaks nationally and internationally on various topics from several disciplines, including work/life balance, disease prevention, healthcare innovations, and personalized health. She authored numerous publications and two books, Harmony of the Spheres: Career, Family, and Community and Lead with Your Heart: A Doctor’s Rx for Personal and Professional Success. She also founded and runs a work/life balance site, www.BusyMomMD.com. In addition to her role at NSU, Dr. Haffizulla serves as a physician-scientist board member for Advarra’s institutional review board. She also teaches Honors Organic Chemistry to the pre-med high school seniors at American Heritage School in Plantation, Florida. She also serves as President-elect of the American Heart Association- South Florida and a board member with the March of Dimes, and a past board member of the American Diabetes Association
South Florida. In addition, she is a national delegate, representing Florida for Drexel’s Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership’s Vision 2020 program.
Dr. Haffizulla received many awards over her career, including being recognized as a Woman of the Decade by the Women’s Economic Forum in New Delhi, India, and she received global accolades and recognition as the Most Outstanding Advocate for Integrated Community Care in the World in 2017 at a ceremony in London, England. She was recently the first woman inductee into the Global Healthcare Hall of Fame at a formal ceremony in November 2023 in London, England. In addition, she received a Quality First Award from the Florida Heath Care Coalition and a “Leading Physician of the World Award” from The International Association of Healthcare Professionals. She was named an Outstanding Woman in Healthcare by the International Women’s Leadership Association (IWLA), which also recognized her as a “Woman of Outstanding Leadership.” Dr. Haffizulla was also featured in the American College of Physicians “My Kind of Medicine” series shortly after receiving the Florida Chapter of the ACP’s Volunteerism and Community Service award. In 2020, she was recognized as a Mother of the Year by Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, and honored as a Woman of Distinction by the March of Dimes. In July 2021, she was awarded “Faculty Member of the Year” by Dean Wallace after having served for less than a year in her role as Chair of Internal Medicine at NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. She received the inaugural Dr. John Langdon Volunteerism in Medicine Award from the Florida Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP). She was granted a Mastership award with the ACP, the highest level of recognition for Internal Medicine from the American College of Physicians partly due to her groundbreaking work with the Caribbean community. In addition, she recently received the esteemed Public Service Award from the Caribbean Bar Association for her deeply impactful work to prevent diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and hypertension in underserved and vulnerable communities.
Dr. Haffizulla is a proud mother of 4 children (3 daughters, Zarina, Anisa, Nadia, and her son, Adam). She has been married to Dr. Jason Haffizulla for the last 27 years.